It's true

April 2nd 2011, 13:30 hours local time, Lynn, Massachusetts

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A little Indian flag, brought to the living room from my brother's office desk for the special occasion sits unnoticed on the drawing room table of a house. It may be feeling a little lost out here so far away from home but boy, it must feel proud! Four guys who had been dedicatedly watchng a somewhat important cricket match live since 5:00 AM local time (one of them opting to stand for about 4 hours in the end to 'ensure' the victory) are going ballistic with joy all around it and why not! We were finally World Champions again after 28 long years, admittedly in a sport which may not be the most popular in the world but is at the centre of a lot of Indians' very existence.

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We pause for a second and look outside the window to see if any of the neighbours has reported a group of four runaway madmen to 911 yet. Nope! The area is of course insanely quiet. Duh! Just another day in the couldn't-care-less-about-cricket country of America. Out on the streets of every town and city in India, thousands were already doing somersaults of elation and running around in crazy circles and so were we, like so many Indians separated and distributed across time zones and countries, tapping directly in the incomparable happiness feed that was beaming out of the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.

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After the first couple of minutes of euphoria following Dhoni's winning shot, the magnitude of what had just happened began to sink in. The unabashed crying of Yuvraj Singh & Harbhajan; Sehwag's quick tear wipe; Sachin's lap of honour on the shoulders of his teammates flag in his hand; Mahendra Singh Dhoni with his ever cool smile, the weight of the tricolour draped on his shoulders which he had carried with such grace - were emotionally draining moments, leading to a somewhat embarassing sting in my eyes and a quiver in my voice. As I guess would have happened to all those Indian cricket fans who had stood by their team through thick and thin - not the ones who conveniently kicked them when they were down and would now rush to the forefront of the party to claim the victory as theirs. For those few patient souls, this was a moment of quiet vindication.

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We are trained as kids to believe that the world is a simple place with a simple equation: do what is right, give it your best shot, stay happy. The realities of life frequently drive us to significantly darker conclusions. On the day of India's victory though, it was difficult to fight back this feeling of foolishness. In "In the end, everything that happens, happens for good". In "Good things come to those who wait". In "There is no substitute for hard work". In a country whose unfulfilled potential is first written off by its own cynical people. In corny self-help books and moral science classes. In Santa Claus and in the tooth fairy. Believe.
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[http://virtual-inksanity.blogspot.com/2011/04/its-true.html]