By Kul Bhushan, IANS
The Indian diaspora has been celebrating a string of Indian successes in the past couple of weeks. Topping them all is the Twenty20 World Cup Cricket win that left the entire country delirious with delight on Sep 24. Many a non-resident Indian shed to be in India to relish the historic moment.
From London, author and journalist Shamlal Puri dashed off an e-mail, “I am jealous of you enjoying the celebrations of the Dhoni-led Indian team bringing the Twenty20 World Cup for the first time in 24 years!” From Melbourne, chartered accountant Shan Gupta wrote, “Chak De! India! We did it! We had lots of bhangra here to celebrate but the real action is in India.” From New York, businessman Manny Khanna phoned, “We wish we were in Delhi to celebrate with all Indians as most Americans do not know much about cricket and so we cannot share our happiness with them.”
Of course, they all saw it on their TV screens at ungodly hours and jumped with joy. The real action was when the team came to Mumbai and brought the city that never sleeps to a standstill during a working day as thousands upon thousands lined the streets to hail the heroes. The TV channels just had one story for days – the Twenty20 victory. The newspapers outdid themselves as Hindustan Times devoted its front page to a single full colour photo of the victory shot. Not to be outdone, The Times of India had a big colour photo with a punchy headline – ‘Pakistunned!’ Every NRI wished he were Shah Rukh Khan to land in South Africa and congratulate the Indian team or watch the victory drive in an open top bus of the team from the Mumbai airport to the Wankhede Stadium.
A few hours after Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his team stepped out of the Sahar Airport, the Sensex hit another landmark by crossing the magic 17,000 figure with six sixers or just six sessions. It needed just five days and six sessions to cover 1,000 points. You could term it as six sixers just like Yuvraj Singh’s! The victory of Dhoni’s devils spilled over to the Sensex. More celebrations!
The rupee went on strengthening against the dollar by being quoted under 40 to the greenback. The exporters went into a tizzy but the importers and the outbound foreign travellers were happy. All this came a day before the grand finale of the Ganpati festival in Mumbai. Ganesha certainly removed all obstacles to the cricket victory and the rise of the Sensex this year.
Perhaps it all started with the release of the film, “Chak De! India” about the Indian women’s hockey team first forging into a fighting machine under stern coaching by Shah Rukh and then winning the World Cup against all odds. The story was translated from reel to real when the Indian Men’s hockey team won the Asia Cup after trouncing South Korea 7-2 in Chennai soon after. The film motivated the team to play all out even if Shah Rukh may not take the credit for it. The football team lifted the Nehru Cup earlier on with a stunning victory over Syria in one of the greatest achievements for Indian football. Now India’s Viswanathan Anand has been crowned the world chess champion in Mexico City. The celebrations go on…
It seems this is the time for Indians to party as the festive season sets in after the long hot summer and humid monsoons. Indians are laughing with TV stand-up comedy shows that have become very popular and created a whole new genre of comedians without comedy film roles. Indians are glued to the TV sets every Friday and Saturday nights to watch young crooners on reality music shows such as Zee’s “Sa Re Ga Ma” that attract NRIs and other contestants from the US, Dubai and Pakistan. Indians are also addicted to ballroom dancing as more and more enrol for dancing lessons for salsa and hip hop and avidly watch TV dance shows that display their skills and artistry.
For NRIs in London and New York, it has been a grand parade of India. A Taj Mahal replica floated down the Thames to mark the India celebrations. New York had a Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, business conferences and song and dance shows as the city was plastered with Indian posters. Yes, it’s party time for India!
(A media consultant to a UN Agency, Kul Bhushan previously worked abroad as a newspaper editor and has travelled to over 55 countries. He lives in New Delhi and can be contacted at: [email protected])