I was quite startled when I saw the Cricket World Cup 2015 advertisement. I was like, what the hell? No no, I was not furious as India’s chances in Australia(where world cup is going to be held) were in doldrums. But I remembered the last world cup that took place in 2011. I wondered how the time runs with alarming speed. I cannot believe its full FOUR years when Mahendra Singh Dhoni lifted the prestigious cricket world cup in Mumbai. It just seems like yesterday. Really guys, its FOUR years!
Going down the memory lane, I started to measure my life during this stretch. I usually have this habit: to see where I stand in between two world cups. Likewise I calculate my growth during this four-year period.
I don’t know when I started to follow these crazy Cricket World Cups, but being an Indian guy, cricket comes naturally in my genes. I guess, I started to watch World Cups since 2003, when I was just in sixth standard. The 2003 team was captained by Sourav Ganguly, and I remember that world cup as we were runners-up of that edition. I remember how our Mathematics teacher calculated the reason for the final loss next day. We children used to sing ‘World Cup hamara hai’ song till the final against Australia. Losing the cup from so close was hard to swallow, but being kids at that time, we forgot in matter of days.
The next world cup was 2007 World Cup in South Africa. I was in tenth standard now. During the world cup fever, India not qualifying to next round was my bigger grief than my acne break-outs, my pending studies, and my crush’s refusal. That world cup was such a nightmare that I don’t even want to talk about it. The highlighting point of that world cup was Pakistani coach Bob Woolmer’s mysterious death. Well, let the police dig his graves, not me.
Then came the most favorite World Cup series for India: The 2011 World Cup. My father will debate over 1983 as the best world cup, as India won on both the occasions. Oh man! I was not born in 1983 so I don’t know it. All I know is 2011 Word Cup being the best World Cup among the three I’ve witnessed. Of course, it remains special to me like anything. Not only because our team won, but the euphoria around it in my hostel.
I cannot forget the hysterical joy when Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit that winning six in Wankhede crowds, I felt like I myself have won the cup. Whole India did. Even my hostel walls erupted in loudest cheers. That was my first year of engineering and I was like, “Oh Jesus! Am I dreaming? We have done it!”
The Gujarati gang of our hostel performed garba for the whole night in the hostel campus. We danced and cheered. Crackers were all around. We shouted on top of our voices “INDIAAA INDIAAA”. Oh my God! That feeling is still sinking in. And suddenly I realized we are four years ahead, in 2015, amidst another world cup staring us. I really have no idea how fast time can fly?
I looked back at my progress in these four years. Of course, my age number has changed from 18 to 22 but that’s not something to boast of.
That time, I used a Nokia N72 where I used get live updates about cricket scores on a pathetic cellular network. Today I have a smart phone and high-speed Wi-Fi. But this is not any achievement, is it? I have changed two phones during this period. Just two? Quite low from today’s standards! I bought a Nokia C-2 after the 2011 World Cup, and continued it till 2013 when I bought Moto G from my first salary. Oh yes, my salary! Today I get salary for work, that time I was just first year college kid. Huh, I was student then and I’m an employee today. Oh my my, I have completed my whole engineering in this period. I have left the hostel. That time my father gifted me on my birthdays, today I gift my parents on their anniversaries. Also, during that time I was afraid to talk to any girl and today I am nurturing 3 break-ups.
Despite all these changes in my life, why do I feel nothing’s has changed? It just seems similar like the previous world cup. If India wins the cup again this time, I don’t think I’d be able to match my hostel celebrations of 2011 World Cup triumph. I never can again. I miss it.
This is how I envision my life between two world cups.
I hope India wins this as well, and I see awesome changes in my life till next world cup in 2019. That time, I really hope the change should NOT be just limited to age changing from 22 to 26.
So what’s your story between the world cups? Tell us your own experience how’s life changed between the world cups?
