When Mahendra Singh Dhoni shot the ball beyond the ropes, the World Cup ended, and the celebrations started. Some people were too enthusiastic that they let the whole city know about their happiness, and there were some who dropped on their knees and wept in joy at the very spot they had been sitting frozen for hours. The World Cup was our own, and the celebrations were myriad. Here is how a few of them celebrated the World Cup victory...
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I was at home in Bangalore, and people there, like in every other part of the country went berserk. People were singing and dancing on the road. Unforgettable! I remember this one particular incident. In MG Road, Bangalore, one 20 something lady went so wild that she started stopping each car, climbing to the car top, singing. That was truly memorable.
The high after Dhoni's six was the biggest of my life... There was no way I was going to miss the celebrations back home and I celebrated with family and cousins at home with cold beers. Quite ordinary, but will never forget that night for rest of my life.
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I was in Korea when the world cup final was taking place. When the game was over, It was 2.30 am. We were a few Indians (5 of us to be precise) watching the game together. At that moment we won. I was virtually in India. But as soon as I hit the realization point that I am not, I missed India so much. We then went out to the nearest 24 hr store for a celebratory drink.
-V. Kartick
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Being in the United States made for an interesting experience. I couldn't even high-five the other Indians around me (we were watching on a big screen in an academic hall), too busy sobbing into the Indian flag draped around me. I then walked out into the sunlight, slightly dazed, stumbled home and stared at my bedroom wall trying to figure out what had just happened. I then popped open a couple of celebratory beers and did the only thing that did not require any thought, yet seemed the most rational thing to do: went to sleep.
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What made the World Cup win so special was that I could rejoice those moments with some very close friends and later, with the entire city! Thank you team India for that unforgettable moment of glory for all Indians!"
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Well, being far away in a country where cricket knowledge is bare it indeed felt special when the Norwegian channel was telecasting the semi-final and final match live. I remember being extremely excited and unable to concentrate on a particular school meeting because I wanted to rush to one of the student basements to catch hold of the last couple of hours.
I watched the semi-final in the basement as the sole Indian amongst a lot of Pakistani supporters. But they were warm and congratulated our victory. The final, we managed to telecast it live in the university, much like they have their ski world championships. We had friends from all over Europe who joined us to watch the game. It was a proud moment when we won. A lot of dancing and cheering followed!
-Agneta Ghose, Norway
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Winning this world cup, took me back to my college days, when India won its first world cup. Memories from that tournament came flooding in- the incredible finals, Kapil’s 175. It felt good to win the World Cup again!
-K. Shrinivasan
This will forever remain etched onto the memory of every Indian in the world. Even an Indian who has no interest/knowledge about Cricket would have cherished this moment. Words cannot describe these priceless moments. Well, it was definitely worth that I stayed up all night to witness this moment (the match began at 0400 hours).
It was also great to see Virat carrying Sachin and Raina carrying Gary... The best Thing about this WC victory was that the young players contributed, which means that the happy days are not over.
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There was a lot of jumping, yelling, saluting the TV screen, flag waving, “Hip-Hip-Hoorays”, shots taken, songs were drunkenly sung, friends and family were called – ‘Did you see? Of course you saw! We are the CHAMPIONS!’
We rode to the Wankhede Stadium from Andheri, we expected celebrations, but what we saw blew our minds. The whole stretch (about 30 kms) had people walking, whistling, chanting (some not so #knowledgeablecrowd like chants), waving flags - people riding triple on their bikes, little kids who weren’t even born in 2003 waving flags while proud dads drove them around. The 3-km Bandra end of the sea-link turned into a huge party zone but it was nothing compared to what was at the Worli end of it. That was completely choc-a-bloc. I rode past Sportsfield where Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar live, traffic was crawling but no one complained. Marine Drive was bumper to bumper, with people dancing on their cars, riding on hoods and trunks.
There was congratulatory tweeting, checking for. Outside Wankhede, where Hotel Intercontinental is located, crowds thronged whenever a car with a firang was spotted (Tony Greig? Chappelli?). Someone yelled ‘Saurav Ganguly!’ and a thousand people crossed the road together, climbing over cars, to see if Dada had indeed been dropped off at the Intercontinental Hotel (he hadn’t, must’ve been partying with the team at the Taj). A huge bus coming out of Wankhede was stopped by the crowd who finally let it go when they realized it was not the team. They let it pass but then again closed ranks, determined to catch a glimpse of the Team whenever they left. We didn’t stick around, went and had kebabs, people were still unwinding and the day finally ended around 5-6 am. Downloaded the final the next day knowing the end is something I’ll watch again and again and rightly I’ve probably watched it every other weekend (Almost everyday during the tour of England).
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I was working on an internship (off-campus in Bangalore) during the World Cup. (for the final semester of college). When India beat Pakistan in the semi, I booked a ticket to Goa and went back to college. There, in the auditorium, with about 2500-3000 other students, professors and every staff member imaginable, I caught the final on a large cinema sized screen. Brilliance. When Dhoni hit the ball, nobody waited to see where it landed. None of us noticed THAT twirl of the bat till much later. Why? We were all on the auditorium stage dancing like a bunch of crazy people. The stage was so very close to collapsing I tell you. It was amazing. Simply, amazing.
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I just had enough time to catch the winning shot, had to immediately rush to the station to catch the train back home to Chennai from Bangalore. All along the way I saw people out and celebrating on the streets and many chaps show boating on their bikes and waving the TriColour! There was euphoria all around but I was dismayed that I couldn't be a part of it and couldn't even witness Dhoni lifting the trophy :( . I reached the station and was walking towards my compartment when I saw a crowd assembled at a corner. On closer observation I noticed that it was the Police Station and everyone was seeing the celebrations in the TV there. I too joined them and was surprised to see that even a convict was happily enjoying the proceedings from his cell!!! Was a truly memorable night in more ways than one!!
-Sahil T George
To define the celebration in one word - "DIWALI". Diwali is festival of lights and it came early for us this year. We celebrated with bursting fire crackers whole night, exchanging congratulatory messages with friends, cheering “India..... India!!”. We didn't attend the classes for 2 days. We were Discussing about how things went, cricket stats etc. It was a life time experience. A whole year has passed but that nostalgic essence is still fresh in our minds, every Indian was so proud on that day.
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The moist eyes gave way to tears which were neither bashful nor apologetic. Children wondered why the adults were emulating them. Car horns blared at midnight as if an unending Indian urban gridlock had paralyzed the city. Draping the Tricolor over one’s body felt neither childish nor jingoistic. The emotions were real, the expression even more so.
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I watched the WC Final with 15 of my friends cramped in a room, just to relish the emotional ups & downs of such a historical moment. After the victory, I went to Pune's famous FC Road with my friends. On our way, we could feel the joy, sweets were distributed. It was a thankful gesture by people of India in return for the memories of lifetime their stars had given them to cherish.
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I went with my girlfriend to a pub and watched the entire match there. Within that 8 hrs everyone present there had developed a common bond, sharing in the grief when Indian wickets fell and also enjoying the ecstasy as India inched towards the world cup. In the end, everyone present shook hands, hugged each other and we even got drinks on the house!! We also ended up making a lot of friends. It was truly an awesome day for all of India I'm sure.
-Satyaki Dey
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As is the case on most match days, I asked my wife to cook something non-vegetarian and she made fish. And as fish was being prepared and match unfolded in our favour, I was just savouring the moment. As we say in Bihar, fish brings good omen, and it was double delight actually - match with fish. Watched TV analysis late into night and used mobile to the fullest, calls/SMSes galore. The night seemed so lovely that day, with crackers bursting everywhere in Delhi. It was a sweet, sweet feeling. worth looking back at.
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The celebrations weren’t extra ordinary!! But there were some High Fives with friend, and we were already having pizza while watching the match, if I can call that a premature celebration!
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With some of my friends and family members I partied at home, some of them were burning crackers at regular intervals and we were awake till 3:30 am, generally I sleep early but that was a special night. We were shouting and screaming like mad and there was no one stopping us, not even my Grandma. Next morning I woke up as a World Champion and that was the best feeling ever.
I was on the roads of Calcutta looking at strangers hugging each other. I don’t think anything unites the nation apart from Cricket! Lost my voice of course!
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Some 15-20 of us gathered in a single apartment where we projected the match on a wall (rented projector from the university). Being far away from home, it really got us charged up and brought us together (some of us even went very emotional). The entire day was filled with happiness and sense of pride. The Indian Association here arranged for a special screening at a church where many people gathered together and watched the victory and celebrated it. The World Cup win was one of the best things that happened that year.
-Sayee Ram, USA
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I didn't show the celebrations off in a physical manner but certainly had witnessed Goosebumps. The national anthem struck my mind at that moment & it was a great moment. Words, 1080p full HD match replays cannot bring back THAT moment.
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The world cup win celebration was not fantastic, not fabulous but “FANTABULOUS”. Rarely can one witness an event filled with so much emotion and tears of joy. The streets of Marine Drive, Chaupati were roaring like the "King of the Jungle". The players were ecstatic not just because they won the cup but because they won it for Sachin. The passion was high and the sounds of “Jai ho!” in the back ground brought us all together. All of us were shouting and laughing. This World Cup win is the beginning of an era which will be dominated by Indian cricket.
-Vijay Krishna
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Well, as many fans in North America would attest, getting up at 5am to watch cricket requires dedication and passion. Of course, we were also fortunate that it was a Saturday; I'm sure that many American employers that day would have been wondering how so many Indians needed ‘sick-leave’ on the same day! Anyway, it was all worth it as India cruised to an historic win. Even as Dhoni hit the winning six, the celebrations had already begun. A family friend had cooked a delicious Indian meal in anticipation and had invited many people over; so I celebrated by gorging on chicken biryani in honour of Dhoni and his men. Next day, I gave a treat to a few of my American friends, who were delighted that India had won, though I guess for different reasons. To cap it off, I had to print out a blog post which I had written a few days earlier in which I stated that I would eat my 'words' if India won the World Cup. All I can say is, eating that piece of paper gave me immense satisfaction!
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This is a funny one actually! When Kohli got out & MSD came to bat I had started to feel that India is losing another final & then I stood bending my knee & started drinking water. Then came the moment Mahi went on the back-foot & put a Murali ball in the covers for FOUR! And post that stroke, I watched the entire game with a bottle of water in my mouth & knee bent (Superstitions, I tell u). When Mahi hit the SIX, I collapsed! (Holding urine so long ain’t a good thing) & when I got back to my senses I did the same thing that my captain did - shaved my head.
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I’ll tell you how we watched World Cup. I studied in Vallabh Vidyanagar, an educational township in Gujarat. It’s a part of the 'Milk City', Anand. There were six of us living in the flat in the last semester of our college. We were searching for the means to watch WC. Our professor (more like a friend), and the cultural co-ordinator of our college, Prof. Y A Chauhan, was kind enough to lend us his old television set. Being a die-hard cricket fan himself, he could very well understand our eagerness for watching the World Cup. As I said, we were six friends living in the flat, but not during India's match. For India’s matches, our flat would be filled with 25-30 of our friends. The celebrations after winning the match against Pakistan and the final were same. As we were in an educational township, the atmosphere was awesome. The entire Vidyanagar was on streets. Students were roaming on bikes, cars! Even the police diverted the traffic to another route to make way for the celebrations. We celebrated till late night.
-Chetan Matwankar
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I watched the final at home in London - not a big fan of watching crucial games, especially those involving India, with a group of people. So while celebration was muted, the happiness wasn't. On a personal level, the biggest plus of this win was the start of my five year old daughter's obsession with cricket (or should I say cricketers!).
-Murali Krishna, UK
By sheer coincidence I was in Eindhoven, The Netherlands during the world cup final, much like I was during the 2007 final when Australia won it. The fact that Sri Lanka was at the receiving end in both matches made it sweet. Right from starting the match with the tweet I still remember “Time to exact revenge for Kolkata'96 boys”, to a stiff drink to end the night. April 2'nd 2011 was a good one.
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There I was watching the nail biting finish, on the phone with my sister in Australia (with the five-hour time difference and all) screaming out the score and cursing the opposition. Time stood still and there it was that perfect moment, we had won, fireworks were set off in the streets that were a moment ago dead silent, high-fives exchanged with my reclusive mother, who would otherwise have been snoring her way to oblivion and my father of course having slept through the last few hours of the match sat up for the last five overs, all the while asking me to calm down. As though it was the New Year, I called up my friends and family and asked them stupidly "Did you see that!!! WE won it!!"
The time tested cliche was written out in bold blue headlines with bloggers and newspapers claiming rightly perhaps for the first time that a billion hearts beat together. And maybe, just maybe I will tell my kids this, when India wins again after another 20 years or so....
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On the WC final eve, myself and my friend reserved our seats in one of the multiplexes in Nagpur. So all we did was buy some pop-corn, and occupied our seats on time. We enjoyed every ball of it. Tapped our hands whenever a Sri Lankan wicket fell.
We screamed out of joy after our victory. That was really a wonderful Nigh. It took 2 hours to reach our hostel which was just 6 km away. People ran out of their homes, on to the streets, in joy. There were crackers fired all around. The so called youth along with their topless jeeps, cars, bikes were speeding their vehicles with loud horns. Everyone was granted a free license on that day. “Break the Rules”! That’s Cricket in India for you! “Every one of us become analysts after watching a game”. That’s what happened after we reached our room. Long Discussion (debate) with friends on the way players played and then to bed. Lovely day it was!
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I was one of the fortunate ones who watched the Final in Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. When Dhoni’s Six sailed over MCA Pavilion, the entire stadium went berserk. Seeing Legends cry in front of you was unreal experience. No one left the Stadium till the Team had their last lap of honor with the cup. Maa Tujhe Salam resonated around the stadium. I had never seen so many Indian Flags in my life. The fireworks were spectacular. It was UNREAL. Every face had a story !
After the Final, Indians in stands were hugging each other and there were handshakes of Commiserations towards Sri Lankan fans. Got out of Stadium, hugged a CISF Jawan. He could not watch the match because he was on duty. But he was very proud and unbelievably happy because India won. Congratulated every Jawan I met till I reached the Churchgate Station, every one congratulated me back. It was a carnival like atmosphere. The party from Wankhede had spilled on the streets.
My friend, Faraz, who was searching for me on the Station ran towards my compartment gave me a hug and said “World Champions “. I reached my Station after one and a half hour. My friend Kishan who had come to pick me up said “Tune Duniya Dekh li Aaj “ !!! He summed it up quite well. I lived a dream on that extraordinary night at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
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| Vipul Yadav, at Wankhede, watching the Finals of the World Cup. |
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A big round of hi-fives and hugs, and that was about it. I missed most of the match while travelling. Only caught the last 10 overs at a friend's house alongside his family. Thankfully, I caught that.
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I was in the final year of my college when we won the world cup. The final was shown on the college’s Open-Air-Theatre, on a big screen and there was huge crowd to watch the match. When Dhoni hit for six, as the ball soared to the stadium we started hugging each other and throwing each other up. It was a maddening moment for us. Also it felt more great when we released that in our first (T20 World Cup, 2007) and final year we had won World Cups. We took processions throughout the college singing great songs about Sachin, Dhoni, Yuvraj...every single member of the team. I thank whole Team India for providing us with such joy and fulfilment.
-Thomson Nelson
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Since I was not with a big gang of friends the celebrations were rather simple. I was excited and happy for a few minutes. But I felt a sense of peace when the environment around me was quiet. I was travelling to Railway station to pick up my friend. I was the only person (literally) in the EMU. I felt a relief, will, that gave me the calmness to take the Indian team victory as news rather than an emotion. That’s “Celebrating Silence”
-Vignesh M
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I spent a nerve-wracking 6 hours in a sports bar strangely named Aphrodite in Jakarta. The crowd was a mix of Indian and Sri Lankan expats, but tipped 1:2 in favour of us Indians. Having missed seeing the Ind-Pak Semi-Finals on account of being up in the air, the finals were something I wouldn’t miss, even if it meant going to the end of a strange city.
My mood ebbed and flowed with the match - there was a feeling of redemption when Zaheer bowled his extraordinary first spell, then a sense of déjà vu when we let the match get away towards the end of their innings. There was almost despair when we started our innings - the Indians suddenly went quiet at the fall of Sehwag and Tendulkar's wickets, and you could clearly make out who was winning by the noise the Sri Lankans were generating. The Gambhir - Kohli and Gambhir- Dhoni partnerships finally made the Sri Lankans pipe down, and by the time MSD got into his mental mode, the Indians at the bar were clearly on top.
In the end, it was worth the nerve cells I sacrificed, and the beer I'd to drink, and the trips to the loo I'd to make. What a day. What a match!
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I recorded the entire final over on my phone from TV! Clicked 50 snaps on TV! To make sure I capture every emotion of every player. Especially Sachin Tendulkar. My entire family, with cousins was home, so had to go for a long drive along with 1000 others to chant “Indiaaaa... India!” on the streets. Sitting on the window, whistling, yelling, cheering and staring at cute guys! Joined a rally and also tried playing the band for 2 minutes. I was happy to see Sachin happy and Virat say those words for Sachin. But it was awesome to see people going bonkers, painting their bodies in tri-colour and jamming the traffic. Police had to actually work whole night to make sure there were no hassles.
In the street outside my house, rows of trucks thundered by, there was constant blaring of horns, Indian flags were embellishing every single vehicle that was out there. Me and my friends joined the party, burst a few crackers, screamed our lungs out and watched as a kaleidoscope of varying fireworks beautified the night skies of Vadodara. Then, it was time to celebrate with my family. My dad, who is a big SRTard (who isn’t?) was finally relieved and was wearing a broad smile on his face and why not? After all, our hero, our master-blaster; Sachin Tendulkar’s dream of being part of a World Cup winning side had finally come true. A gruelling wait of 5 World Cups finally culminated into this wonderful moment. Hmm…What else? Well, we all went to sleep with perpetual emotions of joy, excitement and pride filling our hearts up to the brim. Yaaayyyy.. We are the WORLD CHAMPIONS!! Chak De India!!
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The final wasn't as much of a high as it was for the semi-finals, as I watched it with my friends in Gurgaon and not in the stadium as had been the case with the semi-finals. Needless to say, we were all ecstatic about the win, but were quite eager to start our session of all night poker.
I was watching the match at home. There was not really any company for me besides twitter. I was sitting on the edge of my seat, keeping my fingers crossed and praying. When Dhoni hit that six, I immediately got out of my chair and started jumping crazily and fist pumping with tears flowing unstoppably. My mom who had been sleeping came out hearing the noises I made and joined my celebrations. That was so kind of her to do so considering she doesn't follow any sport and it was late night. It was kind of quiet celebration within me. I wanted to go down to the street and burst crackers, but it was quite impossible considering the culture in our city. So it was all tweeting, tweeting and tweeting for me, sharing my happiness with fellow fans. I didn’t sleep that night, thinking about the victory unlike those sleepless nights thinking how on earth we dint win the match. I am not a person with good memory, but still, this victory stands quite straight in my mind and will be there forever. Dhoni's interview, Kohli's interview, players carrying Gary and Sachin on their shoulders, Yuvi crying, those hugs, those tears, those flags, those champagnes... It's all right in front of my eyes. Hats off to our heroes!
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It was late night on 2nd of April when we won the World Cup and all the celebrations were done on 3rd of April which incidentally happens to be my Birthday, I never thought I would get such a gift from our team. I was elated and ecstatic that is celebration for me :)
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I was at the Wankhede stadium with my husband – in the stand beside the one where the final six came in. For a few moments we did not know what struck us – Indian players were on the ground running hard and hugging each other, the entire stadium had gone berserk, firecrackers in the skies and everyone around us was hugging each other. The scenes were unbelievable – not a soul moved till the team completed the victory lap. When we came out – the roads were packed, people shouting "India India" , "Sachin Sachin", Indian flags waving high, in the train on the way home the entire train was shouting victory slogans – in my 26 years of living in Mumbai (before moving to Dubai) I have never seen her go so wild and not cause any harm.
I experienced harmony and peace in chaos for the first time.
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I rode my Activa with my friends and roamed around the city crying out loud “Indiaaaaa... Indiaaaa”, I remember one man stopped an auto in which two foreigners were there, and told them that India have won the World Cup, proudly.
-Mridul Mittal
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After the finals, I was dancing on my bed and was shouting at the top of my voice! Then, I saw my friend lighting crackers. Fun continued out there. I completely enjoyed the "Once in a lifetime experience" to the core.
-Karthik Shetty
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We celebrated by Driving down to the Hotel Taj with our flag. And then, returning by 8 am in the morning. Between the two events, we partied all night!
-Harshad Bhoir
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We had set up a big screen at my residence. And after the successful chase of the game and the World Cup crowd, I celebrated it with family.
-Ayush Agarwala
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We celebrated it with a bang, just as loud as the one served by our cricket team. The Indian flag was with us and may be around twenty cars and hundreds of bikes were on the road together. And all of us were screaming in chorus – “Indiaaaaaaaaaaa... Indiaaaaaaa! Indiaaaaaaaa... Indiaaaaaaa!”
-Subodh Rathi
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I celebrated with my friends and family, with a lot of masti all night! A wonderful night, hence!
-Viraaj Singhal
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We all cousins went out at night in a car. We took the floor, and danced on the road. Never ever felt so proud of the traffic on the streets of Mumbai!
-Kunjal Shah Dhodhia
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I've been celebrating every win throughout the World Cup & hence there was no wild celebrations after the finals when compared to the other ones. I knew that it will come and was glad when it finally arrived!
-Prabhu Dhamodharan
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The World Cup victory is a wonderful story. There was live streaming in my college where about 200 of us saw the match in an auditorium. There is nothing better than the finals to watch with the crowd. The winning moments were like ecstatic with all of shouting at the top of our voices, running around the auditorium with the Indian flag and singing the national anthem! Directly we went to the nearby Indian chat place and continued the celebrations!
-J. Shriram, USA
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I celebrated by just continuing to watch TV long after it was over, trying to savour every interview, every moment, till the very end. As they say, it took quite some time, to "sink in", but it was the realization that my life as a cricket fan will probably be never as good, never so perfect, that made me feel on top of the world.
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The memory of the India's historical World Cup win in 2011 will remain fresh for me, even in the haze of senility, purely because it was a shared memory, and a shared experience. A experience shared, cliché though it sounds, with a billion friends.
If I'd watched the final at home, nursing a beer, some chips, transmitted through 5.1 system, in HD quality, on a 51 inch screen, I would've remembered how clear the memory was, for about a week.
Instead, I saw the entire campaign, wearing the blues, painted in colours, bottles in hand to simulate war drums, with a throat that grew more hoarse by the delivery, a maniacal fervour (and becoming most maniacal during the finals) that comes only through chanting with a hundred others in a hall who're chanting in a maniacal fervour, and, victory.
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Like many others, I followed this event on Twitter mostly, and the experience has been unparalleled. You would know, if you'd been there. I could almost hear my timeline scream, every time the ball made it over the boundary. Caps Lock meant a lot of things- anger, enthusiasm, excitement, shock, outrage and more. Puns and jokes flew around like bullets in a war field. And we bonded. Bonded over the opposing teams' no-balls, the commentators' dress sense, the fours, sixes and wickets we took, the facepalms every time a mis-fielding happened, the victories and most of all, we bonded over one man-Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. We are all believers. Theists of the religion of cricket. And Him, our God. And, he won. We won!
-Lifetimefe
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I celebrated the sweet victory by downing a generous quantity of single malt!
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What adjectives do I use to describe the feeling when India won? Ecstatic? Happy? Excited? No. It just can’t be described. All of us in the room, miles away from India, were in some “Heavenly state”. How I wish I was in India.
It was time for a Victory walk, yes right here in USA. We took the Indian flag, and walked on Locust Walk (Main Street of my campus, where I would be taking my graduation walk soon!). All of us were World Champions.
- Jnana P Panuganti, USA
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We basically were screaming with joy (around 50 of us). Many (not me) had their faces painted tricolour during the matches that we did screen at our University. The best was when everyone stayed back after the match and partied till night there, forgetting everything else but the World Cup Victory for a few hours J
-Vidya Raju, Switzerland
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Sitting and watching cricket miles away from homeland is a totally different feeling. First and foremost poor graduate students do not have the luxury of television sets and they need to setup projectors borrowed from the university library. Online streaming is the only source of viewing though I must admit the chat on the side is pretty interesting and tends to get violent too. Time zone adds to the agony and pain. But then, the thought of world cup finals and India featuring in it after their early exit in the previous addition makes up for all these put together plus adds to an adrenaline rush which cannot be described in words. So our whole big group sat down in one house with all the snacks and drinks under the sun to see a scary first innings. The total scared us, but we are Indians and the moment we see Mr Sachin walk into the stadium carrying the bat optimism rushes inside us from nowhere. And then you have the great man who has managed to score a boundary of the first ball throughout the tournament ready to face the first ball. 32/2 in fifteen mins and if a small village in United States of America can be hurt, We sat watching in silence to not jinx anything. Finally came the moment, that six which lifted us the trophy, lifted our hopes and our asses which were stuck to the carpet, literally. The celebrations had to follow suit though each of us Chennaites were cursing ourselves for missing the fun and frolic in Bessie. There is only one Indian restaurant in this village and needless to say each of us were high fiving and hogging and enjoying the feeling on a fine Sunday afternoon, Apr 2nd 2011!
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Being in the field of covering live sports, I had this opportunity to celebrate the joy with other cricket fanatics in the office. I might have never jumped so high out of excitement like I did on that day, when Dhoni clobbered that six over long on. A round of hugs then with colleagues and the small party kind-of event stretched till 3.30 am in the night. It couldn’t have ended better, with tears in eyes and a proud smile below.
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The moment Dhoni hit 2 fours off Malinga in the 48th over, I knew it was over. All of us watching together were standing on the chairs and dancing. And then the magical six. We yelled, we hugged. There were fire crackers too. Some of us ran all through the colony yelling out slogans and chanting “Indiaaaa Indiaa” When Sachin was on TV talking, I dunno why, but I kneeled down and bowed him. I’ve never seen this nation go as crazy as they did on that day. I’ve never seen me go this crazy before.
As a NRI, watching India lift the world cup trophy was a surreal experience. Growing up knowing that the world cup is the ultimate in cricket, I always dreamt that India would win the cup one day. April 2nd 2011, and my dream came true. I celebrated the final win by screaming and shouting the entire night. A day I will never forget...
-Thasvir Bridglall, South Africa
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Once the ball form Dhoni’s bat crossed the boundary I saw stones, ice-cream cups, T-shirts and a lot more items flying all around in the midst of an ear-deafening blare from almost around a thousand fellow students. We started dancing in joy shouting slogans until our throat went sore. Then there was a split in the group wherein one particular classic cricket fans group waited to see the award ceremony, whereas the other impatient group proceeded for the celebrations. The initial phase was a bit parliamentary where we threw chairs and tables from heights to the ground floor and. Then we lit fire to old papers and started throwing them everywhere making it look like a bombed border line. The fireworks of crackers then followed came as a boost to everyone. We dropped buckets of filled water from all floors. A particular group set a campfire in middle of the ground and danced semi naked!!! The night of India’s win in my final year of college, together with around 1000 students in an open ground… More than anyone could ask for. I feel that day as one that is most memorable.
-Suresh
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More than the final what is in my mind is the semi finals against Pakistan. Not necessarily a celebration but an interesting incident. I am currently living in Netherlands in Europe. After the Semi-Finials a bunch of us decided to go out and have dinner at an Indian restaurant. After hunting for an affordable place, we zeroed in on a Himalayan Indian restaurant in a nearby city. When we went there, to our surprise the place was very quiet. And when we asked a middle aged women sitting in the counter if she watched the match, she nonchalantly replied that she is not interested in cricket!! Phew cricket is after all a sport!! Just that, it was a sport to be celebrated, and we had a World Cup to celebrate.
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During the Finals of the World Cup, my dis-interest (thanks to the super exciting Semi-Finals) was turning into frustration till I saw one indecent in which Sachin put in a diving effort in the third man region to save the boundary. Then did I realize that I was watching the finals of a World Cup and we were looking to win it after 28 years.
Half time while we were having our lunch after the Lankan innings, things were grim, not much of speaking, but expecting Sehwag will show the way by smashing Malinga. All those expectations came crashing down, the room was silent, we heard a lone voice in the room shouting "Yes .... Yes .....", it took us a while to realize that he was a lone Lankan supporter amongst a sea of Indians (looking back, i still appreciate him for his guts). A Billion hopes almost came crashing down, when Sachin edged the ball into Sanga's gloves. But thanks to Virat and Gambhir, they kept our hopes alive by holding on in those crucial overs. Then came the all important boundaries and we started playing songs like "Chak de " to celebrate every one of those. There was a brief sadness when Kohli got out and we were expecting Yuvraj to come in, the star performer for us throughout the WC, but came a man who was ready to take the responsibility "Dhoni". From then on the frequency of celebration and music increased and we knew that we were a lot Indians in that room together and going to witness something historic. There was a lot of space between the screen and the seats and from that point, i don't remember a single person seated, all of us were jumping around and shouting at the top of our voices. Even now it gives me Goosebumps when I recollect the moment when Dhoni hit the most stylish six, we erupted to say the least. It was surely a wonderful day we were celebrating hard after that shot. We came out of the room so happy shouting loud "Weeee.. are the Champions !!!"
-Vigneswaran Karunanithi, Netherlands
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To enjoy the moments after our World Cup victory, I was there in my favourite place in the world i.e. my engineering hostel (COEP Hostel, Pune). We were dancing like anything in the hostel premises for about two hours. Then with a band, we entered on to the streets. Hugging, congratulating anybody who came across, without knowing the identities of them. In other words, for those 4 to 5 hours, I was not Makrand and they were not what they were in their day to day life; we were only CRAZY INDIANS Inebriated by the Victory over the Word of Cricket.
-Makrand Pardeshi
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Never in my wildest dreams had I ever imagined the scenes I was going to witness that night, to actually see people in Delhi (a city usually known for aloofness) go out on roads, scream and hug strangers was just unbelievable.
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The celebrations started with crackers and dancing on the night of Final. The night was spent singing songs devoted to the country like “Vande Mataram”. However, that was just the start and it went on for a long time. As a kid, I had written in my dairy that I wished to watch India win a 50-over World Cup before I die. Once it had actually materialized, I was on cloud nine. Having watched two close matches live, it felt as if I had won, as if I was in the team. In fact on 2nd May 2011, a month after the win, a group of friends decided to celebrate the win yet again!
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During the finals, every Indian boundary would be followed by us lot running outside the flat to the corridor, and dancing for a short while. Every boundary needed a celebration. And when we won, the dancing just got longer, and longer, and went deep into the night. Not to mention, we were accompanied by many others, all shouting “Jeet Gaye!” on top of their voice. There were fire crackers to make things even louder!
-Amreesh Singh Thakur
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Ah!! The celebrations were beautiful. With the six, we opened Thums Up bottles like champagne, to mark the winning moment. Then, there were crackers’ show, with the rockets and bombs to be heard at each and every corner of the society.
Later, we vroomed our bikes and went out to celebrate with other Barodians whom we might be seeing for the first time. The road was hell crowded and was full of the slogans of India’s victory. The trucks, drums, music systems etc were hired and we made sure to dance with every song being played. However when we tried to climb over one of the trucks, we were asked to step down as one of the family has rented the truck plus there were beauties on the lorry (the very obvious for asking us to step down).
At around 2 am, when the police was asking to clear off the road at the Bird Circle, Alkapuri area, none paid heed to the instructions. Instead we were busy shouting at the top of our voices and whenever a car pass we just jumped in front of the car shouting “Brrrrrrrr…” and making the moment more majestic. It so happened that one of the car driver came out of the car and he himself started shouting “Brrrrrr..” along us. We continued it till a large numbers of cars were lined up. (Still I do not know who that car driver was, but we all were so happy and joyful at that moment that nothing but celebration was on our minds)
At last, we returned home at around 3 am, had some tea with snacks, and were switching between the NEWS channels to look at celebrations across INDIA. Full country was awake and cheering the moment for which each one of us had waited for 28 long years!!!!!!!!!!!
-Punya Jain
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Distance, they say, brings perspective. Well...that was one day when it brought everything but. On that chilly afternoon in Toronto, it was a hysterical concoction of incoherent phone calls from India and everywhere, euphoric emails exploding off my laptop screen and tweets that are still ensconced so warmly that there is a wrenching reluctance to let go. I would spent a few giddy hours in speechless and beaming inebriation with Antony Chettapuzha aka @achettup (who I met for the first time in my life) only to later settle down in a local pub with a gaggle of rabble-rousing tri-colour face-painted strangers, toasting that oh so special moment. But my heart will stay warm forever with the image (and sounds) of my Sahara-clad kid tearing up and down the sidewalks in my quiet residential street, waving an Indian flag, screaming like a banshee and accepting high-fives from my neighbours - Canadians, Ukrainians, Englishmen and all. Just take me back.
Actually, I didn’t celebrate much. I was in mourning, actually. Even as the nation of over billion was going bonkers, my thoughts wandered towards the big losers of the night, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Sunil Valson and Yashpal Sharma, as they lost their only chance to be called as experts on TV to discuss World Cups any more. That mantle, I believe, has now moved to the safe hands of Piyush Chawla and, to a certain extent, Sreesanth. When Sreesanth was on mind, how could anyone have celebrated? Also, Poonam Pandey is still to deliver on her promise.
There were no huge celebrations from my side per se. I was watching it in Dubai with friends. But, outside the apartment, a group of guys informed us that there was loud noise a few streets from our house. In Bur-Dubai. That celebration... Seeing is believing. The photographs from that wild celebratory march through the streets of Dubai bring back that day, any day!
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Celebrations... Inside the Wankhede, focus was on the players celebrating. Outside the stadium, there was a sea of fans celebrating like never before. And this is how I spent the rest of the night celebrating :-
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I watched the World Cup final with two complete strangers who I hadn’t known existed just a few hours before the final kicked off; Friends of a friend kind of thing. But having made through Australia and Pakistan, I was quite relaxed that this was a sealed deal but when Sehwag and Tendulkar got out cheaply, memories of past disappointments snuck in but were soon banished by the calm approach of Gautam Gambhir and the flamboyant flourish of MS Dhoni. We high-fived and hugged each other as the final shot was soaring in to the Mumbai night sky and went to the local Indian restaurant to find others of the ilk. The restaurant owner – who is from Mumbai and a cricket nut – gushed over the finals but it was a pretty low-key celebration. Phone calls to people across the country and continents with the conversations being mostly a jumble of “Wow”, “I can’t believe it” and “Oh my God” was how the rest of the day went. What a day it was!
My celebrations when India won the World Cup were more of a gratification, delayed by 8 years, than of pure ecstasy. In a strange way, the first image that came to my mind when we won was that of a younger me 8 years ago, in tears and praying frantically for rain to save us when we were tottering against Australia in the finals of what to me will always remain India’s greatest run in the world cups.
-Santosh Srinivasan
April 3rd, 2011. Almost 8 hours after seeing MS scream that famous six off Kulasekara. I was off again. Waking up to the repeated sounds of celebration from all over the nation was a different feeling. One that India didn’t experience in 28 years. I chose to celebrate this momentous occasion by calling up as many friends as possible and sharing the joys with each one of them. The gravity of the achievement was so grandiose that it took way over a week for the full joy to settle down. Sigh. Times that I will never forget.
I was watching the finals with my brother (a Major General), who had come for an inspection at EME/Baroda. I had to leave for UK the next day. At the airport in Mumbai, I saw a lot of people wearing the Indian jersey, boarding their planes to home, wherever in the world they are. The joy from the World Cup win was going to every corner of the world! It was wonderful!
-Pavan Kumar Rao
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The special moment I will always cherish is watching Team India practice in the nets at IITM's Chemplast Cricket ground. It was memorable to watch Yuvraj practice his lofted shots, as well as Gary Kirsten sending down throws to Sachin Tendulkar. And Sreesanth waved at us all. I know it's probably not too special, given that it wasn't a real match, but the fact remains that India had lost their match previous to this, and after this it was all wins. And it feels great to think that practicing in my backyard of sorts sparked India into the road for glory.
-Raghavan
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I wasn’t with my Father when that Six was hit but I called him over Phone and I shouted like a crazy escapee from an asylum but till date I forgot to mention or ask him this “Is that how you Felt on 1983?”. Lest! When you yourself know the answer why should you pose a question .
Yes dad, I know. This is exactly how you would have felt on 1983 When Amarnath took that last wicket . Dad, I now know what that tiny curve of unexplainable painful smile you had every time you see the footage and now that I too have felt it . It was the “Inner Cry of Joy”
-R. Sriram
- Hari Sankar
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Seeing all players hugging each other tears in eyes same was the case at my house. was emotional and at the same time happy. Just wanted to print every second of that time in my memory. Year 2011 just couldn't have got bigger than this.
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I made my first and possibly only trip ever to Jerusalem, Israel on the day of the World Cup Final. It was a business trip. I missed the entire Sri Lankan innings and started watching the Indian chase on a questionable Internet connection at a Jerusalem hotel. I celebrated by myself in a hotel room. I ordered a pizza. I called my mom and my brother. A combination of jet-lag and anxious excitement to read and process ever tweet and article meant I got barely any sleep. 12 hours later I visited the old city of Jerusalem and the place of so much significance and importance to so many. It did not do much for me. My religious experience and validation of faith was done with a few hours earlier.
-Shyam, USA
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I had watched the entire World Cup at home, where I had been preparing for my impending examinations. Through most of the second innings in the Finals, I was seated alone watching the match in the drawing room. My parents were watching it in their room. When the victory was pretty much sealed midway through the Dhoni-Yuvraj stand, my parents came to join me in the drawing room. That put me in the most awkward situation. Having lived half my life in hostels, I had not cried in front of them for a decade and a half. So I tried to hold myself back when Dhoni hit THAT six and the dressing room went berserk. But when Yuvraj Singh grabbed hold of Tendulkar to sob on his shoulder for a good 30 seconds, I excused myself to the kitchen (on the pretext of needing some water to drink), and quickly shed a few tears. No eye contact was made with my parents till the next morning. Not that they were really looking at me then… we were all savouring in the wonderful feeling.
- Shridhar Jaju
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- Hari Sankar
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After India won the world cup, none of us felt like going back home. We all stayed back in the sports’ club for some time after the match got over. We were provided with free crackers and we celebrated until we were tired. My house is only 20 minutes away from the sports’ club but on that night, the roads were fully jammed and it took almost 1 hour to get back home. I was so happy that, I wanted to spread my happiness to every single person I came across. So, I smiled, waved and gave hi-fis to so many strangers in the sports’ club and on the road also. I have never done anything like that before but right after the match, it really didn’t matter. I’m sure our entire country forgot about its social problems at least for a day or so, after India won the world cup. I’ve never seen any other sport uniting strangers to such an extent in India!
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| Big Screen, Big Celebration. India, 2011 World Champions. |
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How did you celebrate the 2011 Cricket World Cup? Let us all know by writing it down in the space below! Thank you!
I was watching the match in a local club in the city and the atmosphere was terrific! I was dead silent from the 6th over to the 45th over of India's innings. When dhoni hit malinga for 2 consecutive boundaries, I knew it that we could'nt lose from that moment on! the moment dhoni hit that six, i was in complete disbelief. I literally started crying! people around me werent amazed as they knew i was very emotional in these matters! my dad called me up, and he knew i would cry! but he also knew those were tears of happiness!-
ReplyDeleteSoham
April 2nd is my birthday.Men in Blue gave me the best and the most unforgettable birthday present ever
ReplyDeleteFor me.its quit different ,I was studying 10th and just getting ready for the public exam and April 4 was by science exam ,due to world cup my parents prioly cutted the cable but as soon as India reach the final ,i quarreled with my parents to reconnect the cable .At last they came to my way , finally turned the TV and watched the heart full memory
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