An ode to the best cricket writer under the sun...Miss you Periapps!

Some people walk into our lives like breeze but my Periapps (periappa in Tamil, means uncle) replaced the word ‘breeze’ with ‘smoke’! The smell of the special rum-mixed tobacco still lingers on…

At an age where most teens are influenced by power, name and style, I was awe-struck by this old man exactly 40 years older than I was. He walked into my home wanting to rekindle a lost relationship and that very relationship turned into a life changing bond for me.

People across the world know him as the veteran cricket journalist, Rajan Bala. To me, he was my beloved Periapps and will remain so forever. We’d fondly call him ‘the sitting encyclopedia’. Why? He was not only the best cricket writer but by far the most well read man on the planet! From Alexander to Vikram Seth, he’d read it all and would still bemuse us all when he said he’d not read enough!

If I cried over ‘Love in the time of Cholera’, it was courtesy him, if I smiled coyly over ‘Kamasutra’, it was again ‘cause of him, anger ‘cause of ‘Macbeth’, reason being he again. My first glass of Chardonnay was not with my ‘flavour of the season’ but with my own Periapps.

The old man changed many lives and my metamorphosis to being a changed young lady was thanks to this sharp, smart, smooth man alright! Oh! The 3 S’s reminds me of his early morning 3 S’s again: Shit, Shave, and Shampoo! Even if he was running a temperature, he’d never fail to have a shave! Any man walking into office with sneakers on was an obtuse, mentally retarded twit! MRTP, he’d call them!

I once remember him telling me, “Kitty, place your derrière on the couch” (French word for the backside). The novice I kept looking behind me to find what ever he was mentioning to be placed!!! The laughs galore… Learning never ceased then on. New words, books everyday! The stern Periapps when I’d be lazy and not willing to learn anything, the fun Periapps when we’d catch up for lunch almost everyday, the drunk Periapps along with his equally drunk niece… You’ll be missed like crazy Periapps.

His trademark pipes and customized tobacco was a prized possession and I was allowed to smoke it once. It’s an art which the old man had mastered. He was class personified from cigars he smoked to the rum he drowned himself into. A Bala trait which even the second generation has not failed to amass.

He was known to be very upfront and wrote what he wished to. Not many had this trait. Periapps lived life exactly the way he wished to but could’ve left the world in style. But he still got what he wanted: Dressed him up in an impeccable suit, his favourite Titan watch, a copy of 20000 leagues under the sea, his array of pipes with his pipe bag.

Wish I could write more… but some memories, silly or otherwise remain forever. I’ll miss you for life Periapps. Love you loads. RIP.