Nitin Menon's father, 80, still umpires junior cricket in Indore

The traffic outside Indore's Central Gymkhana ground rarely lets the area fall quiet. Inside, Narendra Menon walks into the middle. At 80, he still wants to be around bat, ball and stumps.

Menon's last game as an international umpire came in 1998. His son Nitin Menon is one now.

Menon umpires junior matches. Three clubs operate at the ground: his Maharaja Yashwant Rao Cricket Club (MYCC), the Cricket Club of Indore run by former BCCI selector Sanjay Jagdale, and the Indore Divisional Cricket Association. Kids and coaches touch his feet and greet him with "Jai Hind".

Associated with MYCC since the 1960s, Menon umpires matches for boys aged 12 to 15 and teaches them the rules. "They don't hold the ball in their hand, let's say, run outs. And they shout, 'howzzat, howzzat'. So I have to tell them, 'Okay, if you are taking the batsman run out, the ball should be in your hand'," Menon told The Indian Express.

"Suppose the bails are not off, then I have to tell them, you have to take off the bails first. Then only the batsman can be out. And suppose a batsman is bowled, then you don't have to say, 'howzzat'. Bowled means that you don't need to appeal."

"Front-foot no ball, back-foot no ball. This is all, during the match only you can tell them, no? Then only they learn."

Menon had taught junior cricket years earlier, before his umpire-coaching assignment took him away from the ground. He returned four years ago when his grandson Hrishabh started playing. The boys play 50-over games, 25 a side, from 3.30 or 4 pm until 8.30 or 9.

"Parents are waiting. They say, 'Sir, it has been a long time'. I have to convince them that we are teaching them. After two-three months, parents are very happy. 'Sir, we can stay till 10 o'clock, no problem.' Boys are very happy."

When cricket stopped during the rains, parents kept asking why he was not coming.

He says at least 30 boys from his club now play for Indore division, and five or six have played for the state. "My grandson was there; because of that, so many boys took advantage. ... And that is a very big compliment for me."

"Boys know that when sir comes, we get to learn a lot. That thing is lacking nowadays. That is the difference between me and other coaches."

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In 1990, his batch was the first group of 10 first-class cricketers to enter umpiring.

"I just wanted to be in the game after retirement. So, I used to coach junior boys, and I used to umpire with them also. Then, the board decided to take first-class cricketers in umpiring. Our batch was the first in 1990. Ten umpires. Those who passed the exam: myself, S Venkatraghavan, AV Jayaprakash."

He became an umpire coach in 2007, a role he held for almost a decade.

Nitin was 22 and playing Under-22 cricket when he came to his father with an announcement. "Papa, I want to become an umpire," he said. "I was shocked," Menon says.

Menon had one piece of advice for him.

"If you want to be a good umpire. Don't see the face of any batsman or bowler. Your duty is just to see below the waist: bat, ball, stumps, nothing else. He's following the same advice."

Technology, he says, has made umpiring harder. "It has become harder. When we used to do international matches, there were only five or six cameras. That's all. Now you see more than 20 to 25 cameras. So you can't run away. Any mistake. Either this camera will catch. Or another camera will catch."

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Menon's best memories came from officiating in two Ranji Trophy finals in Mumbai: Hyderabad against Mumbai in 2000, and Tamil Nadu against Mumbai in 2003. In the first, Mohammad Azharuddin and VVS Laxman put on 89, but it was Laxman's dismissal that stayed with him.

Laxman was run out with his bat just short of the crease. Menon still remembers how close it was, holding up his finger to demonstrate the distance between bat and line. "His bat was like this. This is the popping crease. His bat was like this (marginally short). The edge of it. But the edge is above. But it is out of the crease. So I gave him out."

"So Laxman saw me. He also knew he was out. All Hyderabad players went up just to see the TV."

Former India captain Tiger Pataudi was watching. The next day, Menon read what he had written about the dismissal. "He wrote about me. 'If an on-field umpire can give this kind of good decision. I don't think we need a third umpire.' You feel proud," he said.

"I love to umpire with boys. I love to stand. If I am standing there, I will umpire."

At 80, Menon's international career is behind him, but bat, ball and stumps beckon.