At a memorial lunch hosted recently by the Indian Journalists' Association within the UK, to bear in mind the life and times of Mansur Ali Khan, family and friends members pay tribute to the legendary cricketer
London, June 18, 2012 Saif Ali Khan Pataudi didn't desire a script for he was speaking about his father from the guts. “We still haven't got used to him not being around — his presence was so strong that the vacuum it has created hasn’t begun to collapse yet so we aren't fully aware of( his absence),” he said. “He was my hero, too,” Saif added.
Saif was speaking in London at a memorial lunch hosted last Friday, June 15, by the Indian Journalists’ Association within the UK to keep in mind the life and times of Mansur Ali Khan, the erstwhile Nawab of Pataudi (fondly referred to as ‘Tiger’), the previous cricket captain of India who passed on to the great beyond on September 22, 2011, in Delhi on the age of 70.
Saif, together with his sisters, Saba Ali Khan and Soha Ali Khan, had accompanied their mother, Sharmila Tagore, to the lunch.
Also present was Saif’s fiancé, Kareena Kapoor, and Tiger Pataudi’s first cousin, Shahryar Khan, seven years his senior and a member from the Bhopal side of the family which moved to Pakistan after partition. Shahryar summed up for plenty of when he said of Pataudi, “He was a gorgeous cricketer or even more wonderful human being.”
Under-Qualified Earlier, Saif had started by admitting, “I feel under-qualified to make comments about my father — he was my hero, too.” He remembered a “fathers vs sons” cricket match at Lockers Park, a preparatory school in Hertfordshire both Saif and Pataudi had attended before they moved directly to senior school at Winchester College in Hampshire.
Pataudi, who was captaining the fathers’ side, “was fielding within the covers as usual — I USED TO BE batting and that i was on the non-striker’s end,” said Saif.
“Our captain cut the ball to him and he pretended to fumble it and commenced sprinting towards the boundary line and we took another single.
He had not fumbled it — he turned round and whipped it over the stumps and either one of us were half way down the wicket. The captain was run out — he was me,”said Saif.
Pataudi was taking the sport very seriously. “Then he went into bat and he hammered our bowlers mercilessly and broke my friend’s mother’s windscreen so everyone had mixed feelings about that game. He was a competitive cricketer," added Saif.
With a laugh, Sharmila completed the anecdote. “He truly played like that against nine year olds and he broke somebody’s windscreen. We went into tea and no person spoke to him. He was absolutely persona non grata — there are wonderful memories.”
Referring to the lack of a watch in a car accident, Saif made the point, “Many things he did were in adverse situations; the teams he captained, his handicap (lack of his right eye), often compounded by a hamstring or dislocated shoulder.” There has been the time when Pataudi was struck within the face.
“In 1974-75, I USED TO BE little or no and that i didn’t like Andy Roberts greatly for breaking my father’s jaw.
But my cousin Saad used to thrown a plastic ball at my father and he used to practice with this red plastic ball — it wasn’t such a lot the rate they were practising however the movement. He couldn't see the yorker and he couldn’t see the bouncer at this point,” said Saif.
Pataudi wasn’t dispose of. “It was incredibly courageous to head out and face Vanburn Holder and Andy Roberts without a helmet and getting hit within the face and leaving the sphere to get quickly stitched as much as. come again after which hammer Holder for 19 runs in an over was an awesome thing for me to keep in mind.
And also captaining against that (West Indian) side with 90,000 people at Eden Gardens chanting, ‘Take him off,’ when (BS) Chandrasekhar was being destroyed by (Clive) Lloyd and (Alvin) Kallicharran and my father throwing the ball back to Chandrasekhar and saying, ‘Bowl again’ and getting hit again for 12 runs within the over and again until breaking through and us winning that match, with Chandra getting four wickets,” he added.
Conversation
Saif stated father-son conversations. “Often sitting with him can be hours of silence and monosyllabic conversation,” said Saif. “His good friends would come down and they'd both sit and say little or no. He would inquire from me to be informed find out how to play bridge and that i pretended not to grasp the idea that — I BELIEVE my youth would was destroyed playing bridge for nine hours at a stretch.”
Saif went on, “He lead the way for me in class — I USED TO BE one of the crucial first Indians in Lockers Park. Everybody knew he was a hero; he had a record there of throwing a cricket ball the furthest distance — 95 metres.”
He spoke for the family. “It is uncommon and it’s wonderful for a mother and for kids to have something like this to live as much as. There are lots of instances when my mother says to me, ‘What would your father have done?’ and that i think that’s a really perfect achievement in addition.
Whenever we'd call him or ask him something about life, however complicated, he would have a good looking one line answer and provides the most efficient advice.”
The son paid his father an unusual compliment, “He was one of these nice house guest to boot. When he would come and stay he was so incredibly polite for a father — it's essential to hardly sense him except when he was taking his flight back to Mumbai. He would order an excessively stiff Screwdriver.”
“Another thing that sticks out is the good friendships he had forged and had — he used to spend so much of time on the Victoria pub (near the Pataudi apartment in London),” the son recounted. “Often I MIGHT find people from far and wide England— eight or none friends sitting there, having a lager and a pleasing chat and that i think it’s an important thing, really, the friendships he had made.”
Courtesy: Mid-Day.com
