Back to the future!

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, trying to get the examination horrors off my mind and get into the vacation mode,i chanced upon a magazine(I shall not name it here,but for the curious ones,I'll give you a clue-It has the country's name.I'm not exactly a cruciverbalist you see). My eyes lit up when i read the cover page. It was a special new year edition which read 30 years hence in glorious glittery font.My imagination started going berserk and seeing the list of writers which boasted of some of the most influential politicians of the century i thought this magazine would be a wonderful to spend some quality time.

The format was a little unexpected.Every thorny present day issue was put to relevant personalities and they were asked to answer the one question that would change the course in the next thirty years.Interesting,but after a point of time my mind started playing games with me. What would i have written on this,if i were given a chance.Nothing extremely intellectual or something that would make you look at things with a different perspective,but i thought it should have my trademark(?!) cynicism and hopelessness. I decided ot make it a short story of sorts and please do pardon the melodrama.

so here it goes..

2040 A.D.

Beneath that navy blue visor and unruly mop of hair,Samit Dravid had a very vibrant and technical mind.His passion was cricket just like his father. And now on the cricketing field,representing India for the first time ever in his life, there were a million images floating through that mind of his.He remembered how he had been thrust into the international cricketing scene. His father had a dramatic farewell from the game. He had threatened
that he would retire if the board does not hike the salaries of the players which was the same since he had started playing. And since the board did not seem to flinch, he retired from cricket. Rahul Dravid had been a legend and his career was a lesson for any upcoming cricketer. He had played a full 40 years thanks to the life enhancing drugs and also thanks to the absence of any good talent in Indian cricket.

The board wanted to seek revenge on Dravid for having retired so early and they thrust his son into the foray at the ripe young age of 40.Samit knew it was going to be tough. But he was ready to fight it out. He had been there ,done that. At 40, even he had led a full life.

He had tried his hands at movies at the age of 24.He acted in 17 movies in that year,of which 12 were on familial relationships,4 were on love & action and one of his home production,the one which he was hoping would be a hit,did not find the light of the day due to censor cuts which amounted to 100 minutes of the 120 minute movie(One particular incident which had the environmental activists crying foul was having the heroine run around trees.They had said the tree got bored of it and its feelings ought to be respected. The censor had relented to that claim.) Acting was his thing and he decided to stick to it. He quit acting when turned 27 because he felt a gaping hole in his creativity. He had acted in 74 films with 2 mega hits,3 super hits,5 hits,7 luke warm hits,10 below average hits,12 way below average hits.

After having conquered the movie kingdom,the next obvious step for him seemed to be to enter politics. He had seen so many people do that ,he was even tempted to think that people would not consider him a whimp if he didn't enter politics. After floating his own party which added to the present tally of 1723 parties(The number recently crossed the number of dialects in the country which was celebrated with a lot of fanfare and pomp). He knew the tricks of the trade. He knew it didn't help if you make lofty promises like what a long forgotten president had done a few decades back.Name was Abdul Kalam. He had something called Vision 2020 which people remembered even now for its preposterousness and downright sillyness. There was also a
day celebrated on his behalf. He didn't remember the day exactly,there were too many.

But now on this day, he wanted to get rid of all these images and concentrate on his cricket,the basics of which he had learnt from Greg Chappell Jr. Jr. He was a coach in great demand because of his no-nonsense attitude and ability to show the finger to the general public in front of the media. If he could prove himself on this stage with a century or two,he could stay with this team for a long time and make a lot of money through sponsorships. And after getting done with playing cricket,he could become a selector and screw the lives of those who screw with him. Sweet revenge it would be for him.

And if all else fails,he could always start a restaurant, or have his own ridiculously exorbitant fashion line, or worst comes he could become a social activist and get a lot of media time.

Samit just loved the possibilities that life promised at the moment.