Cricket was the solace in my life: until my world flipped when I injured my knee. I was bedridden, and eventually, unable to play as I once did ever again. Walking, which was already difficult, became a much more daunting task. So, in an attempt to cope and reminisce, I began collecting bats in my free time. I had already started a sizable collection from all the games, clubs, and seasons I had participated in over the years, but I wanted to have one for every future moment I’d begin to live through as well. Each bat was a different weight, girth, color, grip, and story: representing some period or major emotion in my life: the first being a parting gift from the best friend I had to leave back in India. Another was a birthday gift from my father. Out of the 23 bats I’ve collected to date, only 6 of them have been from my pre-injury periods. My 16th was given to me while I was played by FIFA, and the last 2 bats I bought were to be used as dandiyas during Soor auditions. I keep all of them in a shed in my backyard.

The collection has proven to be unsustainable, though, since I’m unemployed and the bats cost $60 to $150 dollars on average. Because the funding for my project comes from my parents, I try not to burden them too much with it, and never go extensively out of my way to acquire a bat. With the small amount of money that I’ve made over the internships and side-projects in high school, I’ve decided to keep a portion of savings specifically for this collection. Since bats have been relatively expensive, I’ve also started expanding the shed to host cricket balls as well. So far, I have a wholesale pack of 30 balls from Costco and another one signed by Patrick Ewing on the top shelf of my cupboard.