Curfew Days..

Well curfew is something which is not common to most atlest not to those who have never stayed in a troubled area...I incedentally happend to grow up in a place where this particular situation was pretty common thanks to the ever agitating local student body..But instead of complaining about it or even trying to understand the gravity of the situation I quiet enjoyed such brief stints atleast couple of times in a year as this meant a break from school and days where u could use the road as your own backyard...I am sure many of my chilhood friends will agree to this..and apart form indulging ourselves in watching movies (ya those were the days of VCRs and VCPs whre we used to run those bulky VHS cassettes) it was time for some serious and competitive gully cricket...I dont know how many people have cursed us for ruining thier afternoon siesta after a stumpous meal of maach bhaat (fish curry and rice for my non bengali readers)...and Rupak am sure will the leader of all of them in cursing us.The poor chap is not to be blamed as our sole aim in life was to make the ball land on his tin roof which invariably disturbed his sleep and god knows what else:-)

Actually the strip of cemented road that we palyed on was just adjacent to his house...On one side of the road was a small hillock with bushes and a dirty drain to add to the beauty and on the other side or rather the off side of the pitch was Mr. Rupak's abode called "Shiv Dham"...

Whenever the curfew was relaxed for few hours to allow people to buy their essentials we would end up stocking up balls as we were not sure when the next relaxation would happen...and safe gaurding the balls were our prime concern where else our parents were worried stocking up rice,pulses,vegetables etc..A typical day on such ocassion will start at around 11 when evryone would slowly start assembling...The 1st half of the day was till about 2pm and the 2nd half would again start at 3:30 giving enough time to each one to bathe and take their lunch...Every tom dick and harry would come and try their skills...Pinak would endlessly try his "Chimpa kali" a term which was given to a peculier way of spin bowling twisting the arm while in the process of delivery...and Devraj would run like a mad bull to increase the pace of his bowling sumtimes distracting the batsman as in the process of running his assets kept bouncing (result of too much gyming and then taking a break..) Kalan even suggested him to wear a b** to stop distracting the batsman:-)

But who can forget the heroics of Bappan Da (da is a suffix used for elder brothers in bengali)..On one ocassion while batting he suddenly threw the bat aside and took out a home made dagger instead pointing it towards the incoming delivery..and as luck would have it it headed straight towards the dagger in the process piercing itself and making us all devoid of any further play...Yes that was the last ball saved from the stock....For many curfew was an unpleasant experience and days filled with tension but for us we cared the least as long as we could end up playing with the road all to ourselves and Rupak too ready to be tormented and robbed of his peace.....