Contributed by Sumanth Anubolu
10 years back when he was a rising cricketer, Arjun had this reputation of a hot head who lacked discipline and selfcontrol. Nevertheless he got amazing cricketing talent that can sparkle a bit of enviousness among his contemporaries. His exhibition of fearlessness through his play added to his style making him one of the unique talents of his time.
Majority of people tend to give up their passion when they reach certain age unwilling to take risks or surrendering to the challenges that life throws. A person of Arjun's abilities might never have thought that he would give up cricket for any so-called reason. But giving up passion is not a simple thing. You never know how inner demons will haunt you for the next few days/months. To get out of that, we need a reliable solace to weep on peacefully.Sara is Arjun's place of comfort when he left cricket. She knows his abilities and loves him for what he is,dare enough to fight with her father to be with him. She loves him as much as he loves cricket.
Arjun is now a jobless father who depends on the income of his wife for livelihood. He got a job sometime back, but jobless now owing some circumstances. He roams,smokes and drinks with a bunch of jobless set of friends. He is dead intense in the things he do. Did Sara hate him? No, she just want him to get back on his feet.Se feels that the result of few harsh arguments and sacrifices might lead to the happy future that she is looking for. So the relationship got little bitter.Only place where he finds the essence of life back is when he is with his son, who is crazy about cricket.10 years back if it was Cricket and Sara that made his life brighter, now his son is someone that he can cheer himself up for.
He might be a hot head to others in his past, but a charmer of who he actually cares for. Seeing him now, what I think is,may be lone life he had led in childhood or the years growing up might have made him behave that way. Now what happened? Did Arjun become incapable of dealing with the problems that life had thrown at him? Do life make people become this much vulnerable?
When his son asks him to buy indian jersey,he tries to pull off every trick on his sleeve to get him that and make him happy. He gets into the gamble,adds up lies,steals the money from sara putting his self respect in stake, and at last he stakes his cricketing abilities to earn the money which he had stopped lot of years back. When he knows that his son is proud seeing him play,he feels that the only thing that can make him/son both happy. It is when reincarnation of passion triggers his soul.
Age is never a barrier to re-lift passion and travel with it again. He has the same talent that he had got 10 years back, but physically he is not the same person who he is.Its not going to be easy this time. Dealing with people who has preconceived notions that age and physical strength are the only entities of talent and making them rethink their stand is nothing but a herculean task.
He had a severe heart condition due to which if he takes more physical stress,there are chances that he can die.Its the reason why he had left cricket in the past. Nobody knows that, and Arjun doesn't want others to know that.He wanted to prove that determination is which drives a man achieve things.
Majority of us,give up trying when circumstances/relationships go wrong. We know that we won't be dying if we try to repair them, but still we won't. But here is Arjun, who knows that he is going to die when he play cricket again,but tried to make it big and tried something nobody even dare to do in dreams. Arjun is no more a person with broken dreams, he is an inspiration to many people who dreamt big but got stopped by annonymous reasons. He is an epitome of determination.For his son,he is always a hero.
Everytime i give up trying on something and walk away, i feel his son's voice whispering on my ears:
