My first TEENAGE CRUSH ........

Few hours ago, I was talking to a std 7 girl..She was talking about her hobbies, favourites etc. Suddenly she came to the topic of Ranbir Kapoor – her favourite actor. She was extremely excited when she was talking about the actor. She mentioned that she has got at least 20 posters of Ranbir in her room. She knows every detail about Ranbir and she has watched every movie of the actor. I was enjoying the conversation and she was saying all through like I love Ranbir... He is so cute and blah blah...

I was listening...I was listening with intense interest...but at the same time I was moving down the memory lane. So many incidents were coming in my mind and I was going back to my early teenage days...

I was going back to the days when there was a little innocent girl of 12 years called Shreya who used to stay with her parents in a small town called Kulti, an outskirt of the Asansol city near the West Bengal- Jharkhand border.

I used to be a huge cricket fan. It’s very obvious in a country like India. But I was different from other girls of my age. Most of them used to watch cricket only to see good-looking cricketers but I used to watch it because I loved the game. I used to dream of becoming a cricketer then. Cricket was everything to me. I used to watch all forms of cricket. I can even remember sitting in front of television on the exam’s day to watch test cricket as well...

It was a chilly winter evening of December 2003. I just came from my science tuition. Dad brought a popular children’s magazine called Anandamela for me. I was a regular subscriber of that magazine. I was going through the pages of Anandamela. It was a very popular magazine in West Bengal mainly for teenagers. There was an article about Team India’s cricket tour in Australia during December 2003 to February 2004. Suddenly I noticed a photograph at bottom right corner of the page. It was of a young teenage guy called Irfan pathan from India under 19 team who had just made it to the national team after a prolific performance in Under 19 Asia cup in Pakistan. I stared at the photograph for a good 2 minutes and then realized that something was happening around me. I saw that photograph at least 8-10 times on that evening. Next morning when I sat in front of television to watch the second test match vs. Aussies at Adelaide I realized that Zaheer khan was out of the squad due to injury and a lanky 19 year old pacer from Vadodara was all set to make his international test debut. It was certainly Irfan Pathan. He bowled 7 overs in his very first spell of international cricket. I enjoyed the session thoroughly. Not because of the fact that I was able to see him but also because of his bowling.

On that very day I realized for the first time why other girls used to sit in front of TV to watch some particular cricketers. The same thing happened with me for the first time on that day. I realized that I got addicted to this Irfan Pathan. I just started feeling like watching him more and more. By the time I realized it, team India’s down under tour was over. Irfan Pathan came out as one of the most sensational left handed swing bowler of that time. People even started comparing him with the Pakistani swing legend Wasim Akram.

In the meantime I became a huge fan of that bowler. I used to stick in front of television to watch his interviews or advertisements. A huge portion of my day was spent on cutting his photographs from newspaper or magazine and pasting them in a diary. I had more than 300 of those photographs. I remember celebrating Irfan’s all the 5 wicket hauls, 10 wicket hauls, half centuries and the only century in test cricket with chocolates. Yeah, my friends used to ask me for treats whenever Irfan played well and I used to give them treats with chocolates. Even I used to write about all his achievements in that diary. I still have that diary. I did this awesome practice of pasting photographs (if you know what I mean :P :P ) for good 6 years. I used to be tensed a lot, whenever he was sent to bat at the top order. I used to curse that Greg Chapel whenever Irfan did bad performances. Because I always believe that too much of experiment is bad in any case. It takes a toll on the consistency at a particular level. I remember watching his hat trick against Pakistan again and again. He was playing very well at that point of time.

But after below average performances for a couple of years and injuries, Irfan lost his place in the team. By that time I passed my 12^th grade exam and came to hostel to study my under grad. I took the diary with me, but due to the huge pressure of academic curriculum, I failed to maintain it. Irfan was out of the squad on that point of time though he was a regular in T-20 matches. But I used to keep track of Indian Cricket. Even I still remember watching all the matches of 2011 world cup in hostel. Then finally after 3 years waiting, Irfan came to the team in November 2011. I was ecstatic with joy. He was playing well. I even watched that match, even in the hostel television where Irfan took his 2^nd 5 wicket haul in ODI vs Sri Lanka in august 2012. All the girls were watching some saas bahu serials, and then suddenly I came and took away the remote and switched to the channel where the match was being broadcast. They started cursing me and I continued to watch the match. Finally they understood that I would not switch to any other channel until the match would be over and then they left. After that again Irfan got injured and he is out of the squad now but even today I continue to keep track of his performances, even in the IPL and domestic cricket.

First teen age crush!!!!!!!! Eh???????? J J J J