5th september, 2023.

3:30 am.

the india's squad for icc cricket world cup 2023 was going to be announced in the noon. kasturie was nervous as hell. 'ho jaungi kya select?' 'performance toh theek thak hai mera.' 'select nahi hui toh?' 'it's okay kastu nhi hui toh bhi theek hai baki logo ke liye cheer kar lena.' 'rohit bhai ne toh bola tha ki agar select nahi hui toh bhi humare saath tour pe humari support system banke ghum sakti hu.' 'kaise nahi bolenge, akhir jaan hu main sabki.' 'bas re kastu itna over confidence not theek.' 'aur agar galti se ho gyi select toh?' 'bhai galti se nahi ho sakti tu select, kiya toh bhi kuch soch ke hi kiya jayega.' 'behenchod neend nahi aa rhi, kya karu.' 'select ho gyi toh kya khushi manaungi main, aai toh gaav bhar mithai baategi.' 'kya yaar kastu aisa nahi ki pehli baar international khelne wali hai, but bhay woh alag tournaments the, yeh alag hai.' 'chhod yaar so jaati hu, but neend bhi nahi aa rhi.' 'ek kaam karti hu, aai ke paas jaati hu woh gaana gaake sula degi.'

(aai in marathi means mother, she calls her grandmother aai kyuki her father used to call her aai which kasturie picked up later on. also her actual mother is dead so she saw her grandmother as her mother.)

she got up from her bed and went to her grandmother's room and slipped in her arms. her grandmother slightly woke up. "ky zhala zop nahi yet?" she asked (kya hua? neend nahi aa rhi?)

"nahi na, tension alay udya cha." kasturie replied.
(nahi na, kal ka tension aa rha hai.)

her grandmother held her close and ran her fingers through her hair. "itka vichar nako karus zopun ja shanta, je hvaycha ahe te honar tu tension nako gheu."
(itna mat soch shanti se so jaa, jo hone wala hai woh hoke hi rhega tu tension mat le.)

with that kasturie drifted off to sleep.

the next morning she woke up at 9:30 am. the squad was to be announced at 10:00 am. she freshened up, took a shower and waited patiently. finally it was time, bcci announced the squad. she started going through the names.

rohit sharma (c) "yeh hona hi tha."

hardik pandya (vc) "yup as expected."

shubman gill "very happy for him."

virat kohli "nothing new."

shreyas iyer "well deserved."

kasturie patil "nice."

ishan kishan "yayy ishii."

"wait. kasturie patil? am i reading it right? kasturie patil. shit. yeh toh mera hi naam hai! AAI! LAVKAR ITHE YE!"
(aai, jaldi yaha aao.)

"ky zhala? kiti oradtey."
(kya hua? kitna chilla rhi hai.)

"aai, mi select zhali!" kasturie jumped and told her what happend.
(aai, main select ho gyi!)

"ayya mazha baal te, tuzhe baba aaj aste tr khup khush zhale aste." she said and hugged her with teary eyes.
(arre mera baccha, tere papa aaj hote toh bohot khush ho jaate.)

29th march, 2024.

3:30 am.

"kasturie baccha uth ja, hum pohoch gye." jaddu bhai shook her.

"itne jaldi narak mein pohoch bhi gyi main?" kasturie was talking in her sleep.

"narak nahi delhi pohoch gye, uth ja ab ya flight mein hi sona hai?"

"hein?"

"UTH JAA."

"ha ha uth gyi uth gyi yamraj ji." she opened her eyes and saw jaddu bhai standing beside her seat waiting for her to wake up. "arre aap ho."

"ha main hu, chal ab jaanay hume, room pe jaake so ja subah press conference ke liye jaana hai."

"oh ha press conference, chalo ji." she got up and went out of the flight to collect her luggage. since it was night time there was not much paps to trouble them. they all got into the team bus which led them to the hotel they were allotted in.

"before hum sab apne apne rooms mein sone jaaye, abhi hi bol rhi hu 10 baje tak sab ready ho jao 11 ko press conference hai late mat karna." kasturie told the team. "aur harsh tu please mujhe subah uthane aaja."

"aye bhak main nhi aa rha tu laath maarti hai uthane aau toh." everyone laughed at them.

"arre yaar aise mat kar."

"theeke tension mat le main aajata hu tujhe uthane." mahi bhai said.

"haanji shukriya, yeh nalayak se kuch nahi hota." she thanked mahi and glared at harsh. "chalo ab so jao ab goodnight. kasturie patil ,signing off for the night."

🕸️

a/n : bohot bore ho rha hai yaar kuch karneko nahi hai. padhai hai but woh bhi nahi ho rhi.
next chapter shayad raat tak aa jayega. tab tak bye bye take care. thodi der mein miltey.

peace out.
~k.