As I ponder on my life to pen down this article, rewinding back to my past, I become more and more nostalgic. Memories of my school days, the happy and carefree days. Having been to many different places in the country throughout my schooling career, I interacted with people from different parts of the country. This helped me to learn more about different cultures and along the way, I also picked up an interest in cricket. Initially, it was just a game for me but soon it grew up to be something way more important.
There used to be this cricket tournament called ICL even before IPL started. It had an advertisement where a youngster used to practice bowling under the street light, portraying his love and dedication for the game. Something about that inspired me and encouraged me to give my heart and soul to cricket. I used to practice bowling, day and night. Soon I made into my school's cricket team and one of my proudest moments in life was when I bowled out my coach and he was so impressed with my bowling. At a point in time, I even believed that I could make it to the big stage but life had other ideas for me.
It was in my 10th class when things changed. My parents, teachers and everyone else had high expectations from me for my board exams and obviously cricket was a distraction. As a result, I had to give up on playing cricket for some time, it created a fear in my mind that will I be able to play it again? It was a hard time for me as the craze for cricket was high in my mind and I was serious about it. But I didn't let that feeling drag me down and used the time to study and work hard for my board exams, with a hope that if I perform well in my exams my parents will support me in following my dream. I passed my exams with flying colours and ended up being the topper of my school. After that, I continued playing cricket with the support of my parents. Although I couldn't make it big time I worked hard and made up to the district level selection for SGFI. Cricket has always been there for me in good and bad times and cheered me up and has motivated me to work hard to achieve my dreams no matter what. It will always be a big source of motivation for me.