Kiss From a Rose On the Grey

Dedicated to Akshay Shah
Aah what a week. Like the maharajahs of yore rewarding nautch-girls, our politicians have been throwing our tax money at the feet of our victorious cricket players, Ricky Ponting has been mouthing off and Symonds, of all people, has been lecturing us about our supposed lack of “humility” in victory (yes we do remember the shove off given to Sharad Pawar in a moment of victorious humility some time ago) with some people interpreting the Australian’s intensely negative reaction to the outpouring of adulation for the winning Indian team as nothing but a case of the worst kind of sour grapes (”Gee whiz, we win the One Day World Cup and we don’t even get a bicycle from the Australian government and here these oafs win a Twenty20 tournament and are having Porches and Mercedes being left at their doorstep”)

While our Team India turned in a below-par performance in the Bangalore One day thus letting the trash-talk go unanswered, the common Indian fan once again stepped up when it mattered and give a “moohtod” jawaab to the Aussies. At an auction organized by ING-Vyasa , rather suggestively titled “Take Home Ricky Ponting” one Jayaram Reddy won an auction for a picture of Ricky Ponting, said he didn’t want it but instead wanted a picture taken with the Aussie captain. As he got up on stage to make good on his payment, he first hugged Ricky with slightly more warmness than is considered apposite and then, out of the blue, landed a passionate kiss on him. Watch the video as “tough man” Ponting lets loose a primal “Yaacckkk” scream as the steamy saliva of Mr. Reddy leaves a wet mark on his cheek. If this does not rattle Ponting and by extension the team he leads and trigger a process of mental disintegration, I do not know what will.

Mr. Reddy would indeed have taken Mr. Ponting home (see how he tries to cop a few more feels) if not for Mandira Bedi’s stern “That is making him a “little” uncomfortable sir”. Mr. Reddy was back it seems after he won a bid for Ponting’s bat (a wooden one let me make clear). This time however he was surrounded by security when he came on stage to prevent a re-occurrence of the Emran Hashmian moment(if you hear closely to the video Mr. Ponting tells the man “You are not allowed to kiss”)

On being interviewed, Mr. Reddy gave us a glimpse into his beating heart:

He is a great captain – and our Indian culture is to kiss him. In foreign you know, they hug and kiss, but he refuses to hug our Indians. I told him – you hug me – otherwise you get lost.

Mr. Reddy—you take my breath away.