I still remember meeting G.R Vishwanath when I was in 9th grade at a party. What struck me was his humility. He was at the peak of his career then. Yet he took time off and talked to me for a long long time. I will never forget that evening.
The wheel came a full circle last week when Nikhil (incidentally in 9th grade) got to meet HIS hero Javagal Srinath. He had missed out on a couple of earlier opportunities to meet with Srinath. The look of joy on his face when he finally came face to face was a sight to behold.
As Vishy was, Srinath is someone who wears fame easily. Down to earth despite his achievements. That makes him even more special.
Heres a picture… Nikhil’s face says it all 🙂
Bangalore Blues 
Hey this is cool…
It was last exam of my 7th sem and we were out of the examination hall and we see some people ganging up around .. with curiosity we went to check that out. I had just heard somebody saying Javagal srinath studied in our college but never thought I will see him in our campus.. that day we didn’t even had carried any paper to get his autograph.. just the question paper of that exam was fortunate enough to get his sign….
This was some 2-3 years ago, I happen to see Ramesh arvind , the kannada actor in ameoba-bowling alley and I just screamed at prashanth .. Hey Ramesh!! he spoke to us with such a smile and I took his autograph! we awe at these celebrities so much and relish the moments.
On contrary to that, in US of A , we get lots and lots of opportunities to see them and chat with them.. they are available more there than here.. thats where I met TNS!
Nikhil,
Congratulations on meeting Srinath! Lucky boy you are! 🙂 I hope your appa has got you the books you wanted, and now that you are done with meeting Srinath too, study well and get good marks! 🙂 [Vijay, am trying to get into that parental mode of things! ;)]
Veena,
TNS andre TN Seetharam aa? That Muktha’s director? As soon as you said I got reminded of a lecturer at NIE called TNS. My God, was he a nightmare?!!
Vijay,
Can you please unravel the secret of meeting celebrities? I just seem to get to spot them. Forget spending time with them and all! 🙂
geaet worthy son of worthy father in meeting celebreties at the same time ( Imean in ninth class) great I feel all most all karnataka players are like that as I know about quite a few of them be it BSChandrashekar, Budhi Kundaran, EAS Prasananna or any one. GR Vishwanath was hero of our times and I still remember his first test hundred whichhe scored in Kanpur in the second innings after scoring a BIZ ZERO in the first.
A very humble sincerre and shy person. great memories of yeaster years
VEENA
nivu celebrityne alva meeting another celebrity in US keep going
Talking of Javagal Srinath, he was once called ‘the fastest vegetarian bowler in the world’!!!
Great to know Nikhil met ‘Mysore Express’, his hero!
Adi: The secret is…. “pure chance”… come to think of it all my run in’s with celebrities have been that way…
Michael Jordan – It was 1986 and MJ was on campus to conduct a basketball camp for kids … ran into him at the water cooler… and struck up a conversation..
Larry Bird – Ran into the Celtic great at a checkout counter in a suburb called Framingham.
Big B – Sat next to him on a flight from Mumbai to Hyd (didn’t say much)…
Adi,
Yeah heard of that person TNS from NIE, the maths teacher right ? I was talking about the TN Seetharam Mukta director.
Vijay, you seem to have interesting characters and how could you resist not saying much to the Big B ? trying to draw a line is it ?
Once same thing happened to me with Puneet Rajkumar who was just standing next to me in the billing counter in shopper’s stop and I knew some of my friends who would die to even see him, for me he just didn’t appear as something very special so just kept myself normal, however when I went home I did mention about it. 🙂
If not anything, people should meet you and Nikhil to hear such experiences atleast!!
5 years down the line, some blogger will post such story with a pic of his and Vijay’s 🙂
Same is true for a few other bloggers too, like Veena.
Srik: 🙂 Thanks 🙂
I once “met” Gavaskar at a Century Club function when I was 11-12 years old… he must have been in his mid to late thirties then.. he only had eyes and time for the pretty young 18-22 year old girls who were thronging him. Par for the course with the original commercializer of cricket I suppose…
Coool ,
Even i like srinath and kumble . Handsome men made karnataka proud.
Believe it or not – Anil Kumble was my classmate in National College Basavanagudi in PUC. Used to sit behind us. Unassuming chap. Never did know that he would go on to take 550 test wickets.
I think it was in 1979 or thereabouts that GR Vishwanath came home one evening. His brother-in-law (not SMG!) used to work in HAL where my father was a doctor. GRV’s mother was very ill and he came to meet my father. Extremely humble, no airs, nothing. We were invited to his wedding where we went awestruck – there was SMG, EAP, Chandra. Took a photo with GRV. Sadly don’t have a copy.
Rahul Dravid was 3 years my junior in school at St.Joseph’s BHS. Even then he was a super batsman and very dedicated to his cricket.
A lot of my friends at JCE used to always tell me that Javagal wore his fame very lightly. Never met him though. I remember when he had hit Lanka D’Silva in the face. You could see the distress on Srinath’s face.
Srivathsa
Srivathsa: A fellow NCB’er… I went to NCB as well… much senior though.. Aditya (my brother) went to St. Joesphs BHS…
Dad refused to take us to GRV’s reception because of all the people and the “galate”… was mightily disappointed…
Hi Nikhil & others,
Is Srinath single or married now? With whom does he live?
Srinath is married now. He lives with Madhavi Patravali
Its really nice to find an ardent Srinath fan
well, I use SRI as my chatname just because I am a die hard fan of Srinath
just a few days back I had put in a hard worded response to one user comment in MOUTHSHUT.COM, which had put Srinath in poor light (the article was written in 2006- still I wanted to reply as soon as I read it)
he was not flamboyant even in playing days but won many fans with his simplicity
the Lanka Desilva incident is a best example
and remember he sort of apologised to Ponting after hitting him with a bouncer for which he got a typical Ponting reply but never took anything to his head
well we used to celebrate Srinath’s birthday with chocolates in college
all the three years on 31.8
congrats boy you are very lucky and take inspiration from your hero not only in achieving, but also in being a gentleman
Srinath will be ever remembered as THE GENTLEMAN FAST BOWLER