Villy My Friend

“Rajasthan ki team bana raha hai ya Pakistan ki?” Kishore Rungta uttered with a mouthful of whatever he was having for dinner.
The orator, who had just spelled four Muslim names of the six selected, quickly made corrections and omitted all the four names and continued,.
It was perhaps the winters of 1990, at Rungta’s house. I was there with a friend of mine, to find out if he had got in through his Ranji trials. The trials had happened in the afternoon and these results would have been announced next day morning. If one has to play for India, he had to play Ranji for any of the state teams.
Kishore Rungta was the king of Rajasthan cricket, “tiger” as he was fondly called, was an India selector and cricket had more politics than money then.
Of course, the much known Mr. lalit Modi, by whatever selfish virtue, in connivance with the great chief minister Vasundhra Raje, ousted Mr. Rungta later on to do some good to cricket.

However, villy did not make it. Mr. Rungta had killed villy and likes, his pet boy, Gagan Khoda later went to play a couple of matches for India.
I had not known villy then.
Vilayat, I later met at Xavier’s Bombay. He was a Mayo alumnus, Belonged to Ajmer.
Xavier’s those years used to have a substantial strength of mayoites who roamed around in a sort of gang.
Villy was never a part of it, kept largely to self.
When at hostel, he was in his pads and gloves, waving his bat at least 80% of the day he was awake, shadow practice.
He went on to play various county cricket and continued his efforts to play for India.
He was always well dressed for a hostelite. I remember his shark skin jackets and branded English shoes and shirts.
On later years, villy and me got quite close, we shared a pad at Andheri for around a year and that’s how I got to know villy well. I was working those years and villy was playing for Cricket club of India. He played with almost everyone in the Indian cricket team, and I had the opportunity to go with him to the Brabourne stadium many a times for trivial sporting.
Not that I know much about cricket, but I know villy was better than the most. He was meant to be there.
He never compromised on anything, he was not good with words and with little politeness did manage to speak his mind, be it anyone. “Aap to chutiye ho” he had said that to many including Pravin Amre once.
He hated mediocrity and was pissed off with us for having lesser goals in life.
I met villy after 13 years yesterday, and 12 out of these he told me he had a very tough time carrying his head strong, trying various fields in life to get somewhere, with his skills and attitude, the commercial world was hardly a field for success or even survival.
Things are different now.
Villy, however is doing phenomenally good, with perhaps among the few with an international degree in physical conditioning, he trains the top bollywood biggies.
Nothing could be more suited than this, years of hard work is paying and I am glad I have known him.
Way to go villy.