Moving to a new city is never easy. You have to get used to a new set of unwritten codes that define every city. And ‘neighbour laws’ play a very important part in that. Your neighbour-onomics determines the future of peace in your house. You are lucky if it is rented as you can leave anytime, and ‘god have mercy’ if you have bought.
Till date, I have maintained a very safe distance from all my neighbours, without exception and across geographies, to avoid any unwarranted issues. After moving to the capital, I naturally followed the same law.
Things seemed okay until I realised that India might bring home the World Cup and my TV was still in transit.
I didn’t mind not having a TV as long Sri Lanka was holding fort and things were looking pretty dismal after Sachin and Sehwag walked back to the pavilion. But, hell broke loose when Dhoni started turning the match around. And the only thing I could hear was my neighbours cheering for India and screaming on every single, leave out fours and sixes, with a decibel level well above 65. I started frantically calling my friends for the score. But then, as true friends, they switched off their mobiles. I was helpless, asking God ‘why me?’.
My neighbours cheered again. I shot out of my house and rang the doorbell. I didn’t know their names and even before saying hello I asked for the score. However, they were sweet enough to tolerate my intrusion and invited me to watch last few overs.
Together we saw Dhoni leading the country towards making history. We cursed every dot ball, cheered every run and when India won, we screamed with joy, just like a family. Instead of champagne, we celebrated with family pack of a cola.
If cricket can bring two hitherto unknown neighbours closer, what can it do to the country? I saw what it did to the nation in the papers the next morning.
Cricket makes us crazy. We love the game so much that we can do things that we normally wouldn’t even think of doing.
It certainly taught me that you can’t have fixed rules in life.
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