It’s been quite a while since my last blog and at this moment there is only one thing on my mind that I can write about. It is as if a tidal wave of euphoria has swept through this country and people have only begun to come to grips with the awesome feeling. It will not be possible to express at a later time what I and a billion like me are feeling right now.
It’s the 3rd of April 2011, 2.45 PM and not 18 hours ago, history was created, the names of 11 players and 1 team were forever etched in history and an entire nation paused and then erupted in a collective expression of jubilation.
Set an imposing target of 275 by former cricket champions and last time runners-up Sri Lanka, India stumbled in the beginning, losing the wickets of Sehwag and none other than GOD. However, in a display of sheer grit, the team picked itself up, dusted itself and began to run itself back into the race. Stalwart innings by Gambhir, Kohli and MSD (arguably the greatest captain India has seen) saw us close in on the finish line. Till that last six was hit, fittingly by MSD, the nation waited and watched with bated breath!!
We are the WORLD CHAMPIONS!! When we had won the Cricket World Cup back in 83’ there were many who had dismissed that as a fluke, but this time we have done it in style. We have beaten every former champion and 3 of them in the knockout stages. This is more than just a sporting victory. It is a arrival of a new, determined and resilient generation of Indians who never give up and have the fortitude to claw back from the brink.
Post match yesterday night, it was madness on the streets. Pure ecstasy!! The atmosphere was electrifying. Never was an entire nation so completely united in a single emotion!! We were united in our grief during the Mumbai attacks. We were united in our happiness at the Olympic golds, but yesterday was simply magical!! We could have probably produced the biggest Patronus ever, had we tried.
I saw people dancing on the middle of the road, hugging and shaking hands with random strangers, riding atop rooftops of cars waving the tricolor and yelling themselves hoarse with one word… INDIAAAAAAA, INDIAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
Poor labourers to bollywood superstars, auto-rickshaw drivers to sophisticated techies, they were all out there on the streets. Next day, they would return to their normal lives, but this night, whatever their economic and social standing might be, whatever their religious beliefs and regional origins might be, this night, they were all ONE and they were the CHAMPIONS!!
I didn’t know before I had experienced it yesterday that pure Joy reproduces exactly the same effects as alcohol. Entire families – senior citizens to children were out on the streets behaving in exactly the same manner. They were lightheaded, they were drunk, they were childish, they were mad but more than anything, they were INDIAN.
At the stroke of the midnight hour yesterday, when the world slept, India actually awoke to life and freedom. But this time, we arose as KINGS – undefeated, unmitigated and unstoppable!!
