Cogito Ergo Sum

Yes, I was thinking so till yesterday. No, not anymore.
I have very poor general knowledge, and I was proud of it (not anymore).

I don't/didn't feel ashamed of my level of general knowledge,

• When my 12 year old brother(cousin) had started enlightening me about 3 years ago.
• When I came to realize that my Mom who is born and has spent more than two third of her life in a village knows more than me.
• When I keep blinking during a general conversation in any party, not even knowing about what is the current hot movie.
• When I don't understand some of the blogs written by one of my friend who is a quizzer.
• When I get lost in wikipedia trying to get information on something, keep clicking one link after another, ultimately forgetting what I wanted to know more about.

You know, all these are not very obvious to others unless I tell about them myself. Also, I did not feel I was at a loss by not knowing. I somehow always managed to get my ignorance unnoticed, until yesterday!

I had been attending a 10 sessions workshop by Mr. Amit Heri on western classical music, to know the basics. To begin with, there were about 12 attendees for the first session, slowly reduced to 4 for the 9th session-yesterday. We learnt quite a lot there. We also became more familiar with the each other, naturally. We have been having lots of fun during the classes.

In one of the classes I remember one guy bringing an analogy between Cricket and Music. But I did not give much thought about it then. Yesterday the same guy(one of the 4) said he was leaving to England the next midnight, still he'd try to come to the class in the evening, since it is the last class. It was for Cricket match he was leaving. He sits next to me most of the times and even yesterday he did. So, I generally asked,

Me: You're going for Cricket Matches?
He: Yes
Me: You're a famous Cricketer? Your name comes in news-papers?
He: Not exactly ;) It doesn't. Not for Cricket, may be for Guitar, Music?
(I understood this to be a joke and laughed)
Mr.Amit: Yes Aparna, his name does come in the newspapers.
Me: Oh! Barry, I hardly read newspapers, so I wouldn't have noticed. And, well, I hate watching TV, I don't have much inclination for Cricket, so I wouldn't know.
He: Don't bother, Cricket is a boring game. Definitely not worth. :)

Class continues.....

At the end of it, I generally wanted to know more about this fellow.
So, I ask, "What is the name of your team?"
He: Karnataka
Me: So, do you play for Ranji?
He: Yeah, often I've played.
At this point, everyone laughed and Mr. Amit Said, "Aparna, Barrington Rowland is the CAPTAIN of Karnataka Cricket team and he is very well known. His name comes quite often in the newspapers. He's got many records against his name in Cricket!!!"

Apparently I was the only one who didnot know him (I knew his full name tho', I've mailed him some music links also) all these days, sitting right next to him!

I blushed at my ignorance, for about 5 seconds not knowing what to do next! Immediately I recovered and said to Barry, "Hey, it is my pleasure to know you, I won't forget you, and I'm sure you won't forget me. You might have 1000s of fans, but you know, it is hard to find someone like me who didn't know who you were!"

Barry replied, "I won't forget you for one more thing: your bike. Too much man! I can't ride a geared bike like you, I've tried many times"

Such a simple, cool, fun-loving chap he is. I may not like Cricket too much. But I have high respect for Cricketers because they belong to one category of achievers. I have reverence for anyone who aims at excellence, who tries to bring out the best in themselves and others. I get thrilled to talk to anyone who has achieved something above average. It is one of the great pleasures of life to know such people especially if they are down to earth and friendly. I felt really ashamed of my poor G.K for not being able to identify an achiever inspite of talking to him so many times. Today is the last session. He might or might not attend.

# posted by Aparna @ 11:08 AM