The supreme unifier

The 2nd of March,
Transit Lounge
Kolkata Airport,,(en-route to a lil' holiday)
The settings were nothing new,the usual airport-lounge stuff were all there, the same oft-repeated scenes being played out then? you may ask?,,,,,NO, not at all, there is a huge big plasma T V set on, muted(!!!),set to a sports broadcast, which was televising a live Ind-Aus match, the 1st Final, in fact, everyone there was glued to the same, men and women alike, there were passengers from three different flights and no-one was doing any-thing else, they were all so transfixed by the sight of Sachin, in the company of the new eligible bachelor on the block, Rohit Sharma,playing an innings of his life! We were cheering every single, four and even the occasional dodged ball, as if all our lives depended on the outcome,but then in India maybe it does! As Sachin inched slowly towards his century, taking India along the path of sure victory, the boarding announcements were being made,and where there is always the mad jostle-bustle, as if everything is on a first come-first served basis,there was absolutely no movement,save the odd one or two,here and there. In due course Sachin shamed the Aussies, raised his bat, all the spectators in that limited space, rose as one, with him, cheered, clapped some even jumped, and then,satisfied, filed out in an orderly fashion. There were odd,idiotic grins on many faces, and I was left wondering,then and during the two hour flight, how, despite all our so-called differences, we all seemed to come together,every time a cricket match seemed to be on,and how all our problems seemed to disappear,for an hour or two at least,if we did go on to win,and this some-how seemed especially poignant today, after India failed to qualify for the hockey berth in the Olympics. Sad, but the memory of that cricket match watched in the airport lounge,minus commentary, seemed more real than this.