Salim Durani and the vulnerabilities of genius: A tribute by Suresh Menon
Salim Durani. File photo
| Photo Credit: N. Sridharan
My enduring memory of Salim Durani is not the sixes he hit (although I saw some of them) or the wickets he claimed (I saw many of those too), but the manner of his arrival at a press conference in New Delhi. We were just a handful of journalists and we had had to wait for a bit. Durani walked into the room, waving smiling, looking around as if acknowledging the cheers of a crowd in a stadium. It was dramatic, and it suggested he knew love and respect were his due. He knew of the impact he made on any group from six to sixty thousand. This was beyond mere self-confidence or entitlement. This was a sharing of charisma, a doubling of joy. I have never seen a sportsman burst into a room with such goodwill. So it was with a heavy heart t...