Could I ever replace !

It has been 6 months since I am out of college. It has been a mixed bag feeling, though I am happy to be in a place where I wanted to be in, I left a lot of things behind me, in search of unexplored waters of life ! In this quest of new things, I really miss quite a lot of things. My life has never been the same with out them, specially my friends from college !

I really miss ...
The business news and the pink papers
The early morning lectures
The shairis of Kumar Gaurav
The melodious songs of Vineet
The evangelical talks of Astha
Stern and never give up arguments of Khobragade
The "group" presentations
The fun of solving the cases
The numbers filled Deshpande sir classes
The debates and discussions in the classrooms and away
The lectures of Gods in the class rooms
The colors in the campus
The birth day celebrations
The exam fever and the night outs
The last minute entries in to the college gate
Drishty and the preparations for it
The never ending talks in the auditorium
The Chicken lollypops and the feast after the HR meets
The lab sessions of Prantosh baba
Dilip Bhav's vada pav
The xerox materials before the exam days
The struggle for the requisitions
The trading tips and gyaan of Sandeep bhai !
The economic times quizzes
The news hour and mind boggling cases of Ramashastry sir
The helmet rules and the red/black lists
The placement season fever and the preparations
The unending examination spree !
The puzzling and confusing rules
The last moment goofups
The temple and the library
The campus gossip
The internship projects
The DJ nights and the fun
The Diwali crackers and the Pongal payasam
The least understood Jr. Bala sir's Finance lectures !
The winter breakfasts in the urban cafe lawns
The World cup matches on the big screen
The long bike rides to Lonavala with friends
… and much more beyond what can be put on this !

A tribute to one of my favourite writers

Peter Roebuck for me was an equivalent of god at writing articles on cricket and whenever I read his master pieces, I relished them and revelled at the thought process of the best cricket writer.

He was much more than a cricket writer; he was the voice of cricket – He was very vocal, yet lucid with his views, he was assertive yet rationale with the perspective. Frank and blatant some times. Every piece of his is a lesson in cricket and cricket writing. He was a cricket intellect to the core and his passion towards the game was absolute. He never indulged in jingoism and his emotions were unadulterated towards the great game; rather the only affection he seemed to have was cricket.

With a cricketing brain like none, Roebuck had the forte over the English language at his command and combined with the proficiency of the game, Roebuck actually created magic with every sentence he wrote.

For me there is no single favorite piece of cricket literature written by him, but plenty. Every new article of his was just a tad better than the previous one.

Through his writing I learned (or still learning) why is it important for a sports scribe to be unbiased and how to view the game not as a casual observer, but as a bull-headed critic. He was a writer with no holds bar approach when it came to his perspective, his views or his ideas. He was never diplomatically correct because he never tried to be in that position.

His pieces on Glenn McGrath, Sachin Tendulkar, Adam Gilchrist and VVS Laxman would make an average baseball loving American fall in love with these legends of cricket. Reading about his idea of Test cricket would make the idea of ODI and T20 cricket pitiful.

His was a voice to reckon with and his take on cricket was like a holy grail. He was not only shrewd but was downright witty and entertaining.

I am deeply saddened by the death of Peter Roebuck but he will live through his articles and would be remembered as one of the greatest cricket writers ever. Rest in Peace Peter.