World Cup, emotions and my perspective.

Hmm! Where do I start from? I was seven when I started watching cricket and the only player I knew then was Dhoni. My parents love cricket and this is one of the reasons for their happiness. I remember when I was in school I had little knowledge about cricket, I used to watch matches with appa and amma and listen to their conversation, catch few words and flex it in school with my friends. Later I developed keen interest and watched matches regularly and understood more about it. Later in college, all my friends loved Cricket and we used to have some amazing conversations about it. I enjoy watching ODI, T20 and IPL. We have a tradition in our home that appa, amma and I watch  matches together with some good snacks, arguments, judgements and lots of fun. 

This World Cup was so much special to me. Each day appa used to come to me and ask which teams are playing today and at what time the match starts, our conversation never stopped here, it continued for an hour about various aspects of cricket and teams. Later in the noon I helped amma to prepare some snacks and we enjoyed watching matches munching on snacks that amma and I prepared. After the completion of match appa used to tell me about Cricket history and how it has evolved over time. Whenever India played our first ritual was to offer a prayer and then we enjoyed the match. 

This World Cup was indeed special as my friends accompanied us to watch most of the matches. The after match conversations between my friends and parents were all about Cricket and life. I loved capturing these moments. Felt so blessed to have friends like family. Once the conversation was done I used to take my friends on a long drive. Whenever India won we went to MG Road to witness how people gathered  to celebrate Cricket together and the victory. We loved being the part of this celebration. Some days if incase I missed any matches I video called my parents to take the update. 

The matches were going amazingly, it was for the Semi-finale that all my friends came home to watch the match together. Amma had prepared some yummy snacks, appa and amma joined us to watch the watch. India V/S New Zealand, both my favorite teams but our support was of course for team  India. We had a great celebration after King Kohli completing his 50th ODI centuries. The celebration didn’t stop there, Shami took 7 wickets and that was the moment to indeed celebrate. We all had tears when Kohli competed his century, I think that’s how we are emotionally connected to our players. I definitely agree it was not Semi-finale but SHAMI-FINALE. 

Now, it was the time for finals. What better than watching it together at home. This time appa gave us a surprise as he got Indian cricket team jerseys for all of us and my friends got so excited. This was not it amma surprised us with our favorite snacks, drinks and tricolor bands. We surprised appa and amma by setting the hall, getting a bigger screen and speakers to get that feel. We all offered prayers for India’s victory and started to watch the match. 

We lost the toss but not hopes. India started to bat and we started to chant. The score made us shift all our hopes on Indian bowlers. It was Australia’s turn to bat and we didn’t loose hope till the last bowl and didn’t stop to support our team India. We lost the World Cup. Yes, we were upset , heartbroken, so many thoughts and emotions that we felt yesterday and it was insane. We all had tears, I think the whole nation had. 

I had so many questions like how our crores of prayers and good wishes went unanswered?  Like literally all of us had prayed at least once for the victory. My friend explained her perspective and said it is ‘destiny’. If everything is destined then what about prayers and miracles? I think somewhere luck does matter. It was our hard luck this time. But later we realized the beauty of this sport. This whole journey for the team was so joyous and we all are so proud. We didn’t even loose a single match till the finale, Our KING completed his 50th ODI century, Shami took maximum number of wickets and both created history. We witnessed incredible Cricket this time from each player. We witnessed some spectacular moments, historical moments, the celebration, the aggression, the passion ,the dream and the team. We all somewhere believe journey is more important than destination or journey makes the destination beautiful. I think we all had an amazing journey with the team. We travelled with the team and felt each emotions. May be our prayers didn’t go in vain cause it united all of us in this pain and gave a strong message that we all are together in this making us understand how emotions are felt, how we all are connected and the journey of life is not always what we want it to be. May be it is a lesson to all of us in one go or may be a moment to all of us to be grateful for the amazing journey we had so far. 

My friends and I always connect Cricket and life. Isn’t this how life is ,we pray for something that we want, keep hopes and expectations but sometimes things doesn’t happen the way we want, maybe because the Universe has better plans or may be it is teaching us a lesson to be grateful for whatever we have first. May be we need to enjoy the process rather than to expect the result and to learn to give chances and move on with a new hope. Counting 100 good things is better than counting one loss. We might have lost the title but we have got an incredible team and supporters who are not gonna stop supporting the team. We were proud, we are proud and we will be proud of our team INDIA. 

This World Cup has given so much to me personally. My friends turned to be family, the way my friends call my parents appa and amma is the gift I got this time from this game, some great conversations and candid pictures that I’m going to treasure for life. Some  realizations about life, little things, little joys, belief, prayers, hopes, life lessons, emotions, togetherness and perspectives. This journey was beautiful then why to just be sad about the end point when we have so much memories to cherish and recall this strong journey. It is OKAY, the Sun rises again, life goes on. Let’s cherish the moments, be grateful, be hopeful, create memories, learn, grow and live. 

"Yeh khel hain zindagi ki tarah,

kabhi jeeth aur kabhi haar,

kabhi muskuraana aur kabhi dard sehana,

lekin jeeth ne ki honsla rakhna,

zid nahi chodna,

musukurakar kehna aaj nahi tho kal,

jeethenge aasman ki lakiron ko thodkar,

aaj nahi tho kal,

zindagi hain, aage badenge umeed na ko kar."