March 06, 2011
The wait for this day seemed to be too long.
I dreamt of being at the stadium, watching the match.This was going to be my first experience, watching a match in Stadium.On March 5, I did not feel like sleeping.I wanted the next day to come fast.
Contrary to a normal sound sleep, this day I was waking up almost each hour and looking the time on my mobile,but it was not morning yet.
I was very excited, and all set for the match, with India team jersey, binocular, Chart papers and marker pens.
Finally the time had arrived for us to go to the stadium.There were 6 of us, and our agenda was not only to enjoy the match, but also to somehow get into so me TV channel or live broadcast of the match.
We got our faces painted in Indian tricolour, bought couple of Indian flags and gave our expert opinion to News9 Channel, before standing in the queue to enter the stadium.
On entering the stadium, beside the security, there was one person busily monitoring the security personnels.His face was well recognizable, From very close to me, less than 2 meters I saw a cricketer live for the first time.Venkatesh Prasad.
We entered the main gate and the official sponsors greeted us with their '4', '6', logos, masks and inflatable bats.We took all those and walked over to the staircase which led to the gallery.
I walked and completed the stairs and saw the door, slowly enterd and stood for some seconds awestruck.The green ground, it was not like what i dreamt.It was real, it was refreshing, energizing.
I remembered someone telling me in the past that players will be visible only as ants and watching the match in TV is much better.On merely seeing the ground, I felt that may perhaps turn out to be an incorrect statement.
We settled ourselves, and started taking some snaps and writing banners.Around 12 noon, couple of players from Ireland team came for practice and the crowd cheered on the sight of the players, but the biggest cheers were awaiting for the Indian team.
Around 1.15 PM Indian players entered the ground and the crowd started erupting.Each of the players and officials entered, and finally the the sound levels reached the maximum of what had come until then.Yes, Sachin has entered the ground.Everyone rejoiced, shouted, clapped, and cheered for the whole team.Ireland team might have got a fair idea on what they are going to experience from the crowd, during the match.I stared at Sachin.The first time I am seeing the great man.
Indian team practiced for some time, without much effort and soon enough started taking rest.The Ireland team was still rigourously undergoing their warm up session.Looked like Indians got warmed up in just 5 minutes.
Dhoni, after winning the toss and deciding to bowl, came back to the ground with the whole team for the national anthem.Ofcourse the Ireland team too.
The Ireland national anthem was sung first and the whole stadium stood up.I felt we had a very well behaved crowd in the stadium, as all of them(at sight) stood up silently for the anthem.
Then, it was time for the Indian national anthem.The anthem started, and I and my neighbours sang along aloud.In the course of the anthem, more people joined.Around 35,000 people unanimously sang aloud 'Jaya he..Jaya he...Jaya he....Jaya jaya jaya jaya he....' to the end of the anthem, and the experience one of the most patriotic moments.I was experiencing such a huge crowd singing the national anthem together, for the first time. Amazing!
The match started, and to my disappointment, Sachin was standing in the boundary which is opposite to where we were seated.
This is the day, I got to know a very big fact.Though we know that Sachin has the highest fan following in India, you will get to know the real intensity of the fan following only if you go to the stadium.
The crowd was cheering for whatever Sachin did.
He was standing in the boundary and whenever the ball came to him, the stadium filled with roars.Especially on the sight of his face when he turned back to get back to the boundary line after fielding.The crowd actually cheered for virtually any move that Sachin did.
I can’t imagine what would be going through Sachin’s mind.Whatever he does, the crowd applauds!
Another instance is when he came to field in the boundary adjescent to us.Seeing this, we started chating ‘SACHIN..SACHIN.clap clap clap….SACHIN SACHIN clap clap clap’(in tune)more people joined and the whole stadium started to chant ‘SACHIN..SACHIN’.The funny thing is that, in the match, someone was bowling , someone was batting, someone was fielding.Sachin was merely standing at that instant and he was getting cheered!!!
Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly also got huge cheers, when Dravid entered the ground for some sponsored event, and Saourav was shown on the screen performing the role of a commentator.
Another interesting and mind blowing incident was the Mexican Wave. The maxican wave wave slashed many times in the course of the match.A funny incident occurred during ‘Mexican wave generation’. A group to the right of me started a mexican wave and we carried in on, but somewhere to the left side of us, the continuity was broken.This same scenario happened couple of times.After some time, some other group to the left of us started a wave.But it was broken as soon as the wave passed the point where the earlier waves were broken.A group of people’s thinking was similar to a single persons ego.’If you cannot carry on the wave which came from my side, I wont continue the wave which came from your side’ kind of attitude.All the people in the stadium understood this too, and was laughing with their groups and at themselves.Another successful wave was generated when the first group, which was on the right of us, took an intelligent decision by starting another wave ,this time, the direction of the wave was opposite to the earlier ones.The wave completed 3 successful rounds and the crowd applauded for its grand success!
The biggest cheer of the day came when Sachin came to bat. I feel even if a bomb exploded at that time, its sound would not have been be heard.Each of his runs were cheered.Really felt how great the man is with consistent expectations to perform in a stadium which is full of noise, where any other sound cannot be heard.
We too, contributed to the noise and held huge banners in our hands, 6 of us, each holding the letters S-A-C-H-I-N and a full form which read ‘Solid Achiever & Charismatic Hero Inspiring a Nation’.Though any television channels did not capture us, we felt good that people around us were capturing it in their mobile cameras, and also told us to hold the banners high in order to catch attention of the TV cameraman.
The biggest silence of the day was also related to Sachin.When Sachin got dismissed on 38. :(
The crowd never really shouted since then, until Yusuf Pathan arrived and hit those sixes.
India won the match and it really was an awesome experience.Contrary to what someone had told, the experience in stadium was worth experiencing.The cheers, the claps, the mexican waves, the flags, banners, etc etc.
Back to home, some emptiness filled in me.The shouts had stopped and it was kind of I suddenlty turned deaf!
I reached home and I felt like I was hearing some shoutings but it was only a mirage for the ears.A vaccum had formed, I really longed to go to the stadium to see the rest of the matches.
Epilogue:
The day I saw God:
In the stadium, I saw Sachin being applauded for every single move .That sight and experience would have really prompted anyone to believe that Sachin was nothing short of God.
But hey, I never saw Sachin as God.He is a mere mortal, or else many games which India played would have had different results. Past had shown me that he is not God.
With these 2 contradictory experiences, God really showed me the difference between God and human. And yes, Sachin is a human, a great human.
God was in the stadium to show me how great a human Sachin is. The commitment with which he fielded all day long in the sun, the concentration which he showed in the midst of such an uproar, the way he asked his fans in the stands above the sight screen to be seated when he was batting, or the forty thousand cheers for him throughout the match. I saw God’s smile each time the greatness of sachin was proved. I saw the smile of God when God saw that I still couldn’t understand the greatness of Sachin, the way Sachin is being followed….
March 06 2011
This is the day that I saw GOD!
End Credits
Special thanks to Mathrubhumi newspaper for showing me, Chechi and Mukesh in their sports page.
Hearty condolences to Fino, Dilse and Yethin for not appearing in Mathrubhumi. ;)
The wait for this day seemed to be too long.
I dreamt of being at the stadium, watching the match.This was going to be my first experience, watching a match in Stadium.On March 5, I did not feel like sleeping.I wanted the next day to come fast.
Contrary to a normal sound sleep, this day I was waking up almost each hour and looking the time on my mobile,but it was not morning yet.
I was very excited, and all set for the match, with India team jersey, binocular, Chart papers and marker pens.
Finally the time had arrived for us to go to the stadium.There were 6 of us, and our agenda was not only to enjoy the match, but also to somehow get into so me TV channel or live broadcast of the match.
We got our faces painted in Indian tricolour, bought couple of Indian flags and gave our expert opinion to News9 Channel, before standing in the queue to enter the stadium.
On entering the stadium, beside the security, there was one person busily monitoring the security personnels.His face was well recognizable, From very close to me, less than 2 meters I saw a cricketer live for the first time.Venkatesh Prasad.
We entered the main gate and the official sponsors greeted us with their '4', '6', logos, masks and inflatable bats.We took all those and walked over to the staircase which led to the gallery.
I walked and completed the stairs and saw the door, slowly enterd and stood for some seconds awestruck.The green ground, it was not like what i dreamt.It was real, it was refreshing, energizing.
I remembered someone telling me in the past that players will be visible only as ants and watching the match in TV is much better.On merely seeing the ground, I felt that may perhaps turn out to be an incorrect statement.
We settled ourselves, and started taking some snaps and writing banners.Around 12 noon, couple of players from Ireland team came for practice and the crowd cheered on the sight of the players, but the biggest cheers were awaiting for the Indian team.
Around 1.15 PM Indian players entered the ground and the crowd started erupting.Each of the players and officials entered, and finally the the sound levels reached the maximum of what had come until then.Yes, Sachin has entered the ground.Everyone rejoiced, shouted, clapped, and cheered for the whole team.Ireland team might have got a fair idea on what they are going to experience from the crowd, during the match.I stared at Sachin.The first time I am seeing the great man.
Indian team practiced for some time, without much effort and soon enough started taking rest.The Ireland team was still rigourously undergoing their warm up session.Looked like Indians got warmed up in just 5 minutes.
Dhoni, after winning the toss and deciding to bowl, came back to the ground with the whole team for the national anthem.Ofcourse the Ireland team too.
The Ireland national anthem was sung first and the whole stadium stood up.I felt we had a very well behaved crowd in the stadium, as all of them(at sight) stood up silently for the anthem.
Then, it was time for the Indian national anthem.The anthem started, and I and my neighbours sang along aloud.In the course of the anthem, more people joined.Around 35,000 people unanimously sang aloud 'Jaya he..Jaya he...Jaya he....Jaya jaya jaya jaya he....' to the end of the anthem, and the experience one of the most patriotic moments.I was experiencing such a huge crowd singing the national anthem together, for the first time. Amazing!
The match started, and to my disappointment, Sachin was standing in the boundary which is opposite to where we were seated.
This is the day, I got to know a very big fact.Though we know that Sachin has the highest fan following in India, you will get to know the real intensity of the fan following only if you go to the stadium.
The crowd was cheering for whatever Sachin did.
He was standing in the boundary and whenever the ball came to him, the stadium filled with roars.Especially on the sight of his face when he turned back to get back to the boundary line after fielding.The crowd actually cheered for virtually any move that Sachin did.
I can’t imagine what would be going through Sachin’s mind.Whatever he does, the crowd applauds!
Another instance is when he came to field in the boundary adjescent to us.Seeing this, we started chating ‘SACHIN..SACHIN.clap clap clap….SACHIN SACHIN clap clap clap’(in tune)more people joined and the whole stadium started to chant ‘SACHIN..SACHIN’.The funny thing is that, in the match, someone was bowling , someone was batting, someone was fielding.Sachin was merely standing at that instant and he was getting cheered!!!
Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly also got huge cheers, when Dravid entered the ground for some sponsored event, and Saourav was shown on the screen performing the role of a commentator.
Another interesting and mind blowing incident was the Mexican Wave. The maxican wave wave slashed many times in the course of the match.A funny incident occurred during ‘Mexican wave generation’. A group to the right of me started a mexican wave and we carried in on, but somewhere to the left side of us, the continuity was broken.This same scenario happened couple of times.After some time, some other group to the left of us started a wave.But it was broken as soon as the wave passed the point where the earlier waves were broken.A group of people’s thinking was similar to a single persons ego.’If you cannot carry on the wave which came from my side, I wont continue the wave which came from your side’ kind of attitude.All the people in the stadium understood this too, and was laughing with their groups and at themselves.Another successful wave was generated when the first group, which was on the right of us, took an intelligent decision by starting another wave ,this time, the direction of the wave was opposite to the earlier ones.The wave completed 3 successful rounds and the crowd applauded for its grand success!
The biggest cheer of the day came when Sachin came to bat. I feel even if a bomb exploded at that time, its sound would not have been be heard.Each of his runs were cheered.Really felt how great the man is with consistent expectations to perform in a stadium which is full of noise, where any other sound cannot be heard.
We too, contributed to the noise and held huge banners in our hands, 6 of us, each holding the letters S-A-C-H-I-N and a full form which read ‘Solid Achiever & Charismatic Hero Inspiring a Nation’.Though any television channels did not capture us, we felt good that people around us were capturing it in their mobile cameras, and also told us to hold the banners high in order to catch attention of the TV cameraman.
The biggest silence of the day was also related to Sachin.When Sachin got dismissed on 38. :(
The crowd never really shouted since then, until Yusuf Pathan arrived and hit those sixes.
India won the match and it really was an awesome experience.Contrary to what someone had told, the experience in stadium was worth experiencing.The cheers, the claps, the mexican waves, the flags, banners, etc etc.
Back to home, some emptiness filled in me.The shouts had stopped and it was kind of I suddenlty turned deaf!
I reached home and I felt like I was hearing some shoutings but it was only a mirage for the ears.A vaccum had formed, I really longed to go to the stadium to see the rest of the matches.
Epilogue:
The day I saw God:
In the stadium, I saw Sachin being applauded for every single move .That sight and experience would have really prompted anyone to believe that Sachin was nothing short of God.
But hey, I never saw Sachin as God.He is a mere mortal, or else many games which India played would have had different results. Past had shown me that he is not God.
With these 2 contradictory experiences, God really showed me the difference between God and human. And yes, Sachin is a human, a great human.
God was in the stadium to show me how great a human Sachin is. The commitment with which he fielded all day long in the sun, the concentration which he showed in the midst of such an uproar, the way he asked his fans in the stands above the sight screen to be seated when he was batting, or the forty thousand cheers for him throughout the match. I saw God’s smile each time the greatness of sachin was proved. I saw the smile of God when God saw that I still couldn’t understand the greatness of Sachin, the way Sachin is being followed….
March 06 2011
This is the day that I saw GOD!
End Credits
Special thanks to Mathrubhumi newspaper for showing me, Chechi and Mukesh in their sports page.
Hearty condolences to Fino, Dilse and Yethin for not appearing in Mathrubhumi. ;)
