Just Me: The Kratik Malhotra Blog

Even as a ten-year-old kid, all I wanted to be was a Sports Commentator. Due to a sudden turn of events, I find myself currently working for Real Time Sportscast as a Phone Football Commentator.

Tuesday, December 2: It was almost 10 o’clock at night and I was, as usual, whiling away my time surfing the internet and accessing Facebook; also wishing for my guru to ring his grace bell and shower blessings for my life to take a dramatic but an astonishing turn, especially after a torrid week which saw me not making it to Tieto for the post of a software engineer. For me to be searching and applying for an engineering job was an irony in its own, solely because in spite of being an electronics engineering student, I was one of few rebels in college who always mocked about an engineer’s job.

As the facebook chats with the same-old-people started to take its toll on me , my phone rang and it was a call from a school friend, Kush Sharma (Boon). We usually talk on weekends or before / after football matches in order to discuss about football or jobs / careers / opportunities in the world of journalism and sports. Thus, it was a bit strange for him to call me on a Tuesday evening, also because he usually is busy on the weekdays with his MBA and his college stuff.

He started, “Hello Kratik, you won’t believe what just happened; an awesome awesome thing happened to me now.” And I thought, “Ok good, what can it be?” What he told me next, literally took the wind out of me. He said, “Remember Anis, the guy to whom we wrote regading that 30 Euros a game commentary job, he called.” For once, I was shell shocked.

Anis Meziane, Country head, Real Time Sportscast (Algeria, Morocco, Kuwait, India, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Kenya, Sudan), had offered Boon a job as a phone football commentator for the Indian Football League (I-League) matches to be held in Pune and he was willing to pay him 30 Euros/match. I continued to talk to Boon for a few minutes and all I told him was to tell Anis to somehow take me in as well. Boon asked me to write Anis an email. I opened my gmail account and wrote Anis a mail as fast as I could; don’t know if I have ever written a mail faster!

Ten minutes on and Boon called me once again. All he said was, “Did you mail Anis now? Because as he was on the phone to me, he just read your mail and is willing to offer you a job as a phone commentator in Kolhapur so as to cover the I-League matches of the teams from Mumbai.” I jumped off my bed and started to celebrate like I had scored the winner in the injury time of a world cup final.

The following morning, I received an email from Anis letting me know that the commentator’s job in Kolhapur was vacant. I gleefully accepted whatever challenges the job had to offer and all I knew was that I had just started my journey.

Couple of days later, when I was experiencing music and melody with silence at Vikram Hazra’s concert, I suddenly received an international call. I ran outside the auditorium in order to attend the call; believe me, had I ran as fast at all times, I could have represented India at Olympics.

Guess what! It was Anis’ call. He told me that the games in Kolhapur were played over a course of two days and offered me a staggering 70 Euros/two games for Real Time Sportscast; 10 Euros more than the other reporters, thereby, taking care of my travelling expense. I confirmed my decision to work for Real Time Sportscast as a Sports Commentator and made my way back into the auditorium. If for a singer, Vikram Bhaiya’s voice wasn’t the best ever, it sounded even sweeter. He made me experience an unparalleled, ‘high’ bliss and had me dancing in trance, even after the concert was over. On my ride back home, it felt as if his voice reverberated in every corner of the street and it made me sing and literally move on my Kinetic.

For once, I didn’t know what was happening and the feeling was absolutely magical. I reached home, and told my parents that Anis Meziane called and that I’m officially working for Real Time Sportscast as a phone commentator. They had mixed feelings on me travelling to Kolhapur and covering football matches but they knew to what extent this opportunity really mattered to me and so, they obliged. As of now, I am currently two weeks into my job and have covered six games for RTS.

A special thanks to Kush Sharma (Boon) for everything.

Although I didn’t get the job as a software engineer at Tieto but now, I am doing something that is my passion. Even though this job with RTS is only about a percent of my dream, which is to Head the Sports Commentary section for Sky Sports, UK, it is at least a start to my journey and has taken me, if not much, a touch closer to my goal.

As they say, “When he doesn’t give you something, it’s only because he wants you to have something better.”

Jai Gurudeva J