A love lost, A life gained

Of Fresh and Stale Air

I don't know how many people know that Robin Uthappa was one of Mahi's close friends in his early years. Ofcourse, then Robin was dropped and was very scarcely in the team until thAt IPL season where he was sort of reunited with him. And bro, the man carries such love for him throughout all these years, even though they grew apart. I just stumbled across these interviews of him and apparently Mahi doesn't eat chicken with gravy in butter chicken. He will either eat gravy or he will eat chicken and if he is eating both, he is not eating the naan; so you go figure out what the fuck is wrong with him XD.

Like Mahi is such a weird specimen of a human, see nobody can be that intelligent and normal at the same time. He is like this genius who comes off as normal at first glance but if you stare at him for a second longer, there is an automatic fascination that grows in you. Because he does everything slightly different, his brain is working differently and it is very very visible. I want to reverse engineer him and understand just what it is because it is easier to just feel than to describe what makes him so unsettlingly brilliant. And yes I used unsettling, though it is in a positive approach mind you, because it doesn't matter if you love or hate Mahi, something about him brings out a reaction from others, something we cannot put into words, something that unsettles you. People who get scared of this, search for reasons to hate him, while others get more and more intrigued, getting wrapped in the mystery of MS Dhoni. When in truth, there is no mystery, he is a simple guy. That combination of genius and simplicity is too hard for people to reconcile.

Also have you noticed, Mahi has this one very fond starry eyed smile whenever he is in front of Dada. You pick any pic from any time, his smile towards his Dada doesn't change. Random but its cute. I love how each and everyone he has played with featured in his retirement video, even the people who don't have common decency to not speak ill of him behind his back. For all his stoicism, Mahi is a deeply emotional person. He just has enough brain power to put his feelings into boxes that can be put far out of sight.

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Tension continued to rise in the camp. Seniors were disgruntled by the coach's attitude towards Dada, the juniors were uncomfortable with the mood of the seniors, not yet old enough in the international cricket to fully understand the scheme of things. Mahi found himself neatly falling in the middle picking on the worst of the both sides, though he was still counted as a junior. He was disgruntled by the coach's approach and uncomfortable with everyone's moods. To top it all off, he had gotten caught in the middle of the cold war between his captain and his coach.

The incident unfolded right before their first match against New Zealand. He hadn't been terribly nervous in particular either. He had done well in their warm up matches, he was picking up a really good understanding of the game and his wicket-keeping was improving. The trio were a bit preoccupied by the political side of things, but they were trying their level best to keep things relaxed in the dressing room atleast. Chappell had backed up a little bit too after Bhai had used up all his patience and worked them all into a diplomatic common ground. Even Chappell couldn't risk his early coaching years to be marred with two consecutive series losses. Then it had all gone to dogs when for some reason Chappell approached him a wicket before he had to go.

The match was going terribly. They were already four for nineteen. Pressure was mounting and the horrible atmosphere of the past week had taken its toll on the team clearly. Mahi was padded up, his mind firmly settled on what he needed to do for the team should Viru and Kaif fail to build a partnership. Dada had already had a small talk with him regarding the situation and they had agreed, that after Mahi got settled on the crease, he needed to attack. If another wicket fell, Ajit, JP, Irfan and Bhajji too were all good tailenders he could bat with should another wicket fall. They needed runs. Then Chappell walked up.