'Yes,' I said. 'In fact, we have our inhouse advisor Ishaan. He is an ex-district
level player.'
'Great. I will see you then,' Mrs Ganguly said and left us to ponder over her
business proposition.
'You want candy, Babloo?' Omi said as we tried our best to impress anyone
related to Mrs Ganguly.
'But we are not suppliers,' Ish said later.
'So what? You have to swing this for me, Ish. This is a regular income
business.'
'If I get you this, will you come to Goa?'
'Goa?' I raised my eyebrows.
'It's the last one-day. I am stretching it out as far as I can. If we save enough,
let's go with Ali.' 'But...' 'Say yes.'
'Yes,' I said. After the mall fiasco, I wanted to make Ish happy. I stood up to
check the day's accounts.
'Cool. Hey, see the match?' Ish said. Tt has totally turned.'
I looked at the TV. Perhaps God listened to Mrs Ganguly's prayers inside. A
little known Surd called Harbhajan Singh had howled after tea. Wickets crumbled
and from 193/1, Australia ended the day at 291/8.
'Bhajji, you are great,' Ish bent forward to kiss the TV.
'Don't watch the TV from so close,' Babloo said.
'Don't listen to grown-ups all the time. Nobody went blind watching TV from
close. Don't people work on computers?' Ish was jumping up and down in
excitement.
Mrs Ganguly came in two hours later to pick up Babloo. She bought him two
tennis balls. I was tempted to throw them in for free, but she might take it the
wrong way.
'Here,' she said, giving me her card. 'We have a board meeting every Monday.
Why don't you come and tell us how you can help?'
We had four days to prepare. The board would be in a better mood if India won
this match.
'Sure, we will see you then,' I said and slipped a candy to Babloo.
Day 2
The only way to describe the second day of the match was 'depressing'. From
291/8, Australia dragged on their first innings to end at a healthy 445 all out.
The Indians came out to bat and opener Ramesh got out for no score.
'Who the fuck is this Ramesh? Connection quota,' Ish said.
But it wasn't only Ramesh who sucked. Tendulkar scored ten, others even less.
Dravid scored the highest at twenty-five. The second day ended with India at
128/8.
Ish tore his chapattis with anger over dinner. 'These Australians must be
thinking - why even bother to come and play with India.'
'Pray for a draw. With a draw there is hope of sales. Else we should change our
business. Sports is the wrong choice in our country.' I passed the daal to Omi.
'They have twenty million people. We have one billion, growing at two per cent
a year. Heck, we create an Australia every year. Still, they cream us. Something is
wrong about this.'
'Should we open another flower shop? There will always be a demand for that in
a temple,' I said.
avery
(avery)
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