Wish I had Sunny Days - A brief encounter with Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar in his hey-day

Recently I read an article by Harsha Bhogle on how the art of storytelling in cricket needs to be revived. He was of the view that we have got ourselves tangled up in issues and controversies surrounding the game. As a result, we have little time for the very reason which had drawn us into this beautiful sport ; the stories, the narrative etc. Here is a humble attempt to narrate an incident involving one of the biggest names in Indian cricket.

It was not so long ago that I used to get excited at the thought of air travel. With the passage of time, air travel became affordable for the Indian middle class and my frequency of air travel increased. This led to a decrease in the degree of my excitement for air travel. Off late this excitement has given place to anxiety and now air travel seems like an ordeal to me. This anxiety is the combined result of some recent unfortunate events in the air space and my experiences of air travel in turbulent weather. So, rain on the morning of my flight from Mumbai to Chandigarh was not the start that I was looking for my vacation.

Worried about the weather and its impact on my flight, I was waiting for the ordeal to start in the bus which would take me from the terminal into the plane. That’s when a man with a hat on caught my attention. A side glance was enough to recognize the man, it was none other than India’s original Little Master – Sunil Manohar Gavaskar.  Being a big cricket fan, I was thrilled with joy. Irrespective of the weather, I knew this was now going to be a Sunny Day at least for me. A quick refresher of the cricket calendar in my mind made me guess that he was going to Chandigarh for the Champions League T20 match.

I was fortunate enough to find myself just behind the great man in the queue while getting inside the plane. Soon we were inside the plane and as the master’s seat arrived he stopped to put his luggage in the overhead compartment. I was waiting behind to allow him to settle down in his seat before I could proceed. Realizing that the queue behind was waiting due to him, he said “sorry” with a gentle smile and got in his seat to allow us to move ahead. 

This was a pleasant departure from the stories of star-tantrums that I have heard. Here was a man who is the best Test opening batsman that India has ever produced till date and in no way was he obligated to say sorry to us. This just increased my respect for him. Once the plane was airborne, I was thinking of how to approach the master for his autograph and perhaps a discussion in case I get lucky. With some courage I entered the business class and stood next to the master’s seat with a book on Rahul Dravid – Timeless Steel in my hand.

Since he was eating, I found it inappropriate to disturb him in the middle of his meal. Within no time I was spotted by the air hostess who politely asked me to take my seat and told that she would notify me after the master finishes his meal. Next she came to me and asked me to give her the book on which I wanted the autograph. I was a bit disappointed as I wanted to take the autograph myself. But with no other option, I handed over the book to her and she came back quickly with an autograph on the cover page of the book.

I had made up my mind to at least thank the master for the autograph. So, when we got down at Chandigarh; I quickly followed the master towards the luggage section. Yet again the humility was there to be seen, when an airport official offered the master help with the luggage trolley his reply with a smile was “Main khud le loonga” (I will take it myself). 

I walked up to him and said: “Thanks for the autograph, sir. I wish I had your Sunny Days” (Sunny Days is the name of Gavaskar’s autobiography). He again smiled, acknowledged my thanks and went out of the airport with the luggage in his hand. I was left standing there awestruck by the short interaction I had.

In hindsight, I could have done a number of things differently. I could have shown him the articles that I had written on him, asked his opinion on my writing or probably taken a picture with him. But what I eventually have is an autograph from India’s best Test opener on the cover page of the book on India’s best one down batsman. And the only thought which keeps coming back to my mind is wish I had Sunny Days.

There is a famous quote by Oscar Wilde, “One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching”. Well, I don’t know about my entire life but whenever this sunny day will flash before my eyes, I am sure it will be worth watching.