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. <\/p>\n
My otherwise blank brain had just one question again and again and again \u2013 \u201cHow? How can a bunch of people touching a trophy make so many people sooooo happy? How am I so happy?\u201d How did they make me feel so proud and feel so insignificant (compared to what they are doing \u2013 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 –<\/p>\n