Harsha Bhogle- A picture & the memories

 I have to admit that even though I do follow cricket but it is limited to some big times like a world cup or IPL .Won’t bother much about the 2 nation test series. Having said that even then there are few people who just catch your attention in that limited time.  No , I’m not talking about any player cause they are as inconsistent as the sunny weather in London , but about one cricket commentator who has clinged on now for as long as I can remember. Especially considering that he doesn’t even  have a cricketing background but very strong academics with engineering & MBA from IIMA to his credits, I applaud the passion this guy might have had to pursue today a full time career as a cricket commentator. Yes , I’m talking about Harsha Bhogle. If my being-a-strong-fan rating for Harsha is 6/10 then I would say that my husband scores a massive 9 (10 saved for Sachin of course) .I would guess it is mostly cause he not only watches cricket but reads, writes & breathes cricket  with his expanded knowledge  from Indian to world cricket & from street cups to World cup

With the above background given, the twist of the story  boils down to this certain erratic day on a weekend in London in 2008 when we 2 decided to take a tube from London bridge to East Ham for enjoying our much favourite Dosa . As soon as we had entered the tube which thankfully runs quite empty on week ends we realised that we were sitting right opposite Mr Harsha Bhogle & one of his frens  .For the benefit of those who aren’t very  familiar with tubes this picture below would show that the space between the  opp seats isn’t much for anyone to not recognize a familiar face sitting right opposite you. 10 more seconds & 

 * We knew who he was

* Harsha knew that we had recognised who he was and

* We knew that Harsha had recognised that he knew that we knew who he was 

Even after so many confirmations but with awkwardness of the situation (possibly since he was chatting with his fren) & also cause we both kept nudging each other to break the ice, we finally reached the station where Harsha was to get down . As soon as he got up the seat I was kicked  with a sudden hormonal rush which made me ask him for his photograph & thus we got down with him at the station. I treasure this photograph & the conversation that we had with him at station, after he left and rather have till today

Since he was returning from his oval test commentary my husband initiated a conversation on the same discussing scores, performance & what the future of that test match looked like, but rather to his dismay after few lines Harsha showed much curiosity in rather finding out which Indian city/state I was from. Since I have had this comment innumerable times from people I wasn’t surprised when even he thought that I’m a Bengali. On finding out my real roots he said “Oh No! I would have bet a thousand bucks on that”. Few more lines & mins on the same & the next tube arrived which unfortunately for us meant that we needed to leave & fortunately for them to finally get going for the dinner .

When finally we both got over the excitement of meeting Harsha ,husband gave me a stare arguing how my Psuedo Bengali looks didn’t let him enjoy more time talking to one of his favourite guy on his favourite subject  & I keep countering it with as many reasons  just for the sake of not letting the ball be in my  court . The USP of this photo is such that even today whenever we both look at the snap our discussion or rather happy argument reignites. How wonderful it is to have such happy arguments in times when work & other responsibilities otherwise keep you mentally occupied.

Thanks Harsha for giving us one more reason to keep going with those silly arguments