When a dear family member was affected by the dreaded cancer in 2017, Jairaj Galagali was obviously disturbed. It was worrying to juggle a job, at home and in the hospital.
The Indian technicians based in California had to do something to reduce stress. The cricket bug, who bitten him years ago, came to his rescue and an inspiring idea was born.
“The spirit needed a break to flee to another world, to my 12-year-old itself when life was about cricket and films,” Galagali begins in his deep baritone.
“I have decided to uncover vintage film material from priceless moments from India’s rich cricket story,” he says, sitting in his apartment in Bangalore while he is on a Busman vacation.
Today, its non-profit YouTube channel ‘Jai Galagali’ contains several old videos from the 1940s from the Indian film department and self-created videos related to cricket.
His channel has over 30,000 subscribers and millions of spectators in Cricket countries. In addition, Galagali has become known as an archivist and history fan of Indian Cricket, a fact that is recognized by well -known cricket players and media.
However, his 2017 trip was not a cake walk. In his studies in California, he had to make numerous calls to the film department in Mumbai at night, who often remained unanswered. Galagali stubbornly followed his goal and beat many doors before finally getting his prey after he had paid for it. The shipping of 200 DVDs (every DVD was a news show, which also included Cricket Titbits) landed on his door.
“I was wearing this box, which literally held the story of Indian cricket, and when I brought it to my room, the tears rose in my eyes,” he says half-flora.
The newsreels included every cricket match that had been shot in India since 1948, a year after India’s independence in 1947. Some of them had soundtracks, many did not add it.
Galagali quickly swung into action and posted the videos on his YouTube channel with some editing. Gradually, he gave the videos a certain depth with a short story by adding some context, background and interesting information. The Libraries of Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, were useful repository for his research.
The first video, Galagali recalls, was a three-minute game from 1973 India-England in Kolkata. The latest video is an interview with the former Indian Wicket keeper Syed Kirmani, who recently published his autobiography in Bangalore.
Some of the popular videos include India’s first cricket test match win in 1952 in Madras. The Indian players wear black wrist tapes as the Markus of the late King George VI. In this memorable video, Galagali also interviews CDGopinath, now a non -Egenarian who took the winner of this game.
Another of the first India Pakistan Test series in 1952, in which the bowling campaign of the legendary Subhash Guptes was brought live for the first time.
In the 50s and 60s between India and England, India and West Indies, Pakistan Tour of India and the debut games of some of the best cricket players in India, there are other memorable excerpts from Cricket games.
Cricket games have always seen a drama, and a striking video is from an enthusiastic woman in a Saree who defeated security and made it on the field to kiss Brijesh Patel to kiss 50 runs in the India-West indies test game Mumbai, 1975.
Unexpectedly, Galagali’s love work hit a catch in 2020 when he received an email from YouTube, cited copyright infringement from the Indian government. When he found that he was not wrong, especially when he had paid the DVDs, he made the film department that fell on deaf ears.
Galagali then turned to the cricket lover, the politician Shashi Tharoor, who wrote a devastating letter to the ministry in which the importance of such a channel was emphasized. Some cricket players also commented in favor of the canal. The channel was soon resumed.
During the Covid Lockdown, Galagali regularly published videos and provided spectators, especially Cricket lovers, an option if live games were not transferred.
The reaction to the Galagali YouTube channel is encouraging. “The film material brings so much of the many cricket stories of so many spectators of the many cricket stories,” enthuses and quotes some answers.
A teenager from Delhi called to thank Galagali because his grandfather, who suffered from dementia, opened up and remembered the past after seeing some videos.
India’s legendary captain Patamudi’s daughter sent a message that the videos brought back a flood of memories of her father.
A renowned economist wrote to say that his late sister would endlessly observed during chemotherapy when she discovered in one of his videos among the spectators.
It was “yesterday again” for a Srilankic cricket player who currently lived in Australia after seeing a role in the first series of test between India and Sri Lanka. The cricket player played in this series.
So far, Galagali has only published about fifty percent of the valuable treasure in his possession. Fortunately, the audience with the family member, who is now healthy again, can expect many other videos from Indian cricket.
https://jaigalagali.wordpress.com/
