Cricket, the Heartbeat of a Nation

It was the night that India beat Pakistan in the semi-finals, that I was out driving on the streets of Delhi dropping a friend of mine back home after dinner, and there was silence and hardly any traffic in a car loving city. By the time I reached home, the silence turned into a Diwali like scene, fire crackers started sounding everywhere around me and I knew that we had won!

The day after the semi-final, I came across, what looks like some thing that was printed overnight at a DTP shop in and placed in the heart of Chawri Bazaar. The copy on the banner is also very spur of the minute: “This 2011 World Cup is Ours, Best of Luck India”. There’s the added touch of the “India Go” (used in the Hero Honda commercials) at the bottom.

In all the years of living in India, I have never seen such excitement suddenly spring up after the victory over Pakistan. Everywhere all you could hear were the sound of the radios and TVs that had commentary from the match. Autos refused passengers and instead huddled around waiting to see if India could beat its arch rival. The wishes of over a billion people are on the line when the final against Sri Lanka begins tomorrow. Is this world cup really ours? We will know in 24 hours!