Time flies! Yet memories linger on, like the afterglow of the sun lingering on the horizon. I can recall the day like it just happened yesterday. I can feel the pain as I write this. Phew, time hardly heals heartbreaks.
I can understand if you thought I had had a failed affair. Yes, you are right. My first love, broke my heart this day, 20 years ago.
Indian cricket team played Australia in the world cup final in Johannesburg. Of course, the Indian cricket team was my first love. As a passionate young man then, still in his teens, and playing district-level cricket tournaments, still harboring a dream of one day playing for India, cricket was all I dreamt. A World cup final win was all I wanted. Watching India beat Australia was all I lived for.
When the world cup started, I was writing my class XII exams. Class XII examinations! The so-called most important phase of life. Yet, world cup cricket was all I cared for. 20 years since I don't remember one word of what I studied then. But remember everything about the cricket match on that day. I told you, I was in love with cricket. Whoever forgets love?
India had a pretty good team. We had only been beaten once before we entered the finals. Once, but that by the invincible Aussies. But hope is a beautiful thing. We hoped that the finals will be different and we can beat the Invincibles.
It was a hot day. My Indian parents had taken the TV off my radar; I was writing class XII exams you see. So I went to my uncle's house to watch the match. Listened intently to every word of what Mandira Bedi said in the pre-match session. Who forgets Mandira Bedi? Match started! First over. Zaheer Khan, one of India's greatest went on to bowl the worst first over in Indian history. I was still not panicking. When you are in love, the reality is hazy, I suppose. The writing was on the wall. Indian cricket team would not beat the Australian cricket team. Not that day. Not in a world cup final.
The Aussie batsmen pummeled Indian bowlers. The captain scored a scintillating century. Then the Indian batsmen failed in the run chase. Every time a new Indian batsman walked in, the heart created a flutter. Perhaps this man will do it for us today, I told myself. Till the last man got out.
Then the long cycle back home. I cried the whole way back. As I entered home, my mom, the typical Indian mom started the tirade. "12th Exams ah vachikittu cricket paarthitu varaan paaru (You have exams, and you are watching cricket)". The penny dropped then! It hit me hard that the love of my life ditched me. I cried and cried and cried. My mom didn't know what has hit me. She perhaps didn't know my love then.
Twenty years later, as I watched Australia defeat India yesterday, my mind took me back to those days. I don't cry anymore. Cricket is no longer the be-all and end-all of life. Not the first love for sure.
Yet, there is a small portion of my heart that pained, even yesterday. Perhaps, first love can never go away.
Truly, it is beautiful for a sport to be a teenager's, first love. Isn't it?
