Adios Mumbai, Hello Delhi!

Life is full of opportunities – Missed opportunities, lost opportunities, golden opportunities, opportunities we would wait a lifetime for. And, then there are opportunities we are shit scared of, but, we have to embrace anyway, because we have big dreams and we want to make those dreams come true. An opportunity to move in to an unknown city I have only heard stories about. Yes, I am excited, but at the same time I am fearful.

I stared at my laptop screen for a while, I trembled a little. I don’t know how to start with it; I don’t know how to react. The only thing running on my mind right now is a fact that even though it is for 2 months, I have to say Goodbye to Mumbai, to my family, to my friends, to the life I have lived since the day I was born and brought up in Mumbai. Not that this is the first time I will be away from my beloved city, but this seems to be the longest period I will be staying away.

A question just came up in my mind – Why would I miss Mumbai? It is not like I travel around the city every day, or go partying or to Marine Drive every weekend but yet I will miss everything about this City. From the crowded local trains to the bad traffic, from our staple food Vada Pav to the roadside Chai… The familiarity, the comfort, the sense of belonging. And, last but not the least, the inexpressible feeling of love and passion I might never feel for any other city.

One of the things that make Mumbai special is the security one feels while moving around the city. One can travel across Mumbai at anytime, and yet feel safe and secure. Having stayed in the same town of Mumbai all my life, I will really miss taking long walks in my locality. It might just sound funny but yes, it is almost impossible to walk around in this city without bumping into someone you know.

Anyway, I leave for Delhi in a day. New city, new people and new surroundings. Yes, I am excited but still nothing would be the same because it won’t be Mumbai.

A wise person had once said, “Life is too long to fall in love only once, you just have to be ready to be swept off your feet again.” So here I come Delhi, leaving behind my comfort zone, my friends, my family and the city of dreams. All I expect from this city is to support me and make me feel that the opportunity I have grabbed is worth the sacrifices.

It’s Not Just A Sport Anymore!

In India, a country of over a billion people, cricket is not just a sport; it’s a religion they say.

Now, for the first time ever, with a free ticket in my hand I got a chance to witness India’s greatest sporting spectacle live– The Indian Premiere League – An idea that changed the gentleman’s game forever. With a negligible amount of knowledge that I had about this sport, I was thinking why am I even going there? Would it be worth spending 3-4 hours of a weekend watching a sport that I hardly watch on TV, except from the times when India plays against Pakistan or it is a critical Mumbai Indians match during which my heart cheers for Mumbai just because I am a Mumbaikar.

So yes, I reached the stadium 2 hours before the match was scheduled. Call it the excitement or the fact that people asked me to be there before time so that I could get in faster and would not have to wait in the long queue. I remember when I entered the stadium and got a sneak peek into the exciting aspect of IPL and Bollywoodisation of it with music playing all around. I was like Wow this is really cool. The game had completely changed; I mean you get to see the best International players playing together, awesome music playing after every single over, the crowd dancing like every single moment is a celebration out there.

I think it was important cricket became like this, I mean not just a sport but everything that has started has to evolve as the time goes by or it just becomes less popular. And genuinely, to sit down for 9-10 hours watching a sport and cheer once in a while when a wicket falls down or a batsman hits a six, I think it’s a retirement plan more than watching a sport. I personally believed cricket could have a little more speed and aggression. In the words of Shah Rukh Khan – “With all due respect to being a gentleman’s sport, I think it needed to become a man’s sport.” The sport is still the same, we still have the bat, the bigger, the heavier, the faster and we still have a ball; it’s just white in colour.

The game was on, Mumbai Indians was batting and one positive thing about watching a match live at the stadium is that you can’t just sit there and not cheer for your team, you just can’t do that. With every bowl, with every run, with every moment the excitement just pumps up. From the celebration of a sixer to the ‘ohhhhhh’ sound of a miss you just feel every moment of this sport.

To sum it up, it was a game that kept us sitting at the edge of our chairs and be ready to cheer till the last over of the game when the results were out and unfortunately, Mumbai Indians lost. Yes, it was a disappointing moment and yes it made us angry but come on, you gotta take sport as a sport. We play, we win, we lose – I mean that’s what the sport is all about, right?

Let’s just say it wasn’t our day and to be honest, Mumbai Indians tried its best but we can’t just win all the time. So cheers to Chennai Super Kings for the well deserved victory, to the experience of a lifetime that we got at Wankhede Stadium and to the evolution of this game of cricket over the years. In the end it was a Win-Win situation being a part of an awesome game, clicking mad selfies and shouting till we lost our voice completely.

And now I know why Cricket is not just a sport, but a religion for our country.