Test or match?

When Shobhaa De turned 60 recently, she remarked that 60 was the new 40. Three years ago, at the age of 50, I joined the Pune University8217;s three-year LLB degree course. Going by De8217;s arithmetic, my 50 would actually be 33. I stood out glaringly in college, perhaps like Prakash Karat would at the IAEA. Maybe I would have been better off on the cricket field, as I had just got to my first half-century. For years, I had been laying down the law at home, and my family thought it high time I legalised my actions and joined a law course. I took the plunge. The students and lecturers, at first amused, soon took it in their stride.

But it took me a while to get on track. Unlike my voluble classmates, I was hesitant to speak out. Where were the forceful arguments I used at home? In Mina vs Others, sweeping away all dissenting opinions, the final interpretation rested with me. The first semester exams were looming and so was Australia8217;s cricket tour of India. The timing could not have been worse. A cricket fanatic, I am glued to the TV whenever a match is on. In fact, I haven8217;t missed a game for the last 20 years. My husband and teenage son were amused. 8220;How will you go to college when the Test matches start?8221;

I wondered if I should take a transistor with me 8212; it had bailed me out before, in my salad days, when Tony Greig and his team toured India. But that might result in an offence for disturbing the peace. And would I get away with it by pleading guilty to temporary unsoundness of mind? Would that be a sound defence?

The last option was to do the unthinkable 8212; bunk college 8212; but that could set a bad precedent, especially for my cricket-crazy son. But when it came to cheering my favourite cricketer, Sourav Ganguly, in a Ranji Trophy match in 2005, at the height of Ganguly8217;s 8220;exile8221;, I succumbed to temptation and skipped a lecture on 8220;Grounds for Appeal8221;, entered the more appealing cricket grounds, and was privileged to witness Ganguly8217;s century. I managed to survive the three years and get a law degree without sacrificing my cricket.