Jhakas | Sanjay Jha
In a few days from now, India’s long awaited campaign for the prestigious World Cup will commence against Bangladesh at Trinidad. Come 7.30 pm in the evening, and people will huddle in front of their television screens, mostly shifting the dinner congregation to their living rooms.
At 9 pm there will be a minor family tussle over catching up briefly with the latest witticisms of Shah Rukh Khan on KBC while the doting grandmother will be resigned to seeing Kyun Ki in it’s repeat episode the following afternoon. Dad’s will be behaving with the same degree of impetuous infantile delight as their teenage wonders, while wives will pretend to possess a cool demeanor even as they seethe within with impatience and exasperation bundled in a neat concoction wondering what is the big deal if a certain long-haired chap called Mahendra Singh Dhoni has walked in like a bull-fighter to the crease, and is looking restless even before he has faced the first delivery. Continue reading below
Potato chips, coke, brownies, nachos, and readymade junk food will continue to be consumed as if the living room has been transported to Barbados itself. And listening skills will be at a severe discount. Everyone will have an opinion on everything, and the expert commentators will differ with the popular verdict in the living room at their own risk.
People will crowd showrooms selling consumer electronics on the road-sides, watching the matches live on 50 TV screens simultaneously, putting a moral compulsion on the shop owners to delay pulling down the shutters. Clubs, bars, discos and hang-out joints will show the game on giant-screens frequently eliciting collective sighs of relief, and sometimes a painful anguish when Sachin Tendulkar walks back to the pavilion, carrying a billion plus emotions and hopes once again on his strong yet human frame.
Taxi-drivers will refuse to take some of us passengers even if that means 300 bucks foregone, a big chunk of his daily earnings. And a small girl will still ask for scores as she sells her colorful balloons of various shapes with messages of love.
CEOs will walk in bleary-eyed to Boardroom meetings and power-point presentations early morning, often wondering why they have to go through such a monotonous existence when the world only celebrates a man who hits the ball high and hard. And no matter how desperately ageing icon Amitabh Bachchan tries to keep himself and his so-called First family of Bollywood in the media spotlight by making us speculate on his son’s wedding dates, the truth is that Mandira Bedi and her noodles, spaghetti and other forms of pasta will overshadow his green eyed daughter-in-law –to-be.
The Sensex will bounce back and forth, and Page 3 parties will continue unabated, but it is Page 21 which will be most read.
Mothers will pray longer and yellow daffodils shall adorn the top of TV sets imploring heavenly benedictions. Many will sit with legs folded or left leg stretched while the right is tucked in, all these being yogic asanas borne out of deep sentimental superstitions. Office productivity will fluctuate as wildly as the heavy bat of Virendra Sehwag, and some cool dates will be cancelled at short notice, breaking a few hearts temporarily.
Multiplexes will show a perceptible drop in box-office collections, and even the Prime Minister may be well advised to hold cabinet meetings at appropriate times, as the Left may not want to miss Sourav Ganguly in action, and we do not want mid-term elections just as yet.
Even as the year-end exams hit the school-kids and attendance is higher in college canteens than in the classroom, I am sure the teachers will themselves be checking on SMS scores discreetly on mobile phones.
Amidst all this, politicians of all colours will fight a bitter election in the rural hinterlands of Uttar Pradesh, and life will roll on. The ballot box and the red cherry will keep the media on a happy-hunting spree.
We can all make a difference. Let us all stand and support our boys, the Men in Blue. Let’s wish Sachin a glorious ending to his World Cup dreams and hope MS Dhoni rocks the citadel of Australian domination. Let’s pray that Veeru Sehwag finds form and the fence with his usual panache and Irfan Pathan weaves a hat-trick once again. And Anil Kumble spins a magic web with the ball even as Yuvraj Singh saves a scorcher at gully.
Let us respect Rahul Dravid’s tenacity and back him fully for the amazing pressures he must be under, and admire Sourav Ganguly for showing the team that anything is possible. Therefore this term, Dravid’s Dadas. Because with tenacity and grit, the word impossible ceases to exist. And dreams can become a reality.
As Dravid’s Dadas take on the world in the far-off Caribbean, I see the first signs of a post-Holi warmth in the sunshine on the leaves outside of my window. The Indian summer may have perhaps just begun.
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