More of 'The Great Indian Novel'

The background:
Kunti is a little worried that her 5 precocious kids (...well...not all 5 are hers but then lets not get too finicky so early on...) are not learning much since every tutor in the past who had been appointed seemed to have served his purpose within a week and the wilful princes are proving to be more than a handful for the recent ones on trial.

The setting:
The princes, in the absence of anything constructive to do, are playing cricket. Bhim, being the strongest of the lot, hits a ball far away into an unused well. However the well is deep and there appears to be no way of possibly retrieving the ball. Suddenly from nowhere pops a saffron clad sadhu and offers to recover the ball for them in return for a dinner invitation. The wiser ones, Arjun and Yudhistir, are skeptical since they seem to have analysed the situation well and see no possibility of success but when the sadhu delivers on his promise, they are eager to know more about the man. The sadhu explains that he is a guru and can teach the princes a lot of things. At this point, simpleton Nakul wants to know if the sadhu can teach his twin Sahadev to bat properly since he has scored yet another zero today. The sadhu, responding to Nakul, mentions that zero is nothing to be ashamed of and then the below exchange occurs.

The lines:
'The Indian zero is no empty shell. It reflects the perpetual intangibility of the eternal, it embodies the calm centre of the whirling tornado of life, it stands for the point where our verifiable values are transcended by the enigma of the void. Yes, young man, it is empty of numerical value. But it is full of non-empirical possibilities. It is nothing and everything; it is the locus of the universe.' He chuckled at the puzzlement on the twins' faces, even as he took in the sharper look of insight that had appeared in Arjun's and Yudhistir's eyes. 'Now, do you see, my friends, why your zero is really something very special, very Indian ?'

'But can you teach him to bat?' asked Nakul, as his elder brothers burst out laughing.

'Perhaps,' side-stepped the sage. 'But first, what about that dinner?'

Why is it that I keep thinking that Bhim is Sehwag, Arjun and Yudhistir are Dravid and Sachin respectively and Nakul is Laxman and Sahadev is, obviously, Ganguly. Kunti seems too similar to the Selectors and the past gurus our numerous bowling, batting and fielding coaches. Now who is the sadhu (Drona acc to the story) you may ask...Geoffrey Boycott, neone ?

Dear God,

Two of my very close buddies start their summers in London and Mumbai today. I am not gonna make stupid prayers like asking you to grant them a PPO (the way someone screwed my happiness....hehe..) - jes give them what they want...and if they don't know what they want, jes remember to be there for them when they need ya...

Love,
Me

ps: Iacross, I've kept my end of the bargain...Now you keep yours...Go watch Chelsea play and support them on April 16th...