India is alive and kicking in the UK

INDIA-ENGLAND ODI 2011

On Friday noon, one would have thought one was outside Dadar railway station instead of the underground station at Oval. It looked as if all the PIOs in the UK were heading for the India-England ODI.

The Indian tri-colour was visible everywhere, either as a flag or a painting on the face. Indian youth speaking with a typical Brit accent blended with those speaking in Hindi, Punjabi or Gujarati.

Everyone seemed to be praying for an Indian victory, to wipe out the memory of the Test whitewash.

But it was the same old story. Many of the spectators had not even made their way in to the stadium when Rahane got out. When Dravid ran himself out, the crowd realized that the match itself need not occupy much of their attention. Spectators, who had spent nearly GBP 70 for the ticket, transferred their energies to having fun. By now they started clapping for every run scored. When India was 58 for 5 the only worrying point was on how to spend the rest of the evening if the match got over so early.

The mood improved with the advent of Dhoni and Jadeja. By now most people were in to their second pint. A lot of banter was being exchanged. Bopara, who was near the boundary close to our stand, was being questioned about his nationality. Samit Patel too underwent this grilling when he came on as a substitute.

 The missing Nasser Husain became the next victim.

By now it did not matter whether you were from Ludhiana, Kenya or Southall. An Indian was an Indian. The most popular song in the stadium seemed be "yeh dosti..." from Sholay. I was a bit surprised that all Sikhs either wore a turban or patka only of black colour. I was told it was the norm here, more as a matter of convenience in maintenance. There was this Sikh from Holland who had even changed his name to Van Singh.The next stand had a guy dressed as PC Sorcar. For a moment we were apphrensive that the Mumbai cops were in London to capture Dawood because there were two sub-inspectors in their uniform in our stand!

Two rows ahead of us was a guy who presumably had his own catering business (or his wife overestimated his appetite). He first took out a large tiffin box full of samosas and aloo bonda. Yes, I sat at the Oval in London on a September afternoon eating aloo bonda prepared by a Punjabi. Sometime later it was boxes full of chicken kalmi kebabs. Just when we thought that was the end of the repast this guy conjured up packets full of huge aloo paranthas. Every now and then, he would entreat his guests to return the tiffin boxes as he had promised his wife he would bring them back safe and sound.

Everyone was surprised when a Chinese couple walked into our stand. Were they spies sent to learn the game? It just happened that they were Australian citizens. They were then targeted by the British spectators with the cry of “Aussie, Aussie”. The couple were persuaded to eat the kalmi kebabs. The crowd now got hooked on to shouting “an Oriental from Australia, sitting in London eating Indian food!” One wag even asked them for spring rolls in exchange for the kebabs. To confirm that Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai is still alive, the man was persuaded to wear the Indian ODI T-shirt.

By now the happenings in the middle were incidental. If Vijay Mallya had been here he would have been tempted to take over the stadium sponsorship seeing the amount of fermented barley water being pumped out from the barrels. The volume increased when the rain held up the game for some time.

Every now and then the crowd cheered when a wicket fell. But by then they had reached a point of no concern. Once the winning shot was hit, the crowd made their way out. There were not too many takers for the presentation ceremony. After all who wanted to hear Dhoni giving explanations for the loss. They had already heard it five times before on this tour.