Last week I was talking to one of my friends (talking as in chatting on MSN) and he told me about an amusing place that he visited that weekend. He was all praises about Mr. Subramanian's Cricket Museum. It is not atall a well known place in Bangalore and very few people know about it. "If you call yourself a cricket fan then you HAVE to visit this place" were my friend's words. I made a mental note on this and continued with the life.
This weekend I had nothing better to do and suddenly remember about this. I called up Mr. Subbu and he told me the address. I was excited. It took me half an hour to reach there. I was greeted by Subbu. He was a short, middle-aged bald man, looked a bit eccentric.
There were no boards, no signs. Clearly this man didn't want any publicity.
"Welcome to my cricket museum", he said, "This is my pvt collection of the rarest things about cricket, particularly India cricket. I have spend my entire life to get these things and I don't have any regrets".
"Is there any entry fee or something?", I inquired.
"How can you put a price on priceless things?", he answered with a smile.
We went inside. It was a small room. Frankly, I was expecting something different. I was not impressed by the 10x15 room with a layer of dust on the floor and cobwebs on the ceiling. Old Bajaj Fan was spinning overhead making periodic groans.
"I am kind of busy today. We will get on with it rightaway and finish it as soon as possible", Subbu said. I was more than happy to finish it as soon as possible.
"Here is the oldest item in my collection". On the table there was a photo of a young sardar. "This is a very rare photo of an Indian cricketer". I was doing a lookup in my memory. Subbu looked happy to see me puzzled about it. "This is Bishansingh Bedi in his younger days before he was a part of Indian Cricket team. Many people fail to recognize him because they have never seen him without his foot in the mouth." That was indeed true.
We moved to the next table.
"I traveled a lot to find this."
It looked like a photo of nothing I have seen before.
"I got this in a small village in east Karnataka. This is Shrinath's brain. I found this in his house in Javagal. According to a local legend whenever Shrinath used to go on a tour, he used to keep his brain locked in his house."
Many time I had thought that Shri dint use his brains when he bowled. Now I know I was correct.
There was a small tape recorder on the next table. Subbu switched it on. I listened very carefully. After some 2-3 minutes he switched it off.There was an absolute silence. Obviously there was some problem with the player. I waited for the explanation.
"This is THE rarest thing you can see here. Many experts think that this is a fake but I can prove the authenticity of this artifact". I was still in the dark. "This is a recording of a rare moment when Navjyot Singh Siddhu was caught with his mouth shut. Apparently it has happened only three times. First time was when he was asked a difficult maths question in 3rd standard. A source told me it was "2+7" but I have my doubts about it. ". This was truly awesome. My question "has he ever kept his mouth shut" was answered.
Subbu's cell rang at that moment. He was having an animated discussion (in tamil). After a few minutes he came to me all excited. "I am sorry to tell you that I have to leave right now. Something important has come up. A friend called and told me that I can lay my hands on one more rare piece of Indian cricket. I will give you a call later."
"Can I ask where you are going now?"
"Oh, If am lucky, you will get to see Sachin's aggression here next time", he said with a wink.
I am looking forward to next weekend.
Yours Sincerely,
