The sky was full of lights. The sounds of "vande mataram", "sachin-sachin" , "dhoni-dhoni" chanted the whole
country. There were smiles all over. Some eyes wept out of joy. Some, seeing sachin being carried by the other teammates for a change, could not stop themselves from getting mushy.
Even Guru-Gary would have felt what it is like to be an indian. Team India gave our generation a story to tell our kids, the same way we have been listening stories of the '83 world cup.
But amidst the world cup celebrations, there is a grave reality towards which our country has turned its back.
Something we all could relate to in some way or the other.
That night, a young group of foreigners also wanted to celebrate India's victory (wow...celebrating somebody
else's victory..we have never done that..have we?). Anyways, they got in to the crowd and started dancing and fluttering the Indian flag. One of the girls got segregated from the group and found herself beseiged by people who started hugging her...one by one. She opposed, turned back and ran towards her car. She somehow managed to reach her car but was not able to get in to it as there too, were hungry beasts who felt left-out of the chance of doing something disgustingly unthinkable. It hardly took a second for the crowd to become a mob.
As infuriated as i was, after seeing all this, I thought even if i could help her get in to her car, it would be
great. But there were so many people around her that I could not even get near her. Luckily, I remembered that there were some policemen nearby. I went to the constable and told him about the incident. He rushed with his peers towards the car and then there was a lathi-charge because of which the mob dispersed. Thankfully, it ended well.
But the foreigners took home a very sour experience. I, on the other hand, felt ashamed of being an indian because that night, there were no Mayanks, there were no srinivases, there were no xyzs. There were only misbehaving Indians.
I dont think that those foreigners will ever celebrate India's victory again.
Its sad how we call ourselves the greatest country in the world with our great values and morals as an epitome of indianness but we tend to become oblivious of these values at times. At times, we prove the fact that we were once...animals.
country. There were smiles all over. Some eyes wept out of joy. Some, seeing sachin being carried by the other teammates for a change, could not stop themselves from getting mushy.
Even Guru-Gary would have felt what it is like to be an indian. Team India gave our generation a story to tell our kids, the same way we have been listening stories of the '83 world cup.
But amidst the world cup celebrations, there is a grave reality towards which our country has turned its back.
Something we all could relate to in some way or the other.
That night, a young group of foreigners also wanted to celebrate India's victory (wow...celebrating somebody
else's victory..we have never done that..have we?). Anyways, they got in to the crowd and started dancing and fluttering the Indian flag. One of the girls got segregated from the group and found herself beseiged by people who started hugging her...one by one. She opposed, turned back and ran towards her car. She somehow managed to reach her car but was not able to get in to it as there too, were hungry beasts who felt left-out of the chance of doing something disgustingly unthinkable. It hardly took a second for the crowd to become a mob.
As infuriated as i was, after seeing all this, I thought even if i could help her get in to her car, it would be
great. But there were so many people around her that I could not even get near her. Luckily, I remembered that there were some policemen nearby. I went to the constable and told him about the incident. He rushed with his peers towards the car and then there was a lathi-charge because of which the mob dispersed. Thankfully, it ended well.
But the foreigners took home a very sour experience. I, on the other hand, felt ashamed of being an indian because that night, there were no Mayanks, there were no srinivases, there were no xyzs. There were only misbehaving Indians.
I dont think that those foreigners will ever celebrate India's victory again.
Its sad how we call ourselves the greatest country in the world with our great values and morals as an epitome of indianness but we tend to become oblivious of these values at times. At times, we prove the fact that we were once...animals.
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