The Game, Now and Then...

Slowly but steadily as the sun sets down the western horizon and the chirping of the birds getting back to their nests sets the tone for the perfect dusk, mankind making a gutsy effort to fight the Hyderabad traffic to crawl towards their home to witness something which has made history since it has hit the television screens.

The IPL has finally arrived and it has arrived big time, shutting the mouths of all the critics who had written off this format of the game long back.

But hang on, this is not just another column where I am going to discuss the nuances of the game. Here I am going to put forth my experience of the last 40 days of hysteria that the game had created.

‘You know it’s the Chargers Vs. the Rajasthan Royals today…its going to be great fun,’ announced my room-mate with a lot of excitement in his voice who had been struck by the Indian Premier Lightning, since Day 1.

‘Oh really,’ I said sounding not that interested, it had really been a tough day at office and taking into consideration that the last two weekends were really tight with no room for entertainment, I felt completely drained out….

I tried to navigate to some distant topic quickly before he gets totally glued to the television screen and asked ‘What are we going to have for dinner tonight?’

No answer….the boy was preoccupied.

“Oh man…these guys are good for nothing….the crowd should get their money back….and he goes on and on…and on.”

I am not just talking about me and my friend….this has been the setup in almost every household in India for the last 40 days. Every evening the living rooms will turn into a battlefield with fans rooting for their teams. It was pleasant surprise to see even people from the opposite sex putting in the effort to learn the game…of course it might not be only the cricket that has drawn their attraction….rather the amount of glamour that’s been pumped in….with biggies like SRK shouting and dancing around, any girl would fall for it.

The most surprising thing was once I was in conversation with my mom on the cell, when she suddenly asked me what’s the score ?….I was not even aware who were the teams involved in today’s match…..for me, I had just heard the 8th wonder of the world if not seen it.

It almost seems like a festival has ended, and already speculations for the next season have started making the rounds. The perfect blend of cricket and entertainment as we can call it has injected new life into the Game. If I decide to go on writing, I really can turn this into a novel running well into 200 pages narrating the IPL saga, but lets just keep it to something which fits well into the definition of a blog. The novel is an afterthought which can definitely wait.