Social Validation
As I reflect back on my childhood, one of the things that I'm grateful for, is my parents' naivety. Even when I achieve some what extraordinary stuff academically, I got used to being treated the same way. In lot of ways, it shaped me and slowly, I stopped craving for attention from others and mostly was focusing on things that I wanted to do for the time being.
Of course, owing to my own exposure to different things and my understandings of how the world works, I didn't experiment enough. The kind of content I ended up consuming, gave me a lens through which I viewed the world around me. Still thanks to my anxiety, I still had to do play along with what others thought I should be doing rather than me exploring and figuring out what I'm meant to do.
My college was also in some ways conservative, that lot of supposed variables were fixed for me, that I didn't have to operate out of my comfort zone. Although there were few opportunities to explore, there were no external factors that nudged me towards pursuing it. Having said that, I personally feel, I've a come long way in the past year in trying to stand on my own feet, mostly thanks to the independence, that I found myself with.
One of my earliest influences, when it comes to how I viewed the world is R Ashwin. Most of the cricket enthusiasts in my social circle, prefer idolizing the Kohli's or Dhoni's, but I kinda found them to be naturally gifted, that they didn't had to fight off any perception battles. Although I have to agree that, Ash is kind of privileged in terms of family background that he comes from, still he is not the quickest or acrobatic in the field. So, always he has been taken for granted that they could conveniently drop him off the playing XI.
I admire how Ash has accepted his shortcomings and continuously looked for ways to improve and reinvent himself in other facets of the game. Even in his rookie days, man exuded self confidence. As a spinner, used to open the bowling for sides and never shied away from different match situations. Although, he had his fair share of failures, but I really like the way he works around limitations in his game. Not just in cricket, even off the field, I like the way he is venturing into different entrepreneurial spaces - be it in part time commentary, running a cricket academy and curating Youtube videos as well. In lot of ways, it kind of motivates me to pursue more things to become a better version of myself.
On a side note, In April of this year, I had a chance to watch Ashwin perform live for the first time - CSK vs RR (chose this match since it featured Dhoni, Ashwin and Samson - three are my favorites) and Ashwin ended up with a MOTM performance with 30(22) and 2/25.
Stadium experience in itself - was somewhat surreal for me. Also thankfully, CSK lost enough wickets that Dhoni came in as early as 15th over itself. Right from Dhoni's entry to "Thirai Thee Pidikkum" (I loved these WWE style entrance music for everyone's entry. Ashwin even came out to "Bloody Sweet - Leo Theme" when he batted), entire stadium was buzzing like anything for last 5 overs. I was happy with what I got to witness, even though I couldn't help but wish for even more with Dhoni finishing it off🥺
Ending this post with birthday wishes to one of the greatest match winners, Indian cricket has ever produced - TN's own Ash Anna🎂🎉