Winter afternoon. The makeshift wicket, the make-do stumps.
He was somehow timing his curious scythes. One of the singular occasions coming precariously close to batting well.
A stroke away from a rare fifty he let go another heave. It went spiralling up in the air, coming slowly down where I stood at deepish point. I got under it, and then, in a split-second decision, converted my catching effort to a volleyball-style parry towards the fine boundary. He got his fifty.
I have dropped more than my fair share of catches. That remains the one I dropped on purpose.
Because that’s what friends do.
A year later, we were outside the television store near our school, craning our necks over the crowd, trying to get a glimpse of the match.
The batter on the screen hoicked and was caught at point. ‘You had dropped one like that so that I could get my fifty,’ he remembered.
Down the years, long after we had left school, we often went to the Eden Gardens together.
Once Kirsten and Hudson hammered hundreds on the first day. South Africa 339 for 2. He was back there on the fourth morning, having missed the scintillating Azhar innings in between. And Kirsten was at it again, this time with Cullinan.
During the carnage he turned towards me , ‘You were here yesterday. How does it look when our fellows stand at the wicket with their bats? I’ve forgotten.’
Once, deciding at the last moment that he would give his work a miss for the Eden Test, he rushed into a taxi with me and confessed, ‘Last night I was dreaming that I was watching the Eden Test on TV and was getting rather livid.’
We watched a lot of cricket in his drawing room. Once, it was pitch dark. His mother came in and asked him to switch on the light. ‘They are scoring too quickly if the lights are on,’ he argued.
When Elephant in the Stadium was published, he was one of the two friends I dedicated it to.
Anirudha Roy and Anindya Tarafdar - with whom I discovered the joys of cricket.
When he skied it heavenwards two days ago, unfortunately it was not in my hands to drop it.
He did not get his fifty.
Anindya delivered the news.
But I am sure he will enjoy the real Garden of Eden.