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Of Victory Parades and More

As any regular reader to my blog will know( and there are damn few of those) I'm currently obsessed with all things to do with the Indian Twenty20 team. And when I heard about the victory parade or rather the Vijay Rath I simply had to go.

And I'm so so glad I did. It was an experience unto itself and I guess I may have to wait another 24 years to see something like this again and by then I'll probably be too old to appreciate it.

The crowds that lined the road was humongous and the mood was very happy and excited. Passing on information on where the open-air bus was, cheering every time bikes passed by waving the Indian flag. Yelling 'Ganpati Bappa Morya'. Teasing milkmen and delivery boys whenever they took a turn they weren't supposed to. Wildly waving, every time a camera so much as moved in their direction. It was so so much fun.

And then finally the Indian Team arrived and thats when things started to get out of hand. The arrived after about 10-15 police jeeps and an escort of 40-50 policemen on bikes. But arrive they did with music blaring and them dancing and waving with joy and the crowd going absolutely crazy. People started yelling and screaming and I was one of them too. I screamed "Irfan!! Irfan" at the top of my voice. And then I saw Robin Uthappa and I blew him kisses. And he winked back and I almost spontaneously combusted with joy. Hehe.

Dhoni was happily waving the cup and Robin, Yuvraj, Irfan were all busy waving to the crowd. Harbhajan on the other hand sat there grumpily looking as though someone had died. Now I know it was probably a long journey and 5 and a half hours isn't a joke. Also the jet lag and the exhaustion of traveling but still. I mean Come On, it wouldn't have killed him to crack a smile for the thousands of people who had gathered there for him in support of him and to show their appreciation for what he and the rest of his team had done. My only regret on the other hand is that I didn't get to see RP Singh. *Sob*. But oh well, the next time the Indian team plays at Wankhede I'm going. 101%!!!

It was such a fantastic moment and then the crowd began to lose all sense of order. People started moving everywhere. Everywhere I looked there were men and more men around and everyone of them seemed to be touching us. I lost my hair clip. My friend lost her slipper and what felt like a million feet stepped all over our feet until we looked like beggar children.

But all in all, it was something I'm never gonna forget and something I'll relive forever and ever and keep repeating it too until everybody around me gets tired of it.

Thank you, to my much loved friend SK for making this possible for me. For being there and being such a good sport.

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