I know this post is a couple of days late but its just been running on my head all the while :) Firstly India Wont the Twenty20 World Cup on Monday evening and ever since there has been a craze sweeping the nation. I can go on about how people went nuts, Politicians got hungrier, Newspapers became Cricketer’s Photo Galleries and how news channels had reporters smiling all day… But this post is about my few minutes past the glorious event.
So on monday evening I was home alone watching the match with a fever of 100+… Body temperature was not going to dampen my spirits as screamed and yelled with disregard to the neighbors… It seemed like India was losing… winning… losing… winning… winning… losing… and finalllllly “India Won”. After a few laps of yelling and screaming in my parched throat in the empty house I watched the celebration and award ceremony.
After that I had one errand to do… I needed to get dinner for myself from the near by fast food hotel.
I stepped out and felt like I had just walked into a different dimension all together. There were genuinely happy people on the streets, there was firecrackers and cheers. But nothing could beat the smiles. The average state of people around me was actually “happy”! In the few minutes i spent at the restaurant each time some one screamed a cheer on the road everybody broke into this smiling frenzy :)
I have watched cricket all my life… Like most Indians I agree that it is a religion more than a sport. I always wanted to watch India win a major tournament… They should have won the 2003 ICC Champions Trophy but the final was rained out and the trophy shared with Sri Lanka(whose ass we could have kicked so easily at that time)… Sharing is a slap on the face when you had the prospect of Winning! I had my fingers crossed for 2003 world cup but they lost to the only better team in the world at that time Australia… We had won every match in the event except the ones against them :(
After that, I felt the day would never come… But it did!
I don’t give a shit that it was a new format… Hell India had played only 1 international T20 match before the tournament! I dont care for people telling that 30 more overs and they would have never won… or that if someone caught a catch they would not have won!
Well the bottom line is they did Win! They won fair and square! They took all the catches that needed to be taken and fielded they way they have never done!!!
Monday was a moment of Vindication… Not just for me… for that guy that spent sleepless nights watching matches of India in Canada and West Indies… For the people that were saddened and heartbroken each time we lost but did not lose hope… for a millions of people across the world who don’t consider Cricket a sport but a religion!
And then I realized that I wasnt the only one with that feeling… And when you have a feeling like that, You have got to…. Celebrate!!!