RanjanSri2001's JumboTweets
- Yet again, I’m faced with the same dilemma: What else to write that has not been written in print or packaged in electronic media before about this phenomenon called Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar? For example, my own facebook statuses and notes have been inundated with writing about this creature I prefer not to call a man- some call him ‘God of Cricket’ though! But I so want to write something in order to express even a fraction of what I feel for this….(I do not have any more adjectives and metaphors that have not been used before, so you can choose one of your liking at the end of this piece). Yes, I’m unabashadedly joining the bandwagaon of thanking Sachin for what he has stood for, over the years.
So I will share a couple of personal anecdotes in the hope these are not repetitive! I must have been in 3rd or 4th standard and I had two big addictions at that time. One was of feasting on Rasgullas and another was reading Comic characters (reading comics in layman’s language). My parents knew of the former and they would treat me with Rasgullas as and when they could. But an addiction is called an addiction, not for nothing! I would want the frequency of such Rasgulla treats increased more and more.
So much so, the real problem was with the latter addiction. Parents across the board including mine would not approve of reading comics, as they would consider it as a wasteful and abhorable habit that sowed violent streaks in the children. Worse, few children in the vicinity of my city had tried to emulate fanciful stunts of the Comical superheroes and harmed themselves. So, no money would be given by even the most charitable of parents to their children for Comics. Also, it was an expensive proposition. Forget buying them that would cost Rs 7 per piece at that time, even the rental charges would be Rs 1 per day. And any expense on this would have to be unaccounted from the pocket money we would get from our parents. For example, my brother and I would get Rs 1 to share on most of the days, if not all, we went to school. That was good enough for retails cookies, candies, Hajmolas etc. For a better treat for chocolates like ‘Naturo’ or ‘Kismibar’, we would have to save for 3 to 4 days.
So I had to devise ways to fund myself for the addiction of reading a certain Nagraj or a Super Commando Dhruv or a Bankelal or a Parmanu or a Doga and many more. Such was the hysteria that you could not miss one edition of these publications. So I would insist on going for daily vegetable shopping in the hope I could save few buck in the bargain. At times, it would also mean cycling few miles extra to a wholesale market where the rates would be little less than the nearby markets. It would also include building a relationship with a particular vegetable vendor, who at any given day would give free hari mirch (green chillies) or Dhania (coriander) worth Rs 1 or so. Now, I would convince myself that these ‘savings’ are hard-earned, legitimate and not so much of dishonesty. But at the end of the day, week or a fortnight; my final balance sheet would invariably be in the deficit despite all these meticulous workarounds simply because my ‘legitimate savings’ would outspend the rental of the volume of prohibited readings!
Anyways I vividly remember that on one fine day, I had more than Rs 5 at my disposal. The next task was to choose which addiction I had to satiate. The choice was simpler this time. I had to sacrifice Rasgulla feast in favour of a ‘blaster’ new series of Raj Comics publication. Believe you me, this series was being waited with bated breath by any Comics follower as there was expected to be a final showdown between Super Commando Dhruv and Grandmaster Robo who was his bête noire and one of his strongest and oldest villains. Also, an alien villain was... <<<<<< N.B from Jumbotweet: auto-truncated at 4K characters on index page - Click here or on the "view" link to see entire jumbotweet! http://www.jumbotweet.com/ltweets/view/18866
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