"A man without a weapon is just a man. A man with the wrong weapon is still something." — Unknown.
_____________
The bat was propped against the wall next to the front door.
Cosco training bat. Secondhand. Crack along the splice.
Electrical tape — once by a shop man for fifty rupees, once by my father himself on a Sunday with his reading glasses on, very slowly, like it mattered how neatly he did it.
On the second of January I picked it up.
It was much lighter than my hands expected.
Ten years of muscle memory from a professional Kookaburra Ghost — full weight, real balance — and now this. I adjusted my grip. Tried a slow practice swing.
[System: Grip analysis: adult-modified, non-standard for age. Stance correct. Feet correct. ]
[Zero Templates currently equipped. Recommendation — find a pitch and start. The System cannot give you Templates you haven't earned.]
'I know. I'm going.'
The chawl courtyard was quiet that early.
Mr. Pande from 4C was doing his morning loops — three metres one way, three metres back. Shiva, who was eight and lived two doors down, was standing near the water tank doing nothing with complete dedication.
He watched me take my stance.
Watched me start shadow batting — proper shadow batting, full stroke, correct weight transfer, follow-through.
"There's no ball," he said.
"I know."
"That's stupid."
I kept going.
Cover drive. Pull. Cut. Sweep. I worked through the whole set — not fast, just correctly. The point was to understand what this body could do and what it couldn't.
Twenty minutes later I had my answer.
The coordination was better than I expected. The eye was decent. Back foot movement was surprisingly solid for this age.
But the reach was short. The off-side felt thin. And without a single Template equipped, I was relying entirely on what the ten-year-old Arjun had naturally — which was some raw ability and a lot of gaps.
'This is what zero Templ feels like. Pure base. No instinct borrowed from anyone.'
'I need to earn the first one fast.'
Shiva had moved to one metre away without making a sound.
"You were really bad at cricket before," he said.
"I've been practising."
"With that?" He looked at the cracked Cosco.
"You work with what you have."
He considered this. Then: "My cousin has a proper bat. It's red."
I went back to my cover drives.
◆ ◆ ◆
The Class 5 cricket team trials were the last Friday of January.
Fourteen boys. I had been watching them at every break session.
Six could bat. Three could bowl without injuring themselves. Two wouldn't drop every ball they touched. Nikhil was the best of them — good eye, quick hands, a bit too eager for the big shot when a normal one would do.
The trials were run by Mr. Deshmukh, who taught maths and had been given cricket as a secondary job he hadn't applied for. He had sandals and a register and his method was: bowl soft half-volleys at ten-year-olds and see who made contact.
"Sharma! Arjun Sharma!"
I walked to the crease.
Took guard. Looked at the field. Rough outfield, pitch sloping to the drain at mid-off, short boundary on the leg side.
He bowled a half-volley on middle stump.
I drove it. Properly — weight forward, elbow up, full face. It ran to the boundary wall.
Silence from everyone.
Mr. Deshmukh looked at the ball. Then at his register.
He bowled again. Shorter. I rocked back, punched it wide of mid-on. Clean. Third ball — wide outside off. I cut it hard, low, past backward point.
He wrote something in his register.
'Select me. I need competitive matches. I need to earn that first Template.'
Three more boundaries off the next four balls. Left one alone that was sliding off the pitch at an angle — I was not getting out in a school trial.
Walking back, Nikhil was looking at me.
"When did you — "
"Holidays," I said.
"What happened in the holidays?"
"I practised."
He stared at me a beat longer. "Weird," he said — but in the way you say it when you're actually impressed and not ready to admit it.
[System: Performance logged. School trial: selected. ]
[Shots: 7 faced, 6 clean. Boundaries: 4. No Templates equipped — raw ability only. Well done. Now earn some.]
[Objective complete: play competitive match. New objective: score 50+ and trigger first Template drop.]
To be Continued..