Viv is back ... and so are my scrapbook days

Remember the days when we used to spend hours bent over scrapbooks? It would start with some topic of interest that we had hit upon — usually puppies or butterflies — and then we would begin our collection and meticulously stick all our pictures and articles and stray facts we had chanced upon into an old notebook. It did not matter that the pages were written upon. The writing would be covered with the cuttings — and we could always cut out catchy titles from brightly coloured sheets of glazed papers and stick those in as well. School projects were usually done along the same lines. We scurried around the house in search of old and current newspapers and magazines, scoured all the relevant material on the topic we were to work on — and had a wonderful time with scissors and glue.

Quite early in life, we learnt that it was worth “stocking up” and so, when events of importance took place, we saved up pages of newsprint — sometimes even entire issues. That’s how, in later years, we were able to give our children some really original stuff to put into their school projects. The headlines and the front page of the Indian newspapers of July 21, 1969, was probably quite a novelty when it appeared 25 years later in our son’s project on space. And which young girl would not like to know about the first Indian Miss World from the magazines of 1966? Tragedies were covered too and our files were bursting with clippings from as far back (and as far away) as Dallas, November 23, 1963; closer home, Delhi, May 28, 1964; and so on through the years.

How could sports be left out? What was probably prescient for a non-sportsperson like me, with no knowledge whatsoever of batsmen and pitches and first slip and silly mid on, was an instant decision one November morning in 1974, to root unconditionally for a dashing West Indian cricketer who played his first match of the series in Pune. His Test debut some days later in Bangalore (now Bengaluru) did not go too well, though one of his catches was talked about with awe. At home, for a couple of weeks, I faced a good deal of scorn as I cut out every reference to Vivian Richards from every paper or magazine I could get my hands on and started a scrapbook my siblings and parents were sure would not run into more than a couple of pages.

And then came the Delhi Test — and his 192 not out — and the star found his rightful place in cricketing firmament. My scrapbook filled faster than anyone had anticipated and went on into another couple ... until there were just too many records to keep up with ...

Eventually, those scrap books were put away safely, but not scrapped despite decades of travelling from pillar to post, packing and unpacking every couple of years. By sheer habit, every reference to Sir Viv in the newspapers was still snipped — but my filing system left a lot of room for improvement. Cuttings went into drawers and cupboards, sometimes clipped together, sometimes loose. They were kept in books and envelopes, cardboard cartons and decorated wooden boxes: Popping up happily at any time, from anywhere.

And now, Sir Viv is back on Indian turf, motivating and mentoring Delhi Daredevils in the sixth season of the Indian Premier League on the same ground where he made his mark almost four decades ago. Out comes the scissors, articles and opinions are read and re-read ...

Looks like it is time to pull out those scrap books once again and get back to work on them — there is more to come!

Cheryl Rao is a journalist based in India.