My friend BBK (Bahadur Bandali Kassam Pirani) sent me the picture and then sent me the story. A picture speaks a 1000 words, right, but with the 175 added we get the “full picture.” BBK and I were at school together – Government Indian Secondary School, class of 1957 – class. We went to England together, well, he to Cardiff tec. Locals used to scratch him to see if the brown colour would come off! He went on to study medicine at St Andrews. He earned a Blue at cricket for his university. He’s in my book in 3 parts – growing up in Old Kampala (he was on the other side of the Museum Hill from us; his description of flying kites beats the Kiteflyer anytime), coming to England (hilarious description of how at British Council course they taught us how to eat a boiled egg) and practicing medicine on 3 continents – Africa (Uganda), UK, and North America (Canada), with one hilarious encounter with the antagonist of this book when he landed from a helicopter on the Mulago Hospital grounds wounded. A little tincture of iodin and tape sufficed.
Narrative by Bahadur Bandali Kassam
While in London in June 2006 Carolyn and I decided to visit Lord’s cricket ground and do a guided tour. After a while I wandered away from the group to take a look at the practice pitches and to my amazement recognized Sachin Tendulkar. He was bowling to some women. As one of the women players came towards us to collect a ball we asked about the net going on. She said they were the England Women’s Cricket XI. She must have told Sachin about us and without hesitation he just walked over to chat! He spent almost 15 minutes with us. He told us he was in London for treatment on his right shoulder. He told us of his plans to visit Toronto with the India team. We took some photos. A man from the BBC came up to tell him that they were now ready for the Sports Report interview. The most striking thing about him was him was his utter modesty.
Ismailimail 