Oh Those Ten! - 6

Two World Cups and Kaushik!

All the moments before and after this would have involved either my glory or my friends'.But this moment does not belong to My class or My batch or My college.This moment would find a place even in the year-end lists of obscure "literary" magazines named delightfully like "கணையாழி". But I just could not resist posting this not only because all students who studied BE from 2007-2011 were lucky to witness Two Indian World Cup wins in their time.Reading further will enlighten the reader.

Way back in 2007,we were fresh to PSG Tech (Even the bridge was under construction).We were still finding new friends and were still finding it an ordeal to send even a SMS to our class girls.Kaushik was still a guy who waved the occasional "Hi" to me but the relation had blossomed only thus far then.Some event had to occur suddenly to bring all disparate and reluctant classmates under a single umbrella.

That was not happening in the Orthogonal Diagonalisation classes or the boring films (Satham Podadhey!) at theaters (which obviously never made us bunk) or Tutor Sampath's genial smiles.Someone had to pull a big-sized rabbit out of the hat to bring in a sense of unity and belonging in the class and I never expected it to be Dhoni.On September 24,when the ball rose in the air off the miscued hit of Misbah-Ul-Haq,what was hanging in the air was not just an Indian T20 world-cup but our own entry into the Comfort Zone at PSG Tech.

The final match between India and Pakistan see-sawed between extremes.Every ten minutes,the fortunes shifted from one camp to the other.As we ran back from the mess to TV hall in G3 block (eating banana and nails),Misbah was doing a Houdini.When Sreesanth (of all) caught that dreaded ball to give us the world cup,all hell broke loose.There was absolute cacophony in the TV hall.Dhoni was anointed a superstar that night.But something more poignant happened.I knew about Kaushik very little but that moment suddenly glued us together.We could not help but cry out loud shouting "Machi!We Won da!We won da!".I hugged him tight.

Then Kaushik got very close to me in ways written elsewhere in this space.But in the final semester,we drifted apart in different ways.He was caught up in writing SOPs for education in foreign universities and myself in Kriya.I could barely meet him since we were in two different blocks.The friendship was there but the love went missing.Then the World Cup arrived.When the world cup got hotter with the Quarter Finals against Australia,we forsook dinner to watch it screened in the hostel grounds.

When it was known that the Semis was against Pakistan,even Manmohan Singh cancelled his routine protocol.We watched the first half at a hotel to come back to hostel for the Night-Time screening.India's win evoked a series of fireworks all around the hostel.We had preponed Diwali with no one reminding us that The Finals was a stone's throw away.

April 2 arrived.The same ritual (First Half-hotel,Second Half-hostel screening) was repeated.Before we got back to hostel,Sehwag was out and as we were finding a comfortable place to sit,Sachin was gone too.While I had lost hopes and would have childishly (for others) cried anytime soon,Kaushik was still cheering the team up.When the world was turned upside down with that Dhoni's Helicopter Shot (and That Dhoni's Menacingly Calm Look),the hostel ground turned into Kolkata's Eden Gardens.Fire,Crackers,Dance-Euphoria seems a very lame word to describe the outburst.

Touchingly,the finals came a day after the Final Working Day Ever cheering up our distraught lot who were memorising lines to mouth at Farewell parties.More touchingly,that old love was back.Kaushik gave me a "Dai Idiot!I told-you-know" smile.Both of us could not help but cry out loud shouting "Machi!We Won da!We won da!".I hugged him tight.