A lonely planet called Rahul Dravid

NEW DELHI, November 20: For those who lead fishbowl lives as the men who form the Indian cricket team do, every bit, every piece is up for public consumption. Such is the overflow of inane images, information and inferences that we are sometimes lulled into keeping our eyes wide shut. Some bits and pieces, however, are more revealing than others. Let us consider the strange case of Rahul Dravid.
At the Kotla on Tuesday, he gave the impression of being in that part of the world where former friends disappear, colleagues seem unresponsive and, while nobody actually does it, everybody seems to be pointing to the new dawn on the horizon. Precisely put, Dravid's address seemed to be Lonely Planet.
Which is not to say that Dravid has not been a victim of misinterpretation in the past. Or that he did not go through the training drills enthusiastically or give anything less than his entire focus to his batting when it was his turn to put wood to leather. He did, as did the others. Only, he seemingly did everything 'alone'. Among the numerous synonyms of that word are: detached, forlorn, forsaken and friendless.
On Tuesday, even as the Indian players worked up a sweat moving from running to fielding to batting and bowling over a two-hour session, there were always those moments when a funny remark was exchanged, an observation was made, or a suggestion was passed on. Dravid was neither at the sending or receiving end of such communication. So much so, the interaction with colleagues of another 'senior' player, the usual suspect when the subject of an individual being isolated within the team is raised, was visibly magnified.
That Dravid held himself back or something intangible held him back from being part of those moments was discernible. But as discernible was others not making a genuine effort to breach this invisible 'great divide'.
We tend to believe what we see but, in the big picture, what we see is not necessarily always true. And yet, if these suspicions of the worst bear even a whiff of the truth, it must be a surreal experience being Dravid. Rarely does a day pass in Indian cricket without an illusion. For this team's sake as much as Rahul Dravid's, one hopes Tuesday was an illusion.