There is an interesting question that scientists and other research theorists could find some time for and research
‘Is passion for a cause in-born in human beings? Or can it be developed over time? Or is it hereditary?’
Any individual asked this question would have an opinion of his own. Yours truly likes to believe his passion for sports began early and grew multifold as time passed.
My first introduction to sport wasn’t different from many others. Cricket intrigued me from when I was six years old.
But what, apart from watching my favourite players bat and bowl India to win had a lasting impact, were the words spoken by commentators while describing moments of ecstasy.
Like Harsha Bhogle calling out a decisive Mohammad Kaif cover drive in that Natwest Trophy final in 2002 by saying, “Are we onto something here,?” or describing Sachin Tendulkar reaching his century at Sydney in 2004 as “What a special moment for a great cricketer and a lovely man”, even as Tendulkar, while trying to complete the run, punched the air in delight.
For a long time, I was hardly a reader of books. Not until my second year of engineering had I read a book as casual, both in narration and its style of writing, as Chetan Bhagat’s ‘Five Point Someone’.
A friend once looked at me in shock when I revealed it to him, much later.
It was cricket commentary which got me and later hooked me to writing. My school projects would be filled with words commentators used in matches.
Words like ‘fragile’, ‘vulnerable’, ‘vital’, ‘clinical’ and many others which as a school student I had never read in any book and yet used them without a care in the world.
To this day I remain grateful to my teachers for A. Not asking me the meaning of the words. B. Not making me change the words and put something simpler in their place.
As the years passed on, I realised that while I wasn’t a great writer by any means (still not by a mile), the people around me would seek me out to get the right word for the situation and invariably, the one that I suggested would fit right in.
Leaving engineering without a job was hard enough, not knowing what to do with a skill that had found me praise from many quarters was even worse.
But eventually, the missing pieces found it’s way into the puzzle and sitting here, six years after completing the four dreaded years of my life in engineering, I can say that choosing a career in writing has allowed me to pursue my passion wholeheartedly.
And yet, when the motivation evaporates, when the confidence takes a beating, when everything feels lost, it isn’t a book that comes to the rescue.
Bhogle has competition in Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton, Ian Bishop and many others whose views I hear every night before crashing to bed.
I hear with the hope of picking anything that I could from the way they speak, from the way they illustrate and eventually add it on to my work.
