By IANS,
Bangalore : It’s a three-day bonanza for residents of Karnataka starting Saturday – India on the cusp of lifting the cricket World Cup for the first time on home ground, followed by two holidays.
When the International Cricket Council mandarins worked out the cup fixtures and decided on an April 2 final, they wouldn’t have been aware of a festival called ‘Chandramana Ugadi’ – the Kannada New Year – falling on Monday.
A holiday for government offices and banks in the state, the day will see a sizeable number of commercial establishments and private firms also closed. Those working would have thin attendance.
For people of Karnataka, this would be the first ‘Ugadi’ (‘Uga’ means year and ‘adi’ stands for start) that immediately follows the summit clash between Indian and Sri Lankan teams at Mumbai’s Wankhade stadium.
Like rest of the country, they are fervently hoping that the Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men would make a new beginning by ending the 28-year-old wait for the cup to return to India.
With the New Year celebratory mood already in, government offices would be nearly deserted Saturday with the cup finals coming in as an added incentive to stay away from work.
For an overwhelming majority of the young techie crowd in Bangalore, Saturday is a holiday anyway.
Pubs and bars in the city are usually crowded on weekends and would be more so this Saturday with normally high decibel levels keeping pace with the action on the ground in Wankhede Stadium.
The tech city shut early Wednesday when India and Pakistan clashed in semi-finals at Mohali and it seems Saturday would be no different.
The streets might get clogged only Sunday evening, for pre-festival purchases.