Of googlies and magic…

If there was one bowler who I found enigmatic, it was Shane Warne.

That first ball of the Ashes…he changed the way the world looked as spin.

Outside the subcontinent, he was by far the best, but let’s not measure him by mere records.

His battles with Sachin were legendary – every Indian hated him when he got Sachin out, and most Indians loved him when he wasn’t playing India.

To evoke such strong emotions – well, even the name was magic – had a “wand” ting to it.

And so today, as I refreshed my Twitter feed and saw RIP Shane Warne trending, I thought it to be a rumor. Unfortunately, I was wrong. He had passed. The last ball had been bowled, and even he didn’t know it.

It is this way. One day, we see our last sunrise, our last sunset – we say our last words to a lot of people, and we write our last messages. We read our last book, and we have our last hug. We never know which one it is though – and that is life’s catch.

Like the scene in Uttama Villain, when Kamal is being taken from the set to the hospital – on the way to the ambulance, he tries to tell people so many things – maybe something about the performance, or a thing he forgot, very routine things – but everyone knows (and maybe he does too) that he is mostly not coming back. The scene cannot be described, and so you should watch it if you can.

It moved me a lot, and today did too. Wake-up calls, we get them a lot, but we seldom heed to them.

Let’s try to listen this time around.

See you tomorrow!