A love lost, A life gained

Adios Amigos, Powering off (Nah not really)

I am sure you have all seen the 'Chocolate Wapis do' Video. This freaking endearing man. He is forty two for God's sake, why is he cuter than all the men my age.

Anyway, I am including this as a sort off break off from the story. I think the last chapter did it more justice than what I had initially planned. So I would like to call that the last chapter. Though definitely not the last I am writing of him. To start off, I am already attaching one of the cut chapters of the book, that is the last chapter that I had initially planned but it didn't fit completely in to me. I will post other cut parts too before closing this one.

And to make this sort of a break off more interesting, I am attaching photos I randomly collected on my laptop while scrolling through a few million articles.

I was rewatching the world cup match for the upteenth time, and I have to include this pic. For others, that winning shot is the IT photo of Mahi, his legacy, his stature, an embodiment of his magic. But for me, this pic is my first glimpse at Mahendra Singh Dhoni. I remember, a photo nearly similar to this was in The Hindu newspaper, captioned something like, Dhoni stands tall after a majestic winning knock. I didn't WATCH the match. My parents never believed in TV. Instead we had newspapers and books. So I saw him in action much much later. I read about him. I am a fanatic reader, I have always been. I consume anything that has words in it. I latch onto any magic a written piece would give. This picture, is the closest to that one. Dhoni standing tall, bat tucked under his arm, fireworks in the sky. A magician who had just woven a bit of wonderous magic in the eyes of an eight year old me.

Anyway now lighter captions lol

So I lied, this is not a light caption lol. I know there are better captures of this moment, but this moment in my eyes was more than a picture. MS absolutely flew into Dada's arms. It was an ingenious ball, and an ingenious stumping especially since he was keeping to a medium pacer. But it was actually a fan edit on Dada, that made me screencap it. The song was that Dheera Dheera one from KGF, basic translation being the brave king. And the editors choice of including Dhoni in it, in an edit where no other player featured the way he did, it seemed to me that the editor's words were from one brave king to another. This moment seemed like the passing of a torch, Sourav Ganguly's fight which he wore like a crown on his head was being passed on to another head, a different approach but same application. I love this pic.

Now thisss picture. this was right after the destructive 183* Sri lanka had to suffer from. As a commentator said, "Dhoni was inflicted upon them,". That poor team, one of the best ODI teams of all time imo, suffered such a brutal death at the hand of this man. And Dravid was so freaking proud. The camera only really captured Sachin congratulating Mahi, he was also extremely proud, but I cannot say how much this particular bond is underrated. Mahi literally saw Rahul Dravid and decided yeah this man can never be wrong, he mirrors Jammy in so many ways. I don't know how Jam himself doesn't see it, but it is obvious how much admiration Mahi holds for him. Rahul is the one who recognized the finisher in him, Sourav saw the player and Sachin, the captain.

And ofcourse, if this pic doesn't make you a bit warm all over. This was actually a little reminiscent of how he had greeted Mahi after that 183* innings. But this, this was young Sachin, little ten year old Sachin finally seeing his dream come true. And it was this young man he was grabbing onto, who had made it possible. Now before those few people who seem to think that crediting Dhoni is discrediting others, I would like to say i fucking adore this team and each and every one of them is special. Even Gambhir the batsman commands respect from me, though Gambhir the person doesn't. I love Zak, Bhajji, Yuvi, Raina, Virat, Sachin, Viru, Ash and all the others I can't name cuz I am running out of time. But they are my boys and they were doing it for one man, Sachin Tendulkar. And this was the moment, his moment though people rarely talk about it. This WAS his moment. This was the culmination of his long years of heartbreak and struggle. And Mahi was the one who played one of the biggest hands in making it come true. 

Anyway, that is it for now, cuz my sister is snatching away my own laptop, but I will be posting more. Love you all. I know I have missed some comments cuz I have been offline, too busy with upcoming exams, but I will respond soon. Thank you soooooo much for all the love that you gave this work. This one means a lot to me, my first completely finished project. Thank you for making it so much more worth it.