Why God, Why?

Countless times I've come across sports fanatics, of cricket and football in particular. Hell! I live with one right now. I was even caught-up in many arguments and fights completely oblivious of what the fuck it was all about. I could see the passion and aggression in each of their eyes and voices when they spoke about their favourite teams, players and matches. I would simply shake it off, walk out of the room feeling sorry for them. Obviously, I was in a universe of my own that had no point of intersection with the world of sports (except in the Summer of '07 where indoor cricket in SAC sucked me in). Needless to say, I was of the opinion that following sports was a waste of time; there's definitely a better way to "spend" one's time.

Over the past year, I was getting increasingly conscious of the impact of sports on me. Living with people who have the capacity and interest to follow sports all day long and not allowing it to have an effect on you is difficult. It started with tennis and now cricket.

Only yesterday, I sat down to retrospect how my view changed completely, however gradual it was. Following sports might start just to pass the time or for entertainment. It becomes much more than than. One waits eagerly for start of a tournamant or a tour or a series. One keeps a dashboard of all the achievements and memorable moments of the game or a player. One waits for records to be broken and history created. Record breaking in that context, is not just a player's or a team's source of motivation. It's a part of a collective dream shared be every single person glued to the TV munching the finger-nails, or in the stands screaming and cheering on the top of his lungs, or even staring at the live feeds on the monitor quietly in the office cubicle. And that moment not only gets engraved in history, but also in the minds of every person attached to it. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say, "It becomes a part of one's identity". It defines who we are.

Having said all this, to me, yesterday was more significant that the day Federer became the greatest player ever to play tennis (even though I watched and adored tennis more than cricket). Evidently, the reason is not very difficult to fathom - Tennis traces back to an individual, but cricket in most cases, is associated to a nation. To me, it was not Sachin who scored an undefeated 200*; it was one of us, one of the 1.15 billion Indians.

I never considered myself a patriot; but, when I noticed the number of tri-coloured flags in this page, the feeling was quite overwhelming. The disappointment that the Indian flag is not present in 'Highest individual score' table did not last long (for me, considering that I've been following our achievements only recently).

I'm glad I watched yesterday's game. You should've seen me all pumped up, hoping Sachin would get to the top of the chart. Looks like I've started becoming one of them now.

Why? Why God, why??