A few minutes with Rahul Dravid

I dont remember the year, but it was one of those in which Rahul Dravid had a great time in tests, as was usual those days. And it was the time when Ipods and mobile phones had not substituted larger devices like radios and cassette/CD players. I remember this distinctly because the CD player which Rahul was carrying was the reason I got to exchange a few words and spend a few minutes with him.  He had something like a small kit bag on his shoulder, was holding a tote bag in one hand and the CD player in the other.  We were walking out of the Bombay airport terminal at the same time towards the bus that would take us to the plane.  Something fell out of Rahul's hand. As he was struggling to bend and pick it up, hampered by all the hand-carried baggage, I picked it and handed it back to him, with a `hello, it is a privilege to meet you'. He was in his mid twenties then and was somewhat embarrassed by his predicament as well as my words, the humble and down-to-earth guy that he is.  He smiled shyly and told me as much with a simple `that is high praise indeed!' and then asked me about myself. As we chatted, we got into the bus.

I was curious about the rather large CD player he was carrying and asked him whether he lugged

it wherever he went.  He said `yes' and proceeded to explain that acoustics was something he put a premium on and he preferred that high quality CD player in the evenings to listen to music.  At one point, in the bus, near my foot I found a boarding pass on the floor and picked it up and stuffed it in my jacket pocket, obviously thinking that was mine.  Rahul smiled and said to me `now we are even, even if I did not pick it up for you'.  When we got down from the bus, some guys were waiting for him and he said bye to me and went to chat with them.  I boarded the plane, took my seat and was looking for him to come on board.  Even after 15 minutes, there was no sign of him and when I peeked through the window, I saw he was walking back to the terminal, after leaving his baggage near the plane, with someone keeping watch on them until he returned.  I wondered what he had forgotten and the airhostess who was watching me looking at Dravid, came and said `looks like he misplaced his boarding pass and would not let us go fetch a replacement for that.  He has gone himself to do the job.  We will take off when he returns'.  The mystery having been solved, I sat back and started reading the book I had brought.   Dravid returned soon and took his seat two rows in front of me and we took off.  Some 30 minutes into the flight,  I was trying to retrieve something from my jacket pocket and out came this boarding pass, with the name Rahul Dravid, Seat 2A, screaming at me!!   I reeled a bit and stared at the boarding pass, wondering how it reached my pocket.  When I figured that the boarding pass I picked up from the floor of the bus was not mine but Rahul's, I felt bad that a small lapse on my part in not looking at the name before putting into my pocket had made him go through some trouble.  But I also smiled because we were not even after all, as he suggested.  The boarding pass he had dropped twice within 10 minutes and we always thought he did not drop many!!

I walked to him, handed the boarding pass to him and conveyed my regret in having been responsible for his extra trudge to and from the terminal .  When he realised what happened, he smiled and apologised  for having been so clumsy and causing inconvenience to me!!  That kind of summarizes the guy for you, I think. Come to think of it, I should have kept the boarding pass for some bragging rights!!  Did'nt strike me at all at that moment.