How Ravi Shastri lost to Suresh?

Monday, June 08, 2009 , , 16 Comments

I have a confession to make... I just need to come out clean.. Sure, please forgive me for not confiding in you before.

It's about my first love.. it happened during the summer of 1985, when I was 15... Ravi Shastri (Shaz), with his curly locks, lanky frame, 6'3" tall, claimed the Champion of champions trophy and I stood before my blue and white television set, clapped till my palms became sore, blew a kiss and fell irrevocably in love with him.
























I made sure to check the "flames" test before I stepped in and accepted him as my one and only love. For those who are not aware of the "flames" test, it's testing out the "chemistry", wait am not talking about that Chemistry which involves a bunsen burner.

Let me brief you on how it works... write your name and your love's name one below the other, strike out the common letters and count the remaining nos of the letters not scratched. Write the word " flames", below your names and start counting from 'f". "f" will be one "l" two and so on. Keep counting until the last letter, which eventually decide your fate..This "flames" test will shed light on the compatibility between a couple. What "flames" stand for?

f- friendship (don't you guys try to give any other name for this; keep the sanctity intact)
l-love
a-affectionate
m-marriage
e-enemy
s-sensational/sexy (I was too shy to think of the word sexy then, I used the word sensational)

I added and deleted letters from my name till I got what I wanted.. Yes I got "L" finally. However I tried desperately "M" never came..

But when I looked at our names, it ran like this:

VIJAYALAKSHMI VIJAYAGHAVAN SRINIVASAN (Vijayaraghavan is my dad's name and Srinivasan, his dad's)
RAVI SHANKAR JAYADRITHA SHASTRI

















Where was I? Yeah! I watched with pride, when Shaz drove his Audi, the whole team found a place inside, on top of the car... while I dreamed of a monsoon day, taking a long drive with him on the shores of Mumbai beach in his Audi, just me and him... yeah it was after all a dream and there was no traffic.

Most of my readers are young and they would not have experienced the golden era of Indian cricket. Kapil, Gavaskar, Kirmani, Yashpal Sharma, Sandeep Patil, Srikanth, Binny, Madanlal, Vengsarkar, Dilip Doshi and my SHAZ of course... That's what I would call real cricket...

Do you know how tedious it is to play a 5 day cricket test, when ODI was an occasional occurrence? Just imagine staying on the ground all the five days, facing 357 balls, 455 minutes and score 111 at Eden Garden... that's what Shaz did and my hands itched to go and fan him at the pitch, it was a very hot day and poor guy he was made to stand there. He kept showing two fingers towards the dressing room, still he was not allowed to go to loo..(fortunately rain god heard my silent prayers and put him out of his misery)

He came back again after the rain and how I adored the way he touched the ball ever so gently and magnanimously picked the ball himself and gave it to the bowler..He is a perfect gentleman and not Walsh....My brother and my cousins called Shaz a drag, but I found his determination staggering.. I decided then and there, if a guy has that much patience, only a girl who has more patience than him can be a winning pair... yeah that's me, as I was the only one who watched that match all the 5 days.

He loved me in his own way, we had just met a couple of times during the net practice at Chepauk, Chennai. I tried climbing a chair to get his attention, when I slipped and fell down. He came close to the fence, smiled at me and asked If I was hurt.. I smiled, my heart hammering said yes and no.. when I stretched my autograph book to him, he wrote "Have a happy life :) with love Ravi"..damn he said it at last :D Imagine a girl being loved by a celebrity cricketer with in a span of just two meetings...

True love always face difficult times.. Amrita Singh, Gabriela Sabatini happened to Shaz and I met and got bowled by Sure's charm, before we knew we were kneeling at the altar reciting our wedding vows...

Poor Shaz he lost to Suresh... But then how long can he remain a bachelor? He got married to the next best woman in his life Ritu Singh, a model. The last I heard Shaz and Ritu were blessed with a daughter last year... Congrats Shaz and I perfectly understand if you had named you daughter, Vijayalakshmi Vijayaraghavan Srinivasan after me.

God Bless!

Viji

Some say he’s half man half fish, others say he’s more of a seventy/thirty split. Either way he’s a fishy bastard. Google

16 Candles:

Viji said...

forgive me for such a long post..i got carried away I guess...it makes me all mushy, whenever I think of Shaz aka Ravi

Opaque said...

I am still reading this. But, I had to write this - you naughty little gal! Haha.

Well, everyone has a crush once in a while. Having it with a well-known personality is quite inevitable. What I appreciate is that you openly reveal it to your readers here. Well, there is nothing to hide, is there?

Thanks for sharing this! It was fun to read!!!

Opaque said...

Haha... Yes, the least he could do for his big-time fan is name his daughter after you. Nice!

And, the FLAMES test - yes, that brought back some memories. I recall the girls of my class doing it all the time. Bear with me, I thought it was pointless. I still think so. Forgive me.

Nicely written! Casual style is something I love! Keep spreading smiles like this!

Viji said...

AJ am all smiles after seeing your comment...

so you think its pointless uh? playing flames... but its not just you, men in general think it is pointless... yeah girls play for just the fun of it and happy to note that they still play around flames ;) we are adventurous you see.

Shadow said...

this is a delightful story!

Viji said...

@shadows... my infatuation towards Shaz still brings a smile :)

Anonymous said...

abi reads this?

hehe.. that was indeed a sweet love story..

rabi shastri- the playboy of indian cricket.. he stole many bollywood actresses' hearts too..

:)

hope that love is still in FLAMES in some corner of your heart

Viji said...

ani? I doubt. He avoids my blog like plague. Yes, i cannot imagine a life without love n yeah it flames always. More than ani, i feel lil jittery abt sure. Yesterday i askd sure to pick some good photos of shastri. I think that would have picqued his curiosity, as the request came from a person who holds zilch interest in cricket. For the first time he asked for my blog id :)

Unknown said...

Fate was kind to Ravi Shastri. What more to add? :)

as for as i know "S" - Stand for Sibling º¿Âº

Viji said...

Partha Suresh :( I am not talking to you :)

Viji said...

Shaz sibling... no don't even say that please... i beg you dear bro :) have mercy.. don't shatter my dreams...

Unknown said...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Was jus lik watching a brand new/old agmark "tamil movie".....(Oru thalai ragam) ha ha ha ha :)

Its nice....!!!

Viji said...

Oru thalai ragama?? u saw his autograph message la :D

Krishnan said...

very open post...Its brings back to me incidents when my friends and I had a crush on every leading tamil female actors during my schooling.

Viji said...

thanks for the read Krish :) I am happy that you made it to my blog :D

wisdom comes with experience

At one, I learnt crawling was fun. At forty one, I still feel crawling is fun #blamemykneesnotme