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Remembering Pataudi, player and wit
PHEROZE L. VINCENT
New Delhi, Oct. 1: A doctor was trying to set Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi's dislocated shoulder and the cricketer was screaming in pain.
"There's a lady next door delivering twins and she isn't screaming as much," the doctor told Pataudi.
Pat came the reply. "Try putting them back in and hear her."
If that was an example of Pataudi's quick wit, Bishan Singh Bedi had one on his former captain's dry humour too.
Some youths had mobbed them for autographs during a Test match in Kanpur. Never known to use even the mildest curse, Pataudi reportedly said: "Their parents should never have slept together."
"That's the worst abuse I've heard him use," said Bedi.
Some Tigers don't growl.
Tales about Tiger Pataudi livened up the mood at the memorial service for India's youngest Test captain who died last month, turning a sombre event into a celebration of the wit and humour he epitomised.
More than his cricket it was Pataudi's personality that was the focus at the private service in Delhi attended by the capital's power and culture elite.
Union minister Salman Khurshid was the first to speak. He recited a poem by Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz on his elder brother's death.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's wife Gursharan Kaur arrived soon after. Khurshid offered Kaur his seat next to Pataudi's widow Sharmila Tagore, who sat with daughters Soha and Saba and son Saif Ali Khan's friend Kareena Kapoor.
All of them were in white. Saif wore a light-coloured kurta and a dark, half-sleeved overcoat.
Former captain Kapil Dev said he didn't have words to express his feelings.
"No cricketer did not want to live his life, talk like him, be him," said the man who led India to its first World Cup victory.
"I've tried hard to play like him and failed," Kapil added. "He had just one expression on his face. He spoke little, but (at) every meeting with him he had something precious to give you, something I can't explain. He was god-gifted'. His words had a strength no cricketer had."
Pataudi, said former cricketer Ajay Jadeja, was "as rare as a snow leopard. If we could learn not just the way he played his game but the way he lived his life, it would be a perfect salaam to the Nawab."
Others present included Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, BJP leader Arun Jaitley, superstar Amitabh Bachchan's daughter Shweta and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan.
Classical singer Malini Awasthi performed with sarangi exponent Ustad Ghulam Sabir Khan.
The short service ended with a documentary, 70 years and still game, which Sharmila had made for her husband's 70th birthday.
"My mother felt that birthday was special and it was probably the last time all of us were in the room. But we didn't know back then how special it really was," Saif said.
He recited Do not stand at my grave and weep, a 1932 poem by Mary Frye, which summed up the mood.
It's not that there weren't any tears today, but they were tempered by memories of a man who could put his point across, tongue firmly in cheek.
"We had been coming back late to our rooms during a series," Bedi said, recalling how the cricket board had once pulled up Pataudi, saying his lack of discipline was influencing the team.
"He told them: 'I absolutely insist that all my boys should be in bed before breakfast.'"
https://www.telegraphindia.com/1111002/jsp/nation/story_14578251.jsp?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
PHEROZE L. VINCENT
New Delhi, Oct. 1: A doctor was trying to set Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi's dislocated shoulder and the cricketer was screaming in pain.
"There's a lady next door delivering twins and she isn't screaming as much," the doctor told Pataudi.
Pat came the reply. "Try putting them back in and hear her."
If that was an example of Pataudi's quick wit, Bishan Singh Bedi had one on his former captain's dry humour too.
Some youths had mobbed them for autographs during a Test match in Kanpur. Never known to use even the mildest curse, Pataudi reportedly said: "Their parents should never have slept together."
"That's the worst abuse I've heard him use," said Bedi.
Some Tigers don't growl.
Tales about Tiger Pataudi livened up the mood at the memorial service for India's youngest Test captain who died last month, turning a sombre event into a celebration of the wit and humour he epitomised.
More than his cricket it was Pataudi's personality that was the focus at the private service in Delhi attended by the capital's power and culture elite.
Union minister Salman Khurshid was the first to speak. He recited a poem by Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz on his elder brother's death.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's wife Gursharan Kaur arrived soon after. Khurshid offered Kaur his seat next to Pataudi's widow Sharmila Tagore, who sat with daughters Soha and Saba and son Saif Ali Khan's friend Kareena Kapoor.
All of them were in white. Saif wore a light-coloured kurta and a dark, half-sleeved overcoat.
Former captain Kapil Dev said he didn't have words to express his feelings.
"No cricketer did not want to live his life, talk like him, be him," said the man who led India to its first World Cup victory.
"I've tried hard to play like him and failed," Kapil added. "He had just one expression on his face. He spoke little, but (at) every meeting with him he had something precious to give you, something I can't explain. He was god-gifted'. His words had a strength no cricketer had."
Pataudi, said former cricketer Ajay Jadeja, was "as rare as a snow leopard. If we could learn not just the way he played his game but the way he lived his life, it would be a perfect salaam to the Nawab."
Others present included Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, BJP leader Arun Jaitley, superstar Amitabh Bachchan's daughter Shweta and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan.
Classical singer Malini Awasthi performed with sarangi exponent Ustad Ghulam Sabir Khan.
The short service ended with a documentary, 70 years and still game, which Sharmila had made for her husband's 70th birthday.
"My mother felt that birthday was special and it was probably the last time all of us were in the room. But we didn't know back then how special it really was," Saif said.
He recited Do not stand at my grave and weep, a 1932 poem by Mary Frye, which summed up the mood.
It's not that there weren't any tears today, but they were tempered by memories of a man who could put his point across, tongue firmly in cheek.
"We had been coming back late to our rooms during a series," Bedi said, recalling how the cricket board had once pulled up Pataudi, saying his lack of discipline was influencing the team.
"He told them: 'I absolutely insist that all my boys should be in bed before breakfast.'"
https://www.telegraphindia.com/1111002/jsp/nation/story_14578251.jsp?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
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