‘If there are no crowds, will I be waving the flag alone?’
MUMBAI: Sudhir Kumar Gautam is Indian’s most recognisable cricket fan. For decades now, the thin man with a shaved head and tri-colour body paint has been a permanent fixture at India matches. TV cameras faithfully zoom in on him when something celebratory happens, and he blows his conch and waves a large national flag with the other hand. Other spectators mob him for selfies. Gautam is used to attention, and a life lived on the road.
Now he is under quarantine at home, and the subject of attention he does not care for. At his village, Damodarpur in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district, he is seen with mistrust. That’s because Gautam, who was at a friend’s house in Delhi when the lockdown was announced in March, set off for home on May 7. After spending 55 days at the friend’s place, Gautam borrowed an old motorbike that had already clocked 52,000km, and covered roughly 1000km in two days.
On the night of May 7, he reached Lucknow, where he planned to sleep at a friend’s house. That did not work out. “Residents at my friend’s society made a scene, that since I had come from Delhi, I could be carrying the virus,” he said.
Gautam rode on. He reached Damodarpur on the night of May 8, but the usual warmth from fellow villagers, whom he regularly gifts team India memorabilia, was missing. “Everyone was scared,” Gautam says.
People complained to the sarpanch, who ordered Gautam to get himself tested for Covid-19, and go into a 21-day quarantine. Gautam was tested for symptoms at the local healthcare centre and since he did not show any, no further tests were done. He continues to be in quarantine.
Over the phone, Gautam rattles off the list of matches in the now defunct cricket calendar he would have attended, if not for the virus. When reminded that cricket will be played in empty stadiums, he falls silent. “I will definitely go, when matches resume. They may not allow me, but I will try,” he says after a pause. “I will contact Sachin (Tendulkar) Sir and he might get me permission through BCCI.”
He brightens up at the idea. Tendulkar, who is Gautam’s absolute idol, arranges for many things for the ‘superfan’, including facilitating his visa when he needs to travel for India’s tours.
“When I am in the stadium, I am the cheerleader,” Gautam says. “I blow the conch and people feel the excitement. I shout out the cheering lines and people repeat after me. They give me VIP tickets, but I don’t sit in the boxes. I prefer sitting in the stands, where I can lead the crowd.”
At home, the 39-year-old Gautam does not enjoy fandom. He lives with his ageing parents and his older brother’s family. They want him to get a job, get married. “I am not meant for those things. They don’t understand,” Gautam says. He wears Oakleys and Nike, gifted by players. His bank account, he says, is zero. When he follows Team India, all his expenses are sponsored by friends on the cricket circuit, sometimes with help from cricketers.
Gautam believes he will be inside the stadium when Team India play their first post-pandemic match, and his conch will announce the return of cricket. But he has a different worry.
“If there’s no crowd, will I be waving the flag alone?” he asks.