Wednesday, September 26, 2007

India Are the World 20-20 Champs

For this post I am going to user Browning's poem Incident of the French Camp. I am using the style and a few words to tell us what goes on in our mind.

You know, we Indians stormed the Wanderers stadium (South Africa),
A 1000 miles away,
In a desi (Indian) -bar, we (my friends at office and me),
stood, danced, drank shouted hoarse on our storming day (the finals),

With attitudes out-thrust, you fancy how,
Glass of Rum/Beer in hand, Mind running perms and combs,

As if willing our team to fight, fight to win, not to fall,

Oppressive with the cloud of defeat.


Just as perhaps we mused,
"Our glory that soar, to earth may fall,

Let once M S Dhoni, our captain, guardian of our honor
waver a yonder cricket pitch,
"--
Out 'twixt the "sixes" barrage there flew A rider,
bound on bound,
Full galloping; nor bridle drew,
Until he reached the bowling wicket.

Then off there flung in business-like attitude (take the last wicket)
and bowled a neat ball,
after judging the batsman's intention,
you could hardly suspect him to take the wicket,
(So tight, lips compressed,
eye-brows clouded with sweat),
you looked twice ere, you see our own Conan,
Place the then high-flying, but now falling ball
into the hands of the fickle Goddess Victory.

"Well", cried the team "India i.e. Bharat", by God's grace
"we got you the World cup"
We are in the ground, where to our hearts' desire
Perched our Flag; Tiranga by name,
For all world to see.

Our eyes flashed, our Glory; like fire soars high,
The euphoria lasts for some time to come,
Presently senses reined in
unbridled pleasure and joy,
we raise a toast to our,
Boys in Blue,
who are now the men; nay the team in BLUE.

***


What more shall I tell you! a migraine was spoiling to mess up my plans for the night. But I will not be denied the Glory. I leave early, grab a nap. but get up late and reach the rendezvous - Kapila restaurant where Vikas, babu Bhaiyya, manu, Silky bhai, seetha, srini and uncle were already present. I miss the Indian innings, but watched it three times the next day. Oh! by the way, I am not the usual cricket fan. Lost all interest in cricket in my "those" days. But this team grabbed my fancy with their "Play-To-Win" attitude. As I take the seat, Pakistan lose their first wicket. Wow! thought I, can there be a grander entry. Pardon the images. (A little extra rum can do that to you.)
The bar all smoke-filled, they had provided a big-screen for our viewing pleasure. The place soon turned into a shouting match. Shouting what you dare ask??? just about anything. Sample these
"Bhhaaaaaaaaajjjjjjjiiii Wiiiiiiiickkkkket"

"Jeetega bhai Jeetga" asks one
India Jeetega reply the rest in chorus.

"bolo Bharat mata ki Jai" say one
Jjjjjjjjjjjai shouts the crowd.

But the one that rang true every time was

"ganapati bappa" - "Morya" - hail the elephant trunk.

What else did we do. well we were competing with everyone else in the out-shouting match that was going on. In this picture we were sitting silent (only those very very few times). a few drinks were already imbibed. Don't ask how many. I cannot remember. Then the lull set in. Wickets were not coming in for sometime. we are feeling despondent and unfairly criticizing our players, Conan the most. you can see srini wipe the perspiration from his balding head (Sorry for this Dora. But I had to. Your pose is too whatever..) Silky lights up yet again and babu bhaiiya uses the opportunity to asks for more bottles. Of what!!! if you don;t know, then you needn't know.
Manu needs some help by now. His voice has become hoarse and seetha is in his calculations (Sorry again) and explaining them to a fuddled-brain Manu. Where am I, taking the snap. Hands are bit shaky now what with all the jumping, dancing and shouting match we were indulging and of course because of good "spirits". Then a line of Pakistani keeping falling and each time babu Bhaiiya asks "Misbah?". No we say. "G****" abhi nahi gaya! Arre G**** usko out karo. and we are off to another shouting spree.







And then another wicket, but still no Misbah!!!!! "G**&$#^" goes babu bhaiyya again. Srini tells of my avocation to "India lifts the cup" with a lift of my own glass of good rum. This picture is the moment when India needed 1 wicket to win and Pakistan were needing a lot. Yours truly predicted that the wicket would fall and the picture is snapped. Then Bhajji goes on a generous spree of offering runs. 3 sixes in his penultimate over and Pakistan looked as if to give us an acidic stomach rum et al. Last over Joginder Sharma, India's dark horse who was running a bad luck streak on his back
bowls India to victory. The euphoria is yet to drain. The credit for predicting the victory wicket goes to Babu Bhaiyya, He stands up, picks up his glass, takes a swig and predicts, ab yeh B***C*** out hoga and we all jump up in joy and ecstasy. First I did not realise that we won. I only thought Misbah is out and now we will win. But we have won. That called for an extra round of drinks (Number count lost). We went on and on chanting "Dhoni" "Dhoni" "Dhoni" "Dhoni" "Dhoni" "Dhoni" "Dhoni" "Dhoni". And the whole restaurant took our chant. The victory lap by the team is one which we will cherish for a very long time to come.



The euphoria last for the night and the rest of the day. I watch the highlights thrice and still it is not enough. The hangover stays till the next day. The office chat still revolves around our victory.












This was last snap we took. The effect could be due to the Rum or the win.