Boria Majumdar in London
Sunil Gavaskar is an all time favourite. For years, it has been the same and will remain the same for all times to come. Even during my ban, Sunny bhai, as I fondly call him, repeatedly said to me that I need to stay true to my conscience and things will change. It is a relationship I am justly proud of.
So, it is very natural that I’d wish Sunny bhai on his 76thbirthday and try and celebrate it with him. So far, things were going to script. I wished him and he responded and it was all very good. All of a sudden, he was on the aggressive. “You Bengalis are the problem,” he said. “You guys make such good mishti (sweets), that I am forced to eat. Last seven days I haven’t touched any sweet, but if you get me Bengali mishti for my birthday, I will surely have. All these cakes, etc. I am not interested.”
Here was a challenge. We were in the Lord’s press box, with an intense Test match going on. How do I go and get Bengali mishti? At the same time, I did not want to say no to someone I idolise. I narrated the story on our post-day show and all of a sudden, I got a message on WhatsApp from Raj, a friend and someone I have known here for a decade and more.
Raj is a successful business owner and he had sent me the address of the Bengali sweet shop in central London. Now, getting the address was the first step. There was no way I’d have time to go there with the game on. I requested Raj on the show itself if he could help. Soon after, he sent a message saying at sharp 12 noon the next day, he would be in front of the Grace Gates with mishti for Sunny bhai and I should send him the exact spelling of what we wanted.
We requested Raj to get us rasamalai and sandesh — very traditional Bengali sweets, with which you can’t go wrong. True to his word, Raj was there sharp at 12 and handed over two boxes of sweets! Soon after our lunch show, when I went back to the media box, I looked for Sunny bhai. Luckily, he had just come out to have food. I told him I had Bengali mishti for him and for a second he couldn’t believe it. And then when he realised I wasn’t fibbing, he was thrilled.
After he had finished his lunch, we called all our colleagues and opened the boxes of rasamalai. Sanjana Ganesan too joined in and it was quite a feast. The quality was superb and we polished things off in no time. Deep Dasgupta came from nowhere and it was an impromptu dessert party at the Lord’s media centre in celebration of Sunny bhai’s belated birthday. Yet again, a very sincere thanks to Raj for all his help. It made the occasion really special.
Thereafter, Sunny bhai went back to his commentary stint happy and we all returned to our work stations truly satisfied. That’s the impact good mishti can have!
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