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Coming of Age

Sometimes, I just feel lucky to be born when I was, to be born in this time and age, to have seen so many contenders for the "Greatest of All Time" tag.

Lucky to be born in the age of Michael Schumacher and watch him beat record after record. To be born in the age of Lance Armstrong, for whom beating opponents and records was but a secondary feat. To be born in the age of Zinedine Zidane, most certainly the best of this generation, the marquee headbutt notwithstanding.

Lucky to have watched not one, but two legends, pass the baton in tennis.
When Pete Sampras lost in the Wimbledon of 01, it made fans of him hate that pony-tailed guy for ending his quest for a 5th consecutive crown. I know I did. But Pete shouldn’t mind that now, for over the course of next 8 years or so, Roger has shown that when it comes to beauty on the tennis court he has got the entire WTA beat, by a long shot (down the line).

And then there’s Sachin Tendulkar, whose one mistimed shot makes your heart skip a beat, whose every cover drive makes you smile, whose lofted straight drives (rare as they have become) makes you want to jump with joy, and whose humility only underscores his genius. The image of him taking that lap of honour at the Wankhede is going to stay with me for a long, long time.

I shall turn 25 in a few days. If ancient sages are to be believed, I would be seeing life a lot differently now. I do feel much old already. And I do feel lucky.
But, I would give it all up, in less than a heartbeat, just to be born in the age of Pink Floyd.
And having that realization makes me think, that maybe I am growing up.

Cheers.

PS: And I pray for some smart soul to make a time machine.
Bonus:

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Comments

  1. Mithilesh GMay 18, 2011 12:01 PM

    a) Beautifully written, no doubt. But one does wonder, shouldn't we more thankful for being born in an age where witnessing all of this was possible? Multiple times that too, at the click of youtube link.
    It is probably the wonders of modern technology that allow us to appreciate every one of Roger's forehands and Sachin's cover drives because right before this was the age of Richards, Lloyd, Senna, Prost, Mansell, Pele, Maradona, Indurain etc etc. I think we should all be thankful that we're able to witness their feats when people in that age sometimes couldn't.

    b) And sorry, I just couldn't resist putting this. http://xkcd.com/716/ :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sri Harsha DandibhotlaMay 18, 2011 12:14 PM

    yoyo quarter century!

    ReplyDelete
  3. _manGO_May 18, 2011 12:20 PM

    Actually, I did want to point out the tech marvel thingy, wherein we have used everything from 300-400 MHz processor on our desktops to 1GHz ones on the smartphone. But somehow, I felt, that would have taken away the essence from this one.

    And xkcd is never bad, well almost never.

    And there's no YOYO in quarter century ... its and old old feeling

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mithilesh GMay 18, 2011 1:22 PM

    Remember Galli cricket? 25 was celebrated more viscerally than anything on television...

    And congrats on the 25...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Aditya Mani JhaMay 25, 2011 11:33 AM

    @Ritwik: Congratulations.. and if the sages are to be believed, this is the beginning of the "Grihastha" ashram for you, Mr. ex-Brahmachari :)

    And I would, like you, give up everything to be young, and starry-eyed in the time of the Grateful Dead, Zeppelin and the Acid Tests... although it is kind of the same time as Floyd, coincidentally.. (which should tell you something about the decade in question)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Buy Indian DomainAugust 02, 2011 7:15 PM

    You have selected a different title and topic. Good work. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

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