An in-between artist in an animation project draws the intermediary frames between two key frames provided, to create the illusion of motion.

Usually, when this process is manual, it is the senior artists who draw the key frames while the juniors or the less experienced, fill in the gaps.

When describing Rahul Dravid, I would like to extend the meaning of inbetweening/tweening to many gaps—let it be a failure and a success or two successes and two failures or in cricketing parlance, the stance and the strike. And, by no means, he is a junior or inexperienced at that.

The real Rahul Dravid, in my opinion, is all about that back ground person who strives and thrives in those gaps, thus making all his endeavors and their outcomes, very personal. This in a way, makes him almost untouchable by the vagaries of success and fortune. But old fashioned success comes to him in some form, as the adage goes –‘Kashte Phali’ (loosely translating to ‘Those who strive, thrive’)

Striving and perspiring, in the pursuit of excellence that shines as the learning for anyone in any field. In my opinion all greats have this in common, who end up winning admirers not just for themselves but also for the field they are in.

Let it be a SVR who wowed the audience with his acting skills or an Ilayaraja who made his background score popular as movie songs or a Chiranjeevi who transformed movie dance into a popular art form, or a Steve Jobs who designed the digital future,  they have one thing in common with Rahul Dravid. They raised the bar of their game which in turn created respect not only for themselves but also for their game.

Rahul Dravid will soon move away from IPL  and T-20, after years of toiling and leaving a mark with his leadership and cricketing skills.  But, I will keep a close watch on his in-betweening exploits and attempt to reverse engineer the learning.

Related link: Rahul Dravid on Achiever’s club