Encounter with Polly

After his demise, much has been written and spoken about Polly Umrigar, one of our great cricketers, and a thorough gentleman.

I am neither a cricketer nor a personal friend of Umrigar. I met him in Bombay, several years ago, just that one and only time. It so happened that a distant relative of my wife, Shapur Dalal, who was also related to the Umrigars, decided to invite my wife and me for lunch at Maison Belvedere, where Polly and his wife lived. There were about eight or nine of us at the table.

All of a sudden that imp in me took over; I turned to Polly and in all seriousness asked him in Gujarati, "Tamhé bi school maan cricket ramtaataa ké (Did you also play cricket in school)?” Polly’s facial expression of disbelief, disgust and surprise remain with me to this day. After this I just could not hold out any longer. I burst into laughter, and so did everyone at the table.

Polly Umrigar

Polly took about 10 seconds to catch on, and then he said, "Kèm, Parsi, ajé bijun koi malyun nahi, ké?” (Hey, Parsi, couldn’t you find anyone else today?) After that he joined in the hilarity. Needless to say, his laugh was the heartiest, longest and loudest.

Brig (Retd) JAMSHYD F. N. VAKIL