The mother of all battles brought an entire city of nearly 18 million, as much as Australia’s population, to a virtual standstill. That is what I saw, and I am sure same was the case with every other nook and corner of this magnificent country of over a billion people.
From the top politicians, to the who’s who of the business and entertainment industry, to cricket enthusiasts from every corner of the globe, to the man on the street who maybe doesn’t even have a roof over his head, it was only cricket that mattered and all the attention was on a small industrial town, Mohall, which houses arguably one of the world’s most beautiful cricket stadiums.
The buildup to the clash between one highly rated team and the other an occasional challenger charged the atmosphere with high voltage drama, only because it involved India and Pakistan.
For the past few day,s there was little else to discuss on any and every television channel other than cricket.
Politicians who have held Parliament to ransom on frivolous grounds were seen rubbing shoulders with their political adversaries on the cricket ground – cricket makes for strange bedfellows!
Domestic chores forced me to leave the big screen for about an hour and while shopping for a few essentials in the local marketplace I felt, not for the first time, as if I was living on the border of two warring nations.
A hit to the ropes brought a roar of approval from one side and the choicest abuses from the other. When suddenly two wickets fell and the other side burst out in jubilation, it seemed as if war would break out.
Needless to say it was prudent to hurry up and leave. By the time the match ended of course there was intense partying on the streets, but there was also an eerie silence in another part of the city. Thank God the match was not played in Calcutta!
After the last clash between these two here when they had the last rites of the match in an empty stadium with security forces only as spectators it would be fraught with security risks to even dream of it.
What a pity, because Eden Gardens was as holy as Lords!
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