One of the most commonly asked question to me as a child, by unidentified and mostly annoying relatives, was - "
Beta, tum badey hoke kya banna chahte ho?" At which I would curse my under-developed brain for not having thought of a comprehensive plan for the rest of my life. Isn't that what 6-year olds are supposed to do?
So I would come up with something on the spot. Some job that interested me or something that I thought would help me get rich. (Money is everything. Even 6-year olds know that!) Something like - bus conductor ( what with all that money they get to carry around), taxi driver or cricket player. (The last one was purely for the love of the game. I didn't know then that it involved loads of riches.)
But, if you ask the same question to a kid today, I won't be surprised if we get to hear answers like - "I want to play for the Kolkata Team in the IPL. I hope to be bought for a minimum of 3 crore rupees. And I love Shah Rukh uncle!"
Lots of them kids are going to take up to cricket in a big way, what with the kind of money involved. And many future Dhonis and Ishants are going to play the game more for the money and less for the love of it. And I won't blame them.
Heck, Ishant Sharma is going to earn as much in 4 legitimate deliveries of an IPL match as I do in a whole year of cubicle-caged, sore-eyed and hectic worklife.
Alas, my under-developed brain didn't see it coming....
