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Cheering for Our Host-country
We ate dinner at the clubhouse tonight and the cricket match between India and Pakistan was being broadcast like a drive-in movie on a huge projection-screen outside by the pool, with speakers blaring the commentary both outside and in. There were several parties of men outside and the rest of the tables were reserved, and so we ate inside, but still felt part of it.
Months ago, Pat found an explanation from Purdue University on the rules of cricket and studied them. She was explaining "wickets" and "20 overs" and "bowlers" to me and I was impressed. For three seasons in my early-20s, I played rugby and never learned all of the rules; I was in the second row of the scrum and mostly just needed to push forward.
I clapped and shouted when everyone else did -- then and tonight -- and had a lot of fun in both cases.
We returned home, which was a 10-minute walk under nearly a full moon, in cool, night air -- Fallish, but with bananas budding, rather than leaves turning colors -- and Pat turned on the rest of the game and cheered as loudly as she does for the Packers (who won their third, straight game yesterday; they're 3 for 3!).
India won! We heard our neighbors cheering, too, and I felt proud of India for the second time today.
This morning, on the way to work, I saw a great article on how India can become a full-fledged super-power; it was my first moment of pride.
Nice to begin and end the day with Indian pride.
2 comments:
I was living in France in the late 1990s when they won the world cup. I remember cheering and rocking a subway car back and forth so hard with the crowd of singing Frenchies that it almost fell off the tracks. Despite my Ohio origins I felt proud to be, uh, French?
Yeah, it's fun to be part of the fervor. Pat and I were talking about how in the United States, there's no similar groundswell, since there's no national team...except when the U.S. team goes to the Olympics.
Pat's watching a "50 Over" version of cricket now, where India's playing Australia, and where the game's twice as long as the one I enjoyed the other day...too long for my engagement -- unpatriotic as that is(!)
When we went to get our hair cut earlier today, we passed the stadium, where the game would begin four hours later, and already, there were tons of vendors outside it, hawking Indian flags, just like souvenir vendors at games in the States, but by contrast, there was also a popular food vendor, using a press to transform sugarcane into "juice."
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