The Left-Right Combination!

All the time I used to write about people and their stories but this time I thought of writing a part of my own story.

It’s about me and my bestest and dearest friend that I could ever get, without whom all the mischiefs that we had done weren’t possible at all.

It’s the story of me and my best friend Deepak Kulkarni.

We both met each other for the first time when we were in UKG by my another childhood friend Chinmay Gundlur (again it would take another blog post for me to describe my friendship with Chinmay!). We all three lived in the same colony and we were almost of the same age except Chinmay being one year elder to us. I don’t remember the initial days with Deepak but I still remember how exactly we met for the first time. It was like I had my grandfather at my place and I was playing cricket with my him. As I really loved cricket, I played the game with at most sincerity and discipline. As I was batting I saw Chinmay with another guy (Deepak). And there he was standing with chinmay with the most innocent face ever I could see. They asked me if they could join me in playing cricket and I was generous enough to accept the offer. And there we go our journey started with cricket and to date we still remain the best Left-Right combination that was ever built.

At very young age we both had this cricket fever and all the time we would just discuss about cricket and would just appreciate the game, as we started playing with each other we really explored the game and discovered some really cool shots, and got to know each other’s weakness and strengths. And since we were from same school we used to go to the school together. Oh! There was a time when we both had everything same like right from compass box to bags to watches to brand of socks that we both wore. It feels really great when you have someone who would always back you up whenever you were in trouble, and Deepak was there for me always and is still there always behind me supporting me in whatever I do, and so am I to him always. Everywhere we both were termed as the best buddies in colonies or be it in school.

There was also a time where Deepak saved my life, ohh! This still gives me goosebumps I was about to get hit by a sharp glass rod on my forehead. We also used to race a lot with our cycles in the meantime. Those were the golden days where in we just used to come back home from school just to play cricket in the evening, and believe it or not. The combination of me and Deepak really made others think before bowling, we were that strong as batsmen. I am left handed batsmen and him being right handed batsmen. Our combination was just unbreakable and bowlers really felt it difficult to get us out. The sync that we both had developed was so great and fantastic that i would get to know what he will do the next ball by his eye contact and would get ready for it. This really made it difficult for the bowlers and would end up giving us more than 10-14 runs on an average per over. We really enjoyed the game and it was even more fun when we both were in the same team. This continued for long until everyone was literally fed up with us as we used to never get out. So they decided to separate us and they started demanding we both to join different teams and unfortunately we had to….after this the game got even more interesting, we used to challenge each other every match and it was him who won the challenges and sometimes it was me who won. After this step of getting seperated from team it was always me who was given to bowl whenever Deepak was on strike only because I clearly knew his weakness and it whenever I was on strike he was given bowling just to get me out. This personally helped us in getting better at our weakness which was really a good thing and we both just kept getting better at the game. Now instead of scoring runs we just used to focus on our weaknesses and make it better day by day.

After this, there were hardly some matches that we both were together but we really enjoyed the whole process. After being in different teams we also used to sledge a lot and make each other distracted while playing the game and this was also fun, as whenever he used to bat i just used to shout and make him get angry and in that same anger he used to get out and I used to celebrate it with full joy and happiness and excitement just to make him jealous and the same would happen with me. LOL! We have had the best days of our lives then.

7th Standard, The Match

Once, I think in 7th standard there were a bunch of people who came to our ground and challenged us with a series of cricket match, and this was the time when we both united as a team again, we won the toss and opted to bat first with me as strike and Deepak at non-striker’s end started the match. We both were purely enjoying the game, it was all properly synced up. The match was of 15 overs and somewhere we both knew that the opposite team would have to bowl us complete 15 overs. We felt bad for them for a second. As the match continued we both continued to play without getting out and rotating the strike so that the bowler had to change every bowl and had to experiment and we both just used to take advantage of it and score runs. This match I scored around 72 runs not out and Deepak 75 runs not out. And yes from our team only we both batted and none of them got a chance to bat. So the first innings was over and now the final score was 144, so it was 145 runs for the opposite team to score in order to win the match. Before the second innings we observed the other team they were very tensed and nervous. We gave bowling to other teammates and we both went out to field. We bowled well and at the end we the match in the end. We had a total of three matches so now it was 1-0. Subsequently we won all the three matches and it was a tight slap to the opposite team as they were bragging about their cricketing skills. And we both were considered to be the best Left-Right combination in almost everything that we did.

14 Years

All those days when remembered gives the the feeling of nostalgia. We have been friends since over 14+ years now, we are always there for each other at any given time. I was really lucky to have a friend like Deepak who always used to back me up and was there for support. The irony of our friendship is that being so thick friends since 14+ years we don’t own a single selfie till now. Maybe because we always focused on creating memories and enjoying them right then and there. Our stories and the way we had fun all those days needs a complete book to be true!

Coming to the present I am studying Computer Science at KLS Gogte Institute of Technology, Belagavi. And he is currently studying Mechanical Engineering at National Institute of Engineering, Mysore.

In the photo I am on the extreme left at the back and Deepak is at the extreme right with that huge smile!

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