After spending a good deal of Friday figuring how and where we were going to watch the match, I fell prey to a terrible migraine attack on late Friday night. It was bad enough for me to cancel watching the match starting at 2:30am. After much deliberation, Agam went over to Nitin’s place to watch the match, and I popped in a med and went to sleep. At some point, I scheduled a 6:30am alarm on my phone.
I woke up with the alarm and starting getting ready to head over to Nitin’s place. I also decided to make some tea for the folks who had been up all night. But that’s when tragedy struck hard… I checked the score just before I entered the kitchen, and we were at 24/1. A wicket had already been lost. Sehwag was GONE !
With enough hope, I started making tea, and found out that there was not enough milk in the house to prepare tea for a group of people. I was disappointed and logged in to check the score … and by then Tendulkar was gone too. Depressing messages crowded Facebook. India was in bad shape.
I wondered if I had jinxed the game… (As if). I told Agam that the match was pretty much over, and I am going back to sleep. My disappointment with the team also made it to Facebook; and friends told me to go to sleep (yes literally). And so I followed everyone’s instructions and slept: D
I woke up at 10:00 am with Agam’s text message. It said, “We are close.” I jumped out of bed, and decided to walk to Nitin’s place. I have been there so many times, that there was no reason to map his address (not that I knew it anyways). So here I was walking/running out of my apartment, when we were at 44 overs, confident that I will make it by the time we reach the 47th. But I lost my way. And it took me a little while to even realize that I was lost. I checked the score again, and we were indeed close; in the 47th over. Just that I was far away from where I had planned to be. I retraced my steps, and found out the right way. But by then Dhoni had already hit the final six, and I heard the bay area Indians in Sunnyvale – shouting out loud with joy and pride. People came out of their homes and were celebrating on the streets, hugging each other and sharing the news with non Indians. It was a great moment to be on the street. BUT I could not see the match – again! Not even the final ball.
In my defense, I missed it to make the team win.
Post match madness cannot be summarized in a few words that this blog post permits. Dhol and dancing on the streets of Mountain View, hundreds of Indians on Castro street, rejoicing together, shouting slogans that we all grew up with. It was an experience, I hope I will live long enough to enjoy again.
Cricket unites us Indians in a way that no other sport does. And I was left to wonder, what unites the United States?
Shivi 