Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Time to reveal 8-year-old secret

Life changes persistently; so does the life style – the way of thinking and perceiving things. But some memories just aren't meant to be forgotten, while some secrets are simply meant to be unveiled. Now that I am in 2011 and the Indian team has finally won the World Cup Cricket after a gap of 28 years, I think it's high time that I reveal my 8-year-old secret.
I know you all are confused thinking how can my secret be associated with cricket!

Well, the story goes like this: It was March 2003. I was due to give my board exams. At the same time Indian Cricket team has passionately made their entry in World Cup Cricket final along with its counterpart and the then all-time-favorite Australia. I was so obsessed by the game that I related all my answers in my board exams with cricket. Yes, I did that. And I scored impressively as well.

2003 witnessed a new wave in Manipur. Technological innovation was one of the major changing trends in Manipur. Here, I am particularly talking about the internet revolution. I was an active part of that revolution. In fact, there wasn't a single person, especially the school goers who didn't have their mail IDs. It was a must for one to have an account on Yahoo Messenger at least. Chatting was a kind of in-thing at that time. And I fully utilized that feature of Yahoo during the break after the board exams.

I was obsessed by chatting to the extent that I would sit inside internet cafes for long hours, chatting with unknown lots from the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and the like (now, I wonder if they really were foreigners at all!!). Yeah, I had this craze of chatting with Whites as I like their red cheeks with golden spiky hairs.

Not just pass time, chatting had become my passion. I would collect posters of celebs downloading them from net. By the way, I only collected posters of that special one. Actually, I fell in love with Mr Lee. No...No...No...don't misunderstand me ...it's not Bruce Lee. It is the dashing, amazing, stunning and handsome mate, Brett Lee.

I loved him. I still do. I like the way he runs and releases the bowl from his right hand in style embossed with speed; I love to see his eyebrows raised when his bowl is being smashed to the boundary; I like the way he irritates batsman and then gives him that taunting smile – the smile that always brings a smile on my face. Yes, I like him to an extreme of craziness.

Today, in the quarter-finals of WC 2011, I was pretty much happy with India beating the Aussies. But somewhere in my heart there was a deep and subtle pain, for the obvious reason that: my Lee was out of the WC 2011. And I would not be able to see him in remaining matches of the tournament.

It has been 8 long years ever since I first liked Lee. Though the intensity my this one sided relation now is not that high as it used to be earlier, I am still crazy about him. Craziness, of course, has a limit; but I had, probably, crossed all of them. My first mail IDs on Yahoo and Gmail were an amalgamation of my name and his name (mehnaz_lee@yahoo.co.in). And because of my mail ID, everyone now thinks that 'Lee' is my surname.

Till I was a student, it was acceptable to keep a lid over it. Now that I am working, I think it's high time that I reveal my 8-year-old secret. So world, my name is Mehnaz Nasreen and I am not a 'Lee'.