Consider me retired.

Virat read it just once more time to make sure...

It still spelled out the same words.

Consider me retired.

His phone rang. It flashed 'Harry'.

Virat was really not in a mood to deal with this today. He rejected the call with an impatient swipe. Why the hell was Harry calling him, anyway? It was not as if he could do anything about it. It was not as if Mahi bhai had even told him of his decision beforehand...

Virat flipped his laptop open with a touch more violence than he would have under normal circumstances, and opened his mailbox.

he began, and deleting it.

Mahi bhai. As if. Bhai. Just imagine!

Don't elder brothers tell their younger brother of huge, mind-boggling life decisions that would ruin their younger brother's life before annoucing it to the world?

But what else could he call him??

Virat consulted his phone for the 58th time.

Consider me retired.

Virat stopped typing and read the mail through. He cringed.

It sounded so childish. Like, so childish. How could he have written this?

He opened another draft and clenched his jaw and typed:

Yeah, this was better, much, much better. He pressed send.

His phone was ringing again. It was Yuzi this time. Virat scowled and received it.

"Dammit Yuzi, I don't have time for this!" he snapped, and cut the call before Yuzi could so much as say a word.

He threw his phone away and watched it bouncing up and down once on the bed before coming to a stop.

God.

Virat buried his head in his hands.

Right on cue it started ringing. Jassi.

DAMN IT, WHAT WAS HE SUPPOSED TO DO?

He let it ring out. He supposed he could've walked to the bed and put it on silent but honestly, he did not feel up to even that bit of movement.

It rang again.

Rohit.

Ah, here was a good opportunity to vent some of his rage.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING ME FOR? DO YOU EXPECT ME TO CALL HIM AND TELL HIM TO ANNOUNCE, SORRY, DON'T CONSIDER ME RETIRED?"

"Ah," sighed Rohit. "Just checking."

"CHECKING WHAT?"

"Nothing...continue..." said Rohit politely.

Rohit's tone made Virat so mad that he hurled his phone down to the floor. The screen blacked out, and remained so.

Good. Now it wouldn't ring anymore.

Then he resumed his position of sitting with his head in his arms.

Anushka came in after two hours; she'd been shopping outside.

"Virat? Why aren't you receiving Mahi bhai's call?" she asked.

"Cause I don't want to," said Virat.

"Come on, Virat, talk to him. Here..." she held out her phone. "He says he has called you half a dozen times..."

Virat's eyes burned.

There was no way he was talking to him right now.

He picked up his phone and strode out of the room, saying, "Tell him I'm not interested. Please."

_________________

Up on the terrace, Virat restarted his phone. There were a lot of missed calls, including 9 from Mahi bhai and various numbers from all the members of their team.

There was, however, none from Kuliya.

Strange, thought Virat, pressing on his contact.

It rang for a while before Kuliya picked up.

"Vi-Virat bhai," gulped Kuldeep.

"Kuliya—" said Virat in concern. He knew his choky tone of his. "Kuliya...it's ok, kiddo. It's unexpected, but it had to happen, y'know."

"He didn't even tell us," sobbed Kuldeep.

"Look....he couldn't have told us. If he did we'd have forced him to reverse his decision, wouldn't we?" said Virat gently.

"But Virat bhai, don't you think his decision should have been reversed!" cried Kuldeep.

"I do, of course, but he's 38...he has had a good, long career...and he has his family to look after..." rambled Virat, trying to think of all the reasons that might justify Mahi bhai's retirement to the poor boy.

"But—but—"

Kuldeep was crying bitterly on the other end of the phone.

"Kuliya, stop crying, you idiot," said Virat, feeling utterly helpless to be forced to listen to his kid crying from away, unable to go and cuddle him. "Kul—it's not like he's going away from our lives, you know. He's still our big brother. He is,isn't he?"

Kuldeep sniffed.

"Isn't he?" repeated Virat.

"Yes," mumbled Kuldeep.

"So what are these tears for, kiddo? Let's not make it harder for him, Kul. If we smile and accept it, he'd feel at peace..."

Kuldeep was listening in silence.

"He'd feel so bad if he knew you're crying, Kuliya. Don't cry, ok? Talk to him...tell him we support him no matter what he does..."

"Ok." Virat could sense Kuldeep nodding in that earnest way of his on the other end of the phone, and felt a small smiling creeping on his face.

"And Kuliya, let's make a pact?"

"Yes?"

"Let's never consider Mahi bhai retired," said Virat, his own voice choking up.

"Right!" said Kuldeep, sounding a lot better than he did at the beginning of the call. "He'll always be our big brother," he mumbled to himself. "So we never consider him retired."

"That's right, kiddo," said Virat, with an effort.

Mahi bhai called 15 more times and Virat ignored them all. There was a lull in the call at some point of time, and he guessed he was talking to Kuliya or one of the others.

He regretted talking harshly to Yuzi and rejecting Jassi and Harry's call now. If they were half as cut up as Kuliya...and they were bound to be...

Virat called Yuzi.

Ungrudging as usual, Yuzi received the call at once.

"Hello, Virat bhaiya," he said in a subdued tone.

"Yuz...I'm sorry," said Virat, his heart breaking to hear that tone. Yuzi had never sounded so miserable.

"It's ok, bhaiya," said Yuzi.

There was a silence.

Something told Virat that Yuzi could not be dealt with in the same way as Kuliya—muttering comforting words till he stopped crying. The worst part being that Yuzi wasn't even crying.

"Yuzi?"

"Yes?"

"Let's never consider him retired, ok?"

"Ok," said Yuzi. "Good idea."

"Video call later tonight," promised Virat,before hanging up, because he had two more kids to attend to.

_____________

Hardik was in a howling mood and Jassi about as quiet as Yuzi, and by the time Virat spoke to them and told them of his new philosophy and hung up, Mahi bhai's call came again.

This time Virat picked up.

"Hey," said Mahi bhai.

Virat remained quiet.

"Are you ignoring me?"

"No," said Virat.

"Yeah, right. So why the unanswered calls, Cheeku?"

"I was talking to the kids," said Virat stiffly.

There was a silence.

"I knew you would," said Mahi bhai in his warmest voice, and Virat wondered how pathetic he was that he still felt proud like an idiot when Mahi bhai praised him like that.

"I saw your mail..."

"Good," said Virat savagely.

"Both of them...the one you sent and the one you didn't."

Virat's jaw dropped in horror.

"How—" Then he sighed. Of course, Anushka. "Whatever," he said shortly.

"I've booked a ticket to Delhi tomorrow morning," said Mahi bhai.

Virat's knees went weak with happiness.

Oh god, he was going to see Mahi bhai tomorrow morning...he glanced at his watch... in 10 hours...

But he wasn't in the mood to relent that easily, so like an idiot he said, "You'd better cancelled it. I don't want to see you."

"I want to," said Mahi bhai simply. "Because whatever you think, I have not retired from the post of your elder brother yet, Cheeku."

Virat's face broke into a smile.

The first one since he saw the news. The first genuine one, anyway.

"Mahi bhai," he said.

"Yes, kiddo."

"What if I never consider you retired?"

On the other end of the phone, Mahi bhai smiled too. His Cheeku was back.

"Then don't," said Mahi bhai.

"I won't, Mahi bhai," said Virat. "I won't."