A Game of Book Cricket

This occurs in the year 2011.

Aneesh came up to me in the afternoon and said, "Appa, can we play something?"

I was in the middle of reading a book. Suddenly it occurred to me that here was
a chance to share with him a simple game I had played during the monsoon season growing up in Madras.
A game of Book Cricket.

For someone like Aneesh just getting into cricket, here, I felt, was another means to enhance the enjoyment from the game.
For someone like Aneesh just beginning to read numbers, here was another learning tool.

I brought out my time machine. My new toy for the Holiday season. 

Einstein's theory that nothing travels faster than light had been proven to be wrong and time machines were the latest rage. So, I set the dial and we transported ourselves back to 1978.

I told him to go and get his book and he did so.
"Please open your book and keep the page open", I said.

He did and looked up with a look that indicated him asking me if he had gotten that instruction correct. Curious, how he seeks approval for almost everything. Non-verbally almost always. 
What is unwritten or unstated can almost always been disputed successfully during future disputes. Especially by a 4-year old. Or a WS executive feigning ignorance.

"Good! Now here are the rules", I said.

"Look at the page number on the bottom of the left hand page. If the ones place has 4, it means 4 runs to the batsman. If its 2 it means a 2, 0 means out, 8 means 1, 1 means 1..", and we spent
the next 15 minutes getting tutored on the rules of this fine game.

He was just getting started with names of cricketers. So we got started putting together
teams. India and Australia were playing a series and he knew names like 'Doni' as he called MS,
Rahul, Sachin and a couple of Australian players. To make things more real world, we added names
such as Anirudh, Ankur and a few of his other playmates from Jasmine and school.

And so, the games began. It was an hour of good clean fun. Whenever one of the sides disputed a
decision, the DRS was brought up as a means for problem resolution. The resolution process went something like this:
Was the page worn out from being dog-eared too often

Was the page worn out due to overuse, was the book shut too hard before the next ball was 'delivered'..
etc...

Appa was the 3rd umpire of course! Rank has its privileges.

The difficult one to resolve was when a '0' - out per the rules of the game - was quickly changed into an '8' by a very adroit flick of the offending page by 4 year old fingers, followed by a solemn statement of 'Not out'. Would have made someone like a WG, known for calmly putting back on bails after being bowled and continuing to bat, a very proud Doc!

Fascinating to see how kids learn to resolve issues amongst themselves, address issues with rules that don't make sense or are not favorable to stakeholders in a civilized manner.
Resorting to fisticuffs works too, as most adults will admit to!

And then came the familiar refrain.
"Appa, Im hungry".
That brought in the realization that we had to get back to reality in 2011.
So I set the dial and we transported ourselves back to 2011 just in time for some freshly made Dosais..