Rendezvous With A Fanatic Fan(NonRCB) - Part I
I have always wanted to meet fanatic fans of other teams – especially “my target” teams – Ideally, if, someday, the fanatic fan I get to meet is a former cricketer, that will be great. Till then, I’ll continue with my shadow boxing with whoever I meet from the rivals’ fandom! Online or face to face!
Finally, it did happen that I encountered one such “real” person. At a business meeting in Baroda, I was introduced to this gentleman from Delhi by a common friend who said “Raghu is a cricket buff, waiting for IPL to start. He is a technology consultant to us, passionate about analytics and has come all the way from Bangalore”. This fanatic fan responded with “So you are a Kannadiga?”. Yes, and an RCB Fanatic Fan, I said, proud of the good things our lads (Karnataka and RCB) have achieved in the past one year.
What about you? Are you a Gujarati? I asked, though he looked like a Punjabi! He said ‘I am kind of all-India – Dad was a Goan, I was born in Ahmedabad, grew up in Bombay, went to Oxford University where I studied law, came back to Bombay and worked in a law firm (on no salary because that’s the way it works!), changed track from law to journalism, now living in Delhi since 1994 and something else and something else. Like you, I am equally fanatic about cricket, Ranji Trophy, IPL etc etc. But not an RCB Fan, that’s for sure!’
I am Rajdeep, he added in his uniquely distinct, yet familiar voice.
Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor in Chief - CNN-IBN, based in New Delhi. Rajdeep Sardesai, son of Dilip Sardesai of 1971 India-West Indies cricket test fame.
Gosh, I gasped curious about which religion he belongs to. Not to embarass my host, I reserved it for a later moment. I then quietly asked my friend-CEO-client if I can intersperse the business meeting with a bit of cricket talk here and there. He was sweet enough to agree!
To be continued ….
Post a comment
Notify me of follow-up comments?
Post comment to Facebook
subscribe to rss 
Archives
RCB CALENDAR
hot discussions
WANT TO BE A
FANATIC FAN?
FANATIC FAN?
Latest comments
I plan to cover the intersting discussions we had on Karnataka, Fanaticism, cryptic/censored version of his tweet on KXI sale.
You'll have to be patient!
(advantages of online publishing versus print or television!).
Long ago, DD News, Star News all used to start news with the anchors introducing themselves. That was always a nice way of startng news! Didn't matter even if the audience could recognize them by their voice!
On sending my links to Rajdeep and what happened to them, I will cover in my posts!
Great write up!!
It was interesting to read and waiting for
part 2 edition.