"Rear-view" Inspiration !

"Experience is like a comb that life gives you when you are bald"

 "Statistics are like miniskirts, they reveal more than what they hide""

"He is like a one-legged man in a bum kicking competition"

Inspiration can come in any form -from anywhere & anyone" ! As I try to reminisce on how I took a liking for "words" & "writing", it feels very strange to attribute it to Mr. Navjot Singh Sidhu [fondly called Sidhu), ex-India cricketer and then a commentator who brought flamboyance, naughtiness and quirk to cricket commentary with his "Sidhu-isms" in early 2000s ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navjot_Singh_Sidhu . The 3 quotes at the start of this post, remain my favourite 'Sidhuisms' even now!

If you watched cricket in that era (early 2000s), you would be in either of the 2 camps- (i) Reaching out for your TV remote to increase the volume when Sidhu came to the commentary box (ii) Reaching out for TV remote to MUTE the volume when Sidhu came to the commentary box ! Confession: I belonged to the first camp!

The cover page

So much was Sidhu's influence on me, that my parents gifted me a fancy blank book in early 2002. It's a different story that I instantly killed that 'fanciness' with my terrible art in the opening page!! However, this book became my platform for expressions and thoughts which I conveniently labelled as "Ronakism" (there goes the inspiration)! As I went through this book, 23+ years later, I couldn't help but feel embarrassed at my 'novice' content (have excerpted a few examples to publicly acknowledge the same). But my embarrassment was immediately replaced by a hint of pride at the then-teenager!

Some embarrassing examples of RONAKISMs

Year on Year hikes for my articles :)

As I flipped through the pages of the 'now-not-so-fancy book' , what started as 1 liners in 2002 , moved to poems and then full-fledged articles! There was a linear progression on the back of consistency and 'wanting to write for the fun of it'. He was clearly unabashed by his writing , so much so that he decided to go public in 2003, sharing his thoughts as articles to a small time magazine called "JAM" ! One thing led to another and his articles started getting published- initially gratis and then surprisingly paid! While today it would be labelled as 'monetizing one's skills', at that point, it was just what I am doing now- 'writing the feeling' !! And yes, he did get handsome hikes Year on Year ;-) - all of which happened without any face or name to negotiate with [Refer the image of payment receipts from 2003 to 2006]! On a lighter note, this does make for a good "rags to no-rags" story!

Cut to the present- the platform has changed from book to a website but the attitude is back to unabashed, what with the wrinkled and greying me , giving an ode to my teenage self , inspired by a dialogue from one of my favourite movies "Notting Hill"......

"....And don't forget, I am just a man, standing in front of a boy, asking him to keep inspiring me "!!!

Ending with an original RONAKISM- "Getting nostalgic is like travelling in a crowded Mumbai local train for the first time- you don't realise where all you have been touched and by the time you deboard , you are not the same person anymore" !!!

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