The half-a-rupee fun with cricket

Long years ago, when I was a tiny school going kid, the game of cricket was equally popular and was followed with a frenzied zeal.  For a 10 year old, it had all the excitement of a test, one-day and a t20 – though the last terms were unknown in those days. It was just the singular game of cricket; it didn’t matter whether it was played over 5 days or a few hours.

I used to live in Kanpur those days. We had two very large playing grounds near my house – within a kilometer on either side.  The size of free playing ground I have never ever seen in my life, in whichever cities I have lived in or traveled since then. For those who know about Kanpur would surely vouch for that – one was Motijheel and the other was Brijendra Swaroop Park.  I am not sure if these have become ‘protected’ and ‘charged’ facilities over the years but in those days these had gates open for all.

Cricket being an accepted ‘religion’ for all of us, this was our favorite pass-time during the evenings - but that used to be within the vicinity of our home, right on the street.  We didn’t have heavy traffic those days, nor did we have so many cars parked on the sides of the houses.  Yes, at times a few window panes were broken or a few passers-by got hit but the issue was always settled amicably with the help of some senior boys and at the expense of a few words of repentance and a few expressions of remorse.

However, Sunday’s used to be special.  We used to have matches played against the other teams, which were either some organized clubs or were representing the other streets of the locality.  The challenge was made a few days in advance and the ground and specific track was pre-agreed.  Early morning, a few representatives from both the teams will go to the ground and put their stumps at the appropriate track to reserve their playing strip.  The two complexes had multiple grounds of the size of KSCA, but every such ground used to have many playing strips where different teams used to play independently – completely oblivious of the other game. It was always on the first-come-first-served principle but on a very few occasions, some very senior blokes used to bully us out or used to force us to barter with another slightly inferior playing strip.  Nevertheless, it was part of life and we were happy as long as there was a place to play.

The red leather ball used to cost Rs.11/- in those days.  The playing eleven of both the sides used to contribute 50 paise each to make up for Rs5.50 on each side and together we used to buy one red leather ball.  The team winning the toss would invariably bowl first to take the advantage of the shine and the team fielding second would thus get the slightly older ball to bowl with.  The winner of the tie would take the ball as a souvenir and that we used for our practice for subsequent days, until the next win.  And that was the only expense that we would do – the two bats and one set of stumps will come from one of the team members; another guy would get a set of pads and we would use it only for the front leg – the other leg will brave it out bare. Sometimes we would have a pair of gloves but that was never a deterrent.

The passion that we played with, the fun that we had in those 4-5 hours, the sense of achievement that we got after winning a tie, and all that at the cost of Rs.0.50 is beyond belief today.  Even after spending a few thousands and securing a strategic view seat at the beautiful Chinnaswamy Stadium could never give me that kick. It is just that life was simple in those days. We never wanted anything more than that red cherry that we part-financed with the other team.  Neither we ever carried a drinking water bottle with us nor our mothers ever worried as to how we could play in sun without any food for 6 hours.  The municipality taps ran all through day in all corners of the ground and that was sufficient for us to brave the heat.

Life seems to have become more complex now.  The kids have to necessarily carry a fresh water bottle. All of them need to have their own personal kits. The white gear is more important than the batting skills. The grounds are owned or leased by clubs.  And all this may still not guarantee the half-a-rupee fun that we enjoyed in those days of cricket.

Safeguard your identity

The first time when I had traveled to Americas, about 10 years back, one thing that I had noticed was the importance given to an individual’s privacy.  So much so that even the cabin baggage tags in some of the airlines in the US and Canada had flaps to protect one’s personal information, unlike the simple open cards that we see around here.

Over the years, a lot of significance has been attached to identity proof in India as well. The KYC remains the buzzword in the financial world, even if there are a few exposures involving sting operations across Banks to ridicule all this noise around KYC.  The intent is good and it helps to curb black money, money laundering, suspicious activities, terrorism etc.  However, one closed door opens many others for the unscrupulous blokes. A couple of years back, one of my friends received a notice from a credit card company for nonpayment of dues. Not only the language of the notice was intimidating, my friend was completely astounded as he could not recollect ever holding a credit card of that company. After a lot of soul searching, he remembered having given his identity details to a credit card salesman outside his office gate – a copy of some identification proof and the salary certificate from his company but he never got the card. He had no idea where to follow up for the same and gave up his wait without bothering much about it.  As it appeared, the card was probably issued and either ‘landed’ or was ‘delivered’ into wrong hands.

As I was trying to recollect as to how many agencies I had given a proof of my existence on this earth in the last couple of years, the list was never ending.  I gave these documentary proofs for complying with KYC requirements of my 3 different Bank accounts; for getting a new credit card as that offered free movie tickets every month – this in addition to already having 2 other credit cards that were successfully sold to me by the highly persuasive sales agents; for getting a new Gas Connection; for opening a new bank account for my daughter; for getting a new driving license for myself; for opening a demat account to facilitate transfer of my ESOPs into a depository account; for opening a personal wealth management account with a PMS; for getting a mobile phone connection; for getting another mobile phone connection for my daughter as she did not have the required documents; for getting another mobile phone connection that came as a free offer while purchasing my groceries - the attraction was that my monthly spend on household items gave me extra talk time on this number; for getting a fixed line connection at my residence; for getting a USB data card that allowed me internet access while on the move; for KYC compliance of a mutual fund investment that I had done long years back when I did not have a demat account and hence this remained on paper; for getting an Election ID card – so that I can exercise my franchise as a responsible citizen; for getting an Aadhar Card that has become a new norm to find one’s identity. If I did not do that my kitchen stove would cost me double every month. These were 15, in case you lost the count.

The other day, the relationship manager assigned to me by my banker visited me with a request to renew my KYC details – as the same was to be renewed at some frequency as per the RBI guideline. And very nonchalantly, but to my shock, he informed  me that he had all my details viz PAN Card scan copy, my photograph etc in his laptop but all I was required to give was a printed photograph as the scanned one will not do.  My banker has been very ‘liberal’ in providing a new relationship manager to me every 2 years and I was horrified to think as to how many laptops would have all my personal details that can be put to any use or misuse.

I have always been wary of sharing these details with strangers without a compelling reason. In one case, the agent had asked for a second set as he had lost the original set of copies that I had handed over to him. While I made a lot of fuss and insisted on a written undertaking for the second copy, I was wondering as to what would stop him or anyone else to create multiple copies of the same set of documents.  Some of these agencies have insisted on self attestation and that at least checks against multiplication of these copies. However, this practice is not consistent with all the agencies seeking identity proofs. I think at least this practice of self attestation has to be mandated and insisted upon.

The identity proofs being so critical, there is a need for a central agency like UID to take complete charge of this aspect over a period of time.  In an ideal situation, I would not want to share any details or copies of my identity documents and a number like the UID number should suffice.  Any agency seeking my identity proof should have a binary confirmation on my existence through an automated UID-owned response center. There should be no need for multiple agencies providing same services.

If we do not put a leash on the free flow of these identity proofs passing through the fly by night small kiosks that work as outlets for growing cut-throat businesses, like the mobile network agencies, the day will not be far when we will find a SIM at the site of some terrorist act and the identity of such a SIM might lead to an unassuming you and me.  As a statistic says, the 900 million mobile phone connections in India are registered in only 300 million names.  I am not sure how many of these 600 million additional connections are in yours and my name without our knowledge.