Meeting Subbu

 Subbu alias Subba Rao Vdlamani is the quintessential fun guy who was full of life and beans, mischief and stuff. He was a left arm spinner and hard hitting middle order batsman from HPS Ramanthapur and was ahead of Venkatapathi Raju in the race to be Hyderabad's premier left arm spin option. But he lost his way after the 15 and 19 age groups.  Though I knew him before it was only at the OUCE that we became close pals playing a lot of league cricket together, being classmates, having parties, dating girls etc.

Blurry - like our memories and also because we were laughing at where to look

Subbu was the only one who was clear enough he wanted to go abroad. We would hang out at his house which was close by to the college and spent much time together. Memories of Subbu then:

1) His century in the semi finals of the Inter Collegiate

2) His smile and infectious energy

3) The fizz he got on the ball, a really tough customer with the ball

4) His unadulterated zest for life

5) His charm with women, men, to get anything he wants

6) His clarity

7) His easy affection with people - just slides into your world from being completely out of it

8) His capacity to rev up the energy in the party with his laughter and energy

9) Us buying some cassettes together in Shankar Mutt (Billboard hits)

10) His great love for Paul Young's 'Every time you go away'

11) Him getting his tape recorder to the class trip at Nagarjuna Sagar and we walking along playing Beatles 'Paperback Writer'

12) Catches he would pick up at gully

13) Catch he took off Vivek Jaisimha's pull at mid wicket off my bowling

14) Him leaving us all and hitchhiking back to Hyderabad from Suryapet because he had a date 

15) Me gifting him my new leather belt as a gift when he left to the US

16) He gifting me several cassettes he bought back form the US - taped Billboard top 100s

 17) Him calling me from random numbers in the US during his college days there

18) Him stealing kisses with ease in Calicut 

19) Us beating a strong Electrical in the TT inter faculty final - Subbu playing out of his skin to win his match against a tough opponent

20) Me and Shobhs going all the way to Jangaon to deliver a bouquet to his fiancee Indira on a Kinetic - only Subbu can convince you to do stuff like that

Now in the US he keeps coming every few years and I caught up with him after three or four years. 

And also met his mom who looked just like she did 30 years ago. Subbu was the perfect host - fed me the best upma I have had in a long time - apparently he had cooked it himself. Very impressive. More on Subbu soon and our capers on the field and off it!