Did you bleed blue ?

…And with that fabulous, sky high rocketing six runs, Dhoni and his men made us the world champions. One hell of a moment it was. With just 30 odd runs on the board and the likes of Tendulkar and Sehwaag already in the pavilion, most of us had already given up.Even I switched off my television for sometime. But Gautam , Kohli and Dhoni played the innings of their life. They pulled out Team India through difficult situation ( as I would say from wicket paristhiti ) , made a mockery of the so called best bowling attack and eventually got the cup that has eluded us for 28 years.

I was thumping and jumping and screaming with my roomies in my flat’s hallroom.We were shouting so loud that the faint hearted neighbors had to intervene. We came out in the balcony .Sky was glimmering with reds and blues and greens – fireworks had enveloped the whole Pune city. We could see people riding in cars and bikes waving tricolor and praising each and every member of Indian cricket team (even Shrisaanth and Sehwaag were being praised).It was an indeed a proud moment and that’s when the patriotism inside me was alive again. I decided to go out and celebrate the victory with people.

My roomie kick started the bike and I jumped onto the pillion so that I could click pictures and jump and dance occasionally with the crowd. It took us one and a half hour to reach Koregaon Park which is hardly two kms.from my place. People were moving as slow as a snail, exulting and merrymaking almost everywhere. They were inside the car, on top of car and leaping out of the windows. Police was having a tough time controlling the crowd and unable to command them, they started lathi charging the crowd. It did nothing but fumed the crowd and soon, I witnessed the best scene ever. Police guys started running for their lives, the crowd had become totally outrageous. Imagine a police man with just a lathi in his hand being chased by hundreds of people on the road. Purely entertaining scenario.However, I knew this amusement was going to end very soon, so we decided to go to FC road which is kind of famous for celebrating grand occasions in a grand way. This FC road is 8 kms. from Koregaon Park and we reached there in another 60 minutes. What I witnessed upon reaching there was nothing as compared to Koregaon park scene.

It was a picture of complete craziness. We couldn’t move an inch for the next fifteen minutes. Public transport buses were all over the road and hundreds of people on top of those buses, dancing and chanting Sachin’s and Dhoni’s name in between. Folks had parked their cars alongside and we could hear all kinds of songs being played – from ‘Munni’ to ‘Sheela’ , from ‘Desh ki dharti’ to ‘Sabse aage honge hum Hindustani’ – people were feting. They did not care about the tune but danced anyway. Knowing the fact that it was impossible for us to ride on our bike further, we parked it outside a closed shop and started walking with crowd.

I loved the whole atmosphere that night. Electrifying it was and I felt like that patriotism was flowing in my veins along with the blood.I had already seen tons of people standing on the buses, on car roofs and people standing on speeding bikes waving Indian flag. However, what I witnessed at Jungli Maharaj road was the mother of all frenzies. People had gathered in hundreds at one particular red stop and they all were looking towards the sky and screaming like crazy. At first I thought they had just seen some kind of awesome-st firework. But I was wrong. That was something I had never, ever seen before.

There was this man who was standing on the horizontal pillar of the road directions board (See above pics.Pardon me for poor quality pictures but this is all I could click with my cellphone). It must have been an easy 50-60 feet. I had to crane my neck in order to see him clearly .How he climbed up there, is beyond my imagination. But there he was, standing tall and waving tricolor in triumph. And boy, did he look happy. It reminded me of the scene from the motion picture Sholay where Veeru did a similar act. It was funny and scary at the same time. I was wondering if he would last there for one more minute because he was trembling a lot. I enquired about him from one of the people and he told me that even he had no idea how he climbed there. Another guy told me that he was a local tea shop owner and he had been fasting after India vs. Pakistan match praying for India’s win in the final.Never had I seen such a true Indian cricket follower before. Instant respect to the power infinity. No one was making any efforts to bring him down. I could see a police van on the opposite side of the road but there was not a single policeman. Now this’s something Indian police is notoriously famous for – disappearing from the scene where their presence is most required. But that’s how it is and we can’t help it. In the meanwhile, the guy above had mellowed a bit and he kind of declared that he wouldn’t jump but it was his way of celebrating Team India’s success. Moreover, someone in the crowd shouted that fire brigade was on its way and they would soon arrive. So, the crowd was happy and as usual, they started racketing again. I decided to proceed from that place since I did not have the guts to see what was eventually going to happen. It appeared from people’s reactions that he would be brought down safely but just in case he couldn’t, I did not want to see a guy reduced to pieces after falling from such a great height. I have a weak heart and can’t digest such incidents.

I roamed around the FC road for another one and a half hour before heading to my place. It seemed like entire Pune had assembled on the roads and was lionizing India’s success in the world cup. It was a merriment night and something that I and we all are going to cherish for a long time. Men in Blue, you gave us one night, one great moment to celebrate, to rejuvenate and we are so grateful to you. Well played boys, we love you!