The World Cup, which was hosted by India (with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as co-hosts) began on 19 February and from that moment on, there seemed to be no other news in the Indian media than cricket. In some ways it was a pleasant diversion from the corruption scandals and murder stories which normally plague the front page of the newspapers. But really, had all of India stopped to focus on this series of games?
It certainly seemed so. When important matches were on, everyone wanted to go home before 2:30pm, when the matches started. On one occasion, there was a foreign visitor to Mayapuri, where I work. The Asha workers literally locked the boys in a room to force them to stay to greet the visitor. They all just wanted to get out, to watch the cricket!
On the day when India was due to play Australia in the quarter-final, I told my boys that they could say anything about the Australian cricket team and they wouldn't get into trouble, but they had to say it in English. This was a huge motivator! One little boy called Anish, grabbed a dictionary and was in fervent discussion (in Hindi) with his classmates, asking for the right English words. Eventually, he stood up and announced in perfect English to the whole class 'Australia is falling apart'. Awesome! I think it was the first complete sentence I'd ever heard Anish speak. All the other boys were very keen to learn this exciting new sentence. I didn't mind - they were learning, after all.
India defeated Australia and (with my abject apologies to Ricky Ponting and his great team), I was glad that they did. In India, the happiness in the air was palpable. It was like the whole nation was taking happy-pills. Total strangers kept asking me in a jocular way if I knew that India had defeated Australia. I did!
On the night when India defeated Pakistan in the semi-final, all of New Delhi (and India) went crazy. There were fireworks in the sky, dancing in the streets, people in mobs marching up and down banging on drums and singing and chanting. It was an amazing night.
In my household, eight people crammed into one bedroom to watch the final match against Sri Lanka. The photo shows some of us, there were more around the corner. It was great fun, especially trying to explain what was going on to the Dutchman, Bart, and the American, Katie. I'm not sure that they were much wiser after the match!
Then, the incredible happened. India defeated Sri Lanka in the final, by six wickets. I thought the semi-final spontaneous celebration was spectacular, but this surpassed it by ten-fold! The fireworks went on for fully two hours after the match ended, as did the wild dancing in the streets. At our local market, a huge crowd of young men gathered, and they sung, and danced, and waved Indian flags. There were several police standing by, holding their lathis (canes for hitting people) but no violence ensured, which was a blessing. The photo shows a small portion of the crowd, with a man carrying an Indian flag while climbing a light pole, and others dancing around him.
In my English class, the boys talked about it all lesson. I didn't mind - they were still learning English!
No comments:
Post a Comment