On 13 June Arunabha Sengupta turns a year older. While Cricmash generally does features for cricketers and cricket related personalities on their birthdays, the contributors put together a little something for in-house celebrations
Abhishek Mukherjee:
I had been reading Arunabha’s works on CricketCountry for some time before we started interacting on a regular basis. By 2012 we were talking regularly, and the interactions increased as I became part of the same site.
And yet, it was not before end-2014 that I met him, his ridiculous hairdo, and his handwriting for the first time. The handwriting deserves special mention, for it was certainly the worst I had seen in the 2010s.
We were chatting away merrily that day. India had saved the Boxing Day Test but lost the series. Then Dhoni dropped a bombshell by announcing retirement from Test cricket mid-series.
He was visiting Kolkata at that point for a few days. He used to be an unpaid freelancer. There was no compulsion on him to write during his vacation. There was no contractual obligation. His piece could have waited.
But he did write.
There have been numerous similar incidents. I have worked for two decades across two sectors, and yet I have come across only a handful who could match Arunabha in diligence, eye for detail, perfectionism, meticulousness – and supreme disdain towards MBA jargon.
All this may be may not be evident in first appearance, but over time you learn to acknowledge his professionalism.
I will not waste words trying to explain why he is a special writer. There is little point in appreciating someone whose work has received lavish praise from the likes of Stephen Chalke and David Frith.
What I do want to mention is how his analytical approach towards cricket, a single-minded ability to verify every fact, and excellent book recommendations have helped me improve as a writer. It will not be an exaggeration to call him my inadvertent mentor.
Mayukh Ghosh:
“Mayukh, Arunabha-da has a question. He will ring you.”
I had known Abhishek Mukherjee for a while. We went together to watch Andy Zaltzman live in Kolkata. Moreover, we used to interact daily, via Facebook. We were part of a group there.
If I remember correctly, Arunabha Sengupta joined the group sometime in 2012. At that point, the main activities there revolved around the quiz questions I asked after dinner. Most of them very tough and obscure. Many bad ones as well.
But with Arunabha-da joining, we began getting the links to his articles. Written for cricketcountry.com. I still remember the pieces he wrote on Hammond and Trumper. I took print copies of those two pieces to keep along with other cricket cuttings.
It was a welcome change. It took me (and I believe many others as well) beyond what Cricinfo had to offer. They were good those days, but these articles provided something extra. We knew here is a good writer who accurately reports historical events. Rare quality, you know!
Abhishek-da joined him soon and we had a duo who wrote good stuff about cricket history. And, most importantly, it was not limited to the same old Gavaskar in 1971, spin quartet, Kapil Dev in 1983 and ‘India’s fab four’.
The said question was about whether Robin Smith had really been stuck in the toilet when he was supposed to come out to bat in the Old Trafford Test in 1993. As a result, Mike Gatting had to come out and we know what happened next. We discussed this in the group the previous night.
I told him about my source. He checked it himself and was happy to go ahead and write about it. That tells a bit about another quality. Once again, rare.
Both of us knew Sreeram ( a wizard from Chennai who has qualities which mere mortals don’t possess) who had already made me understand how important it is to check everything before believing in them, irrespective of the sources. So, here I found one more who emphasised that quality.
I grew fond of his writing. Probably because he wrote about eras which appealed to me. And more so because the pieces were well-written.
There are two types of people one knows in life. One type makes life a bit tricky. The other type makes it good. He could be included in both groups!
He is somewhat responsible for making me fall in love with cricket literature. That is obviously good. The tricky part follows it. At one point I found that I am hell bent on spending half my monthly income on cricket books and memorabilia……
He has written some excellent books. And though they are not as popular as some of the trash produced regularly, they have the readers which matter.
“Have you read Arun Sengupta’s new book?”, wrote Stephen Chalke in an email. “At first sight looks an outstanding work.”
When one of the greatest cricket writers has that to say, I have nothing more to add. I hope he writes more books. At the very minimum, the book we once planned to co-write. On the less remembered cricket people. The Rosenwaters and the Bowens. The Goulstones and the McKenzies.
Illustration: Maha