The day we won the cup again

5 hours before the match: I walk into my office. Most of my colleagues have reached and there is an atmosphere of suppressed enthusiasm. Since my desk directly faces the entry point of the office, I actually get to read everyone’s expression when they walk in. Every one in the office is tense, nervous and excited. There are suppressed smiles and giggles, and bottled up enthusiasm. Even the HR head, who is generally very serious is all excited.

4 hours before the match: everyone has more or less settled in. Talks and jokes about the world cup are on. Everyone is checking on their lucky signs and mascots. While some are wearing faded t shirts which should have been disposed off 10 years ago, but have been preserved due to some random coincidence. There are others who have worn their lucky shoes and lipstick. In fact, there was one colleague who had donned a horrible hue of fluorescent orange lip color which was not suiting her at all. For a second I actually hoped that India would lose, so that she would dispose of that lipstick. But that was just a reaction of a mind in shock of orange lipstick. I take pride in my ability of regain composure, and after 5 seconds I was back to supporting India again.

3 hours before the match: Some colleagues just remembered that they had missed their lucky objects back home. This earned them genuine dirty looks from all of us around. Their respective reporting officers were extra mean to them. After all this was not as casual as missing out certain targets set by the company. This was something that the whole country depended on.

2 hours before the match: The chairman of our channel walks in. CRAP!!!!! This cannot be good. He is never here on a Saturday. This means that there is now way we can watch the match, unless he leaves really early!!! Besides, the excitement is gradually taking the form of impatience. Not a good time to get into anyone’s way. Ours is a broadcast media with 3 channels being broadcasted simultaneously, with two news channels. While I work for the lifestyle channel where we can afford a comparatively chilled out schedule with breaks for the match, the people in the newsroom cannot. This makes them doubly impatient. NO one right now is daring to visit the newsroom right now.

1 hour before the match: People have abandoned all appearance of work. It is high time that proper food and snacks are retrieved for the purpose of the match. News of other channels setting up giant screens in their premises have left us swearing. Our office provides us with the most miniscule TVs that would put nano technology to shame. Complaint to the systems departments are pouring in about slow internet connections. All are interested in watching live internet streaming on their personal screens. As if that was not bad, the rumors of our rival channels distributing free jerseys to their employees are doing the rounds. And that blasted channel does not even have any program worth watching even if it were for the purpose of saving one’s life.
PS: the desk of our channel’s executive producer is just beside mine. She is entitled to a TV of her own which streams programs faster than other TVs….i am gonna have a ball watching this match.


The toss: The whole office is following closely the toss. We have got to win this. After all we have been winning all the winning match tosses….this is kind of like our lucky symbol. The sides have been called out and the coin thrown to the air. Results are out! India wins the toss!!! The whole office has broken into a monkey dance till the controversy comes up. Apparently the sides were not heard properly, therefore the coins has to be tossed again. WTF!!! That’s not happening. The coin gleefully enjoys the extra attention as the whole nation (my colleagues being a slice of the nation). The verdict is out and India has lost the toss!!! The whole office starts cursing ear specialists all over the world. Whats the whole point of ear treatment anyway, if it cannot treat the strategically important ears of the world!!!!!! Sri Lanka chooses to bat!

The First Inings: The match begins. Work is officially over today. In fact our chairman who never gets involved in these supposed ‘frivolities’ have also switched on his personal 21 inch TV. People in the newsroom are trying their level best to contain their frustration and maintain composure. India is playing quite well…..In fact the fielding is par excellence. Everyone is happy. Sreesanth is playing…..his hair is junglier than ususal….which we are hoping is a good sign!!! Although, there are no other signs of him being Samsung.

The game proceeds. The after 2 wickets, Sri Lanka, picks up pace. With the captain at the middle order the run rate is going up pretty quick. With sreesanth bowling, the run rate going in our favor. Curses directed towards Mahi the Indian captain for taking in sreesanth is going louder. In the mean time snacks and cold drinks have been brought into the office. Tea served as well. Sri Lanka is playing fabulously and India has lost its alertness!!!!

The end of the first innings: Sri lanka has set a really high score. 274!!!!The last ball shot was a classy sixer! The innings end at the end of our office hours. Our chairman who is a man of few words says that this is indeed a tough score for us to score. This makes us all paranoid. He hardly says anything to us. And when he does…..this is what he says Every one needs to rush out as there are hardly any transport facilities that are available.

Journey during the break: I hardly get any transport to my place. But today, of all days that I decide to go to a friends place, all the transport facilities seem to lead to my home. I finally manage to get a transport to the friends house. I encounter a number of people who have got their faces painted.

2nd innings: I reach her place when the 2nd innings have begun already. The screen is nothing but a horror show. One wicket is down already. All my friends seem to be engrossed in the game. There is one crazy dude in our gang who always has a camera in hand clicking pictures away to glory. Today even his attention was directed to the screen. In fact there were a number of random pics clicked of the screen trying to capture sachin’s shots. Needless to say, that they were of no avail. (PS: I am a very concerned friend and I made it a point to mail him some of the match moments downloaded from the internet. Run rates bad and Sehwag has hardly made any contribution.


With the loss of Tendulkar, Indian crickets little master (not little any more), the whole feel enthu of the party has gone down. We start taking in bottoms up shots with the hope that they really act as a wonder. The shots don’t seem to make much difference to the players. Of course there is a considerable difference made to the temperaments of my friends. A friend called in to say he did not feel like joining in the party. Crap!!!! He was supposed to drop me home. Now my team is not just going to lose but I will have no means of getting back home. A number of members of our gang could not take the stress anymore and went to puff it out through cigar. Somehow this worked pretty well and the run rate started to pick up.

End of Innings: Gambhir was out at 97. I was so hoping that he would get a century this match but alas. But mahi did a good job by picking up the run rate. The innings ended with a spectacular shot by the captain and we won!!!


Our little celebration: WE have won. We start dancing like crazy and then take two additional shots. I have to reach home. Its already one. My friend managed to make it back to the party and I have my promised drop home. The roads are all crazy! People are celebrating every where. There are processions which are heading towards direction that is unknown. Every one seems to be hugging each other. The party animals are out with their cars. Most of them are standing on the seat of their cars with half of their bodies out of the windows. Those people who generally sit and beg are dancing in joys. Their usual bodily disabilities which is the supposed to be the source of our sympathy is forgotten. The boy with the broken legs is dancing most enthusiastically and the usually blind boy is smiling at every one who passes by. The whole world is rejoicing about the cup that is finally ours. And it is all thanks to Pranab Mukerjee, our finance minister in 1983 and 2011.

Interpreting the world

The stories of the UFOs and ETs have forever been one a very popular source of entertainments. There are many who get flowed by the whole concept of life existing beyond the planet earth. Some of these stories have been clubbed under the banner of horror stories where these UFOs take over or maybe science fiction, where the logic of science is stretched with more flexibility of a rubber band. It is a well known fact that rubber bands sold these days are of the lowest quality available.

Coming back to ET, my take on these are that I completely believe in the existence of life beyond. The Earth is not just one of the planets in the Milky Way; it is in fact much more important than that. It is the asylum for the whole universe. All those poor souls who seem to have lost their minds for some unfortunate traumatic experience, those who are born whacko, or those who have taught their logic to run in the direction opposite to that of the majority are sent to the earth for treatment. Those souls are deported to the earth and therefore we have the wonderful patchwork of weirdoes living together under the banner of one united world.