When India plays Pakistan !!!!!!!!

If you ask me which is our favourite festival, I would have to say it is India Vs Pakistan cricket match J There is no revelry and passion and overall pataka and dhoom like this for any other festival. In fact that passion is missing even for Diwali..... Preparation is done for this beforehand. Anyone who asks out at the time is politely declined, and anyone who wants to drop in is asked if they can join to watch the match albeit not so politely !!!!  Matter is clear, if India plays Pakistan, everything else pales. Be prepared to listen to a lot of shouts, cries, gesticulations and unreadable facial expressions, a few un-vocabulary words when catches are dropped or appeals are not given and an overall charged up unbeatable atmosphere. There should not be anything left to be done other than watching the match, even calls may be missed......

With all the hallabulla, every time that India plays Pakistan on a cricket ground, my mind goes back to the 1996 World Cup match between the two countries held in Bangalore. We had just been married and I soon realized that as is the case in many other Indian households, cricket was the ultimate passion. I remember once I was trying to get his attention as Sachin was nearing a century and he just kept ignoring me, his bride !!! I got so irritated that I blurted I wish that damn fellow would just get out and all hell broke loose !!!! While I have moved away from being a die-hard ardent fan to an occasional watcher, my husband continues to be a staunch one. And if it’s an India Vs Pak match then everything comes to a stand-still. 

For the 1996 World cup match we were travelling in Karnataka Express on our way back to Bangalore. It was the days before mobiles and Internet pervaded our lives. Not one to miss out on the action, my husband had armed himself with a transistor radio. On the train, he pulls it out to listen to the commentary. Soon our cubicle is flooded with avid onlookers. Bhai saab, score kya hua? Ab kya hua, kon gaya, sixer tha kyaaa.....thus went the questions. We had hit the Maharastra belt by this time and my husband used to get down at every station and run to check the TV, even one over would do. And then back in train, the aerial of the transistor was pulled as much out as possible to avoid the static and get maximum mileage broadcastJ But still, the commentary at most times would go something like this....’Aur yeh.......’ Gayaa......Batsman nahin broadcast.....funny if radios could have responded like our mobiles what we would have heard most that day, ‘yeh abhi coverage kshetra se bahar hainJ’. But persistence pays off. And luck favors the brave !!!!  So, the match progresses.....

Every sixer, every wicket was cheered so loudly it could be heard above the sound of the fast moving train. I don’t think I have heard and enjoyed commentaries to such an extent as I did on that day. Of course India won as it does always. There is something exhilarating about celebrating your country’s win over its arch rival especially in a World Cup and that too among total strangers on a fast moving train. The mood was simply too good, something that can only be felt J

That set the trend. At home, people are not allowed to move or talk when India Vs Pak matches go on. And if you cross the TV by chance, you are done!!!!! It is the best day to cook your worst dish because he won’t remember anything other than the cricket........ Crackers from Diwali are saved over when India plays Pakistan. One bomb per wicket and a few in between overs when India is batting, especially when sixers and fours are rained. All this from the balcony, mind you J and despite the fun, I was worried where the bombs would land on the head of someone passing by J