The Cup is Ours – Links compiled

Like most of you, I popped myself out of the car window. I high-fived total strangers who were painted pink and purple. Holi had repeated itself in just two weeks. Random people joined me and chanted "SACHIN SACHIN" and "DHONI DHONI". I completed slogans started by huge groups, that I didn’t belong to, but somehow became a part of. It was surreal walking on the roads. A traffic jam without road rage. People danced without music. They stopped cars/people on foot and danced in front of them for the couple of minutes. The people stopped like that wore grins. There was music too. The Ganpati mandals celebrated out of season.  Diwali didn’t know what she was doing with colors and dhols. And all this without any hooliganism. There weren’t too many ‘full drunk’ people. There was the odd Pakistan bashing and slogans in bad taste. But interestingly, it didn’t bother me. Nothing more than, "arre, why?" followed by a quick "oh well, it’s their idea of fun."  But, it didn’t feel unsafe to look into that glint in men’s eyes as they walked on the street and together we cheered.

My otherwise blank brain had just one question again and again and again – “How? How can a bunch of people touching a trophy make so many people sooooo happy? How am I so happy?” How did they make me feel so proud and feel so insignificant (compared to what they are doing – the oldest of that lot is just one year older than I am for goodness sake!) – all at the same time. This is what I mean –

 

2 days later, I still can’t get over how Sachin finally allowed himself to enjoy the moment. I can never get over how Dhoni let Sachin take the honors, when it was as much Dhoni’s moment as it was Sachins.

My smile hasn’t gone, but I want more. So, came the scouring the net for more on the day that was, reactions, videos and photos…Here are a few that I liked, if there’s something that I’ve missed, leave a link in the comments. Here goes –

Video (link via @aaruc)- The Indian dressing room after winning the cup… :’D

Photos –

• World cup final – moments
• World cup hysteria
• More world cup hysteria
• Published by Zaheer Khan on his twitter account – 1 (Team), 2 (Ashish Nehra with cup), 3 (Zaheer Khan)
• The trophy where it all started

Twitter fun! –

• Funniest Tweets of the World Cup – collated by ‘Alternative Cricket’
• Funniest Tweets by ‘Alternative Cricket’

DHONI, DHONI!

• Bold captain Dhoni India’s hero of the day – Peter Roebuck
• Dhoni acknowledges seniors (ESPN)
• The Good – MS Dhoni (Alternate Cricket)
• Dhoni, the ticket collector from Kharagpur
• An interview with Dhoni  from 2008

If there’s commitment, that’s victory for me.

Personal experiences –

• Full circle – daddysan
• The baton passes. And how! – sidvee
• To be seven years old again – sidvee
• The Day We Won The Cup Once Again – greatbong
• What really happened last night – ujj
• Commentary in poetry form – Sharmila Ravinder
• How we learned to stop worrying and love the six! – Raja Sen
• I was there – Venkat Ananth
• And for some the world cup is a Sachin story – Hawkeye
• The cash rewards – acorn
• Journey of a sports journalist who didn’t know anything about cricket -Wright Thompson

Newsy stuff, but awesome reads –

• The year-long planning (ESPN)
• The pressure (ESPN)
• Gary THE man (Indian Express)
• An interview with Gary (ESPN)
• Arctic adventurer inspires India (ESPN)
• India’s cup of joy overflows (ESPN)
• Munaf Patel the unsung hero (ESPN)

Gautam is the thin man with the shaven head – for the past few weeks adorned with a replica of the World Cup – and body covered in the Indian tri-colour. For at least half a decade now, Gautam has been Tendulkar’s biggest fan, waving the Indian flag and blowing his conch shell at every venue Tendulkar plays. Today, Tendulkar decided to repay Gautam for his devotion.

Curious about that man who had the cup on his head? Here’s some stuff about him.

ps. These links are from various sources – Facebook friends, twitter accounts I follow and some random surfing.