Jimut
Jimut
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A day after...
«on:
03/24/03 at 20:08:28 » |
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This piece, for most parts, isn’t meant to be for all you. It’s more of a selfish attempt to make myself feel good. I didn’t do well in the Beta-u Re ba Contest ( much to the joy, I think, of several of my friends out here ! ;D). But I guess, whoever wins would probably be as dashed and demoralized as me. That isn’t a very good excuse for my poor predictions, but probably not a bad one too !!!
It’s not that I have a he time-surplus as well, what with the financial year end just around the corner, but I still feel I should post a few lines. Don’t exactly know why, but I just feel like…
My Sunday was no different than I believe atleast half a billion people across the globe. Perhaps I did take a bit more a pain than quite a few others. Raced against time to make it to my “lucky” hideout. My relatively new feature packed TV was left unused as I rushed to a small, low-end 14 incher which had shown me the Natwest victory months ago. In fact, India never lost a match that I watched , along with a select group of people, seated in specific positions, on that dilapidated set 10 kilometers from my home. I’ve never been deeply religious or superstitious, but although I didn’t do the now fashionable rounds of temples , I couldn’t dare upset the lucky tv-viewing trend. Of course, we got a huge new flat tv for a day, but we stuck to our respective lucky seats.
As the Aussies piled on the agony from the first over onwards, we did begin to feel somewhat itchy. Alas ! even a switchover to the old 14 incher didn’t bring any luck. Forunately, we didn’t have any crackers but we could hear the neighbourhood resounding with blasts even on instances of the ball beating the bat. That made us feel all the more terrible. We had a few tricolours, and we still have no clue what to do with them.
I had the (mis??) fortune of having a great opportunity to be there at The Wanderers in person on the 23rd . Return tickets, accommodation, tickets to the finals, the works. All this at a price that would shock all of you. The fact that I couldn’t manage even a 4 day leave and some gift tax issues made sure that I stayed back to watch the match on tv. I’ve been having nightmares for the past week about how I would repent not grabbing the lifetime chance of seeing an Indian lift the World Cup. But in 50 overs, probably much before that, I realized that perhaps, perhaps, I was better off here in India…atleast this time. A poor excuse again maybe, but again not a bad one I suppose !!! :P
I stopped watching from the time our Dada got out, convinced, as everyone, that there is only one God, the one up above. And he certainly doesn’t have a clone down here by the name of Tendulkar. Maybe a lot of us expected the first double century in ODIs from him to see India through…that seemed the only way India would make it. But I’m sure nobody can blame him. In fact, I don’t think we can blame anybody. It just went all wrong on that one day when it mattered most. Our worst nightmatre, but not improbable as it turned out. I always wanted that we should atleast be a close runnerup in tight match. That wasn’t to be…Never mind…life goes on… :-[
Dreams and resolutions ?? Yes two of them…
1. Try and be there in person at the Carribean islands in 2007 to be a part of the Bharat Army.
2. Irrespective of whether dream #1 comes true, I think dream#2 has to …some of you might laugh at this, but I’m sure you’ll give me a few points for the sheer romance involved in what I dream of seeing 4 years hence in the newspapers:
“ Tirupati Ambati Raidu smashes an electric century to help India lift the World Cup 2007 ”
Amen.
( Perhaps we should havea "pray-to-god" smiley to put in places like this )
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Pagla Dasu
IUnknown
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Re: A day after...
«on:
03/25/03 at 10:41:18 » |
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One bengali proverb sums up the whole thing "Teer e aaiya tari dublo" :(
This was the chance of two decades-BEES SAAL BAAD- as the newspapers flashed.
We had the best possible pool of talent India has produced in a long time and it would be aeons till we get such formidable gathering once again. :-/.
Come the 2007 cup and we possibly wuld not have Sourav, Sachin, Dravid,Kumble and Srinath around.
It's another matter that even with the trumps we failed to deliver, but it was one day when God was an Aussie :), and he continued being so even on Monday, as Nicole Kidman ran away with the Best-Actress Oscar.
The 'boys in blue' were beaten black and blue by an out and out professional outfit.This was a sad dawning of reality that of all things Indians remain the whipping boys of Sports, merely because the strain of professionalism is ludicrously absent in us.
Professionalism demands overcoming emotions and that is where Indians failed to deliver right from the first delivery of Zaheer Khan. >:(
It was around 1997, when flamboyant men's tennis star Henri Leconte of france retired. As I was leafing throu the pages of Sportstar in the University Common Room, I found a retrospective which began thus...
" Henri Leconte will never win a Grand Slam. One of the greatest stylists of men's tennis ever, with superlative ball control and god-like flair for tennis retired owing to ...He was a promise unfulfilled mainly due to fickle health and erratic play in match - situations...."
In Sunday's retrospect, (curse me when I am proved wrong), I guess there will be another issue of a dust-covered Sportstar,some-day, lying forlonly in the College Union room, which another young blood will pick up to read during the tiffin hours....
" Sachin Tendulkar will never win a World Cup. One of the greatest player of our generation and perhaps of all-time, with superlative array of strokes, power and skill retired owing to ... He was a promise unfulfilled mainly due to erratic play in big-match situations...." :( :( :( |
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cricket fan
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Re: A day after...
«on:
03/25/03 at 10:59:07 » |
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Yesterday's match was pretty much over after our bowlers had given away that huge mountain of runs.But there seemed to be an air of expectation that Sachin would come and blaze his way to a double hundred and deliver us the cup and now that he didn't there is the tirade.
Well the Aussies were thinking about bowling too :o :o :o |
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asiti
asiti
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Re: A day after...
«on:
03/25/03 at 11:42:08 » |
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Tirupati Ambati Raidu smashes an electric century to help India lift the World Cup 2007 ?......says Jimut
Along with that.. "A solid and punishing foundation by Gautam Gambhir...Brett Lee wondered how to bowl"..is my dream!! |
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admin
admin
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Re: A day after...
«on:
03/25/03 at 14:07:51 » |
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When u get so close and mess it up ... i doubt if anyone will rely on u for something thats 4 years away !!! The whole indian camp was tense and nervous ... from sachin to srinath ... Zaheer should have learnt from the pak match that getting nervous and trying too hard to overperform doesnot help the cause. And when u start sledging in the first over ... u need to back it up with some good bowling... u just cant do half of what Mcgrath does >:( We gift wrapped the cup and presented it to the aussies !!! I understand that we were tense the first 5 overs .... but if you are nervous even after 3 hours of play and bowl each and every ball full tosses ... you just dont deserve the cup. I am sure if Kenya had made it to the finals they would have given a tougher fight ... for sure.
I am sure Ponting would make a great baseball player for thats all that he needed to do !!!!
And lastly if Sachin had not panicked and played more sensibly and put about 50 runs on the board, we could have given a fight ...
Chalo raat gayi baat gayi ... back to life ... |
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Rupam
Rupam
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Re: A day after...
«on:
03/25/03 at 15:13:20 » |
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back to the drudgery of normal life...now that the world cup is gone.
but it has been a good month and half...the team indeed gave a lot of fantastic moments...
Over the past couple of years, a dream had almost vanished off my eyes...till around 2001, I used to dream of an evening when India would lift the world cup...and I used to dream of people enjoying...tears and smiles mingling in that magic moment...and over the last one week I had found that dream returning...and I had thought that finally I will be able to do everything that I had dreamt of doing on winning the world cup...
that did not happen alright...but atleast the Indian team brought my dream back strongly...the main reason why I had given up on that dream was a sad belief that we were not good enough to be world beaters...but now I see no reason why I should think so...I am prepared to wait to live that dream...four years down the line...
its been more of silver lining that the clouds...true India played shocking cricket in the finals...but more than anything else, I would remember this world cup not with images of a dejected India team returning to the pavilion, but with numerous mental snapshots of the team doing really well.
Its been good reading all the messages in this board on the world cup...a word of praise for the admin too for conceptualizing the contest and all... and jimutda dont worry...maybe you wont miss a flight to the carribeans in four years time...just as much as the world cup wont miss the caress of an Indian hand. Hope floats.
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nitaipil1
Guest
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Re: A day after...
«on:
03/25/03 at 15:20:04 » |
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for reduce my tension ..after 5 over I switched off the TV and went to cinema hall watch the Movie JISM , but unfortunetly that movie was also totally bakwas .. |
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tomojit
tomojit
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Re: A day after...
«on:
03/25/03 at 17:40:12 » |
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hi everybody,
your messages made wonderful reading. the passion within really burst out through your writings. the whole world cup experience has been an experience of a life time. we all probably smiled and cried with the team in the last one month. people painting their faces in silchar, thousands of kilometres away from the 'run-bhoomi' , huge screens drawn up for watching the game , vegetables vendors , rickshaw pullers clinging on to transistors are images which wont be forgotten in a hurry.
probably we could not get our ultimate dream fulfilled but we definitely lived the prospects of its fulfillment minute by minute. |
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Rupam
Rupam
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Re: A day after...
«on:
03/25/03 at 23:02:29 » |
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" probably we could not get our ultimate dream fulfilled but we definitely lived the prospects of its fulfillment minute by minute. "
that sums it up all...that was a wonderful statement...noone could have put it across any better...truth and passion...of every Indian heart...yes every passing moment we lived by the prospects of winning the cup...
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Pagla Dasu
IUnknown
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Re: A day after...
«on:
03/26/03 at 18:44:19 » |
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That's the Indians going philosophical over a defeat the umpteenth time .... :( :( :( :( :( :( |
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