Jubilation!

Jubilation writ large on the 22 faces that turned up this morning. It showed in the twinkle in Hari Singh Shekhawat’s eyes, in Bapu Rane’s permanent grin, in Srichand Arora’s triumphant look, in Ved Prakash Grover’s upturned chin… Everybody was there, rejoicing at India’s 29-run win over Pakistan in the World Cup semi-final last night.
Nothing could be more heart-warming than the sight of Shekhawat hugging everybody and saying, “Bahut achcha hua”. In his happiness, Arora greeted even rank strangers with “Jai Sri Krishna”, followed by “Congratulations!” Passers-by, on the walking track, hailed one another joyously -- “Mubarak Ho!”
Tara Chand (left), wore a bemused smile, watching the euphoria all around. “Morcha kab nikalogey?” he queried jokingly. He confessed to not watching the match at a stretch because of a superstitious belief that should he do so, India would lose. So he kept switching the TV on and off for the entire eight-hour duration of the match.
Bhaswati Bose informed that since she never wins a bet, she had put her money on a Pakistan win. Shekhawat still cannot get over his grandson climbing all over him, each time a Pakistani wicket fell. (It is another matter that he downed four pegs of whiskey last night.) Arora’s prime regret was that India should have taken the Pakistanis’ permission before walloping them. “Even Alexander had asked how Porus wanted to be treated,” he argued.
And so the stories went on…
In between, Mumtaz Jahan dropped a clanger, announcing that there was a tall, dark stranger on the prowl who followed women around the Garden, mouthing filthy language. She could not however, identify him. Both Arora and Shekhawat gallantly assured her that they would “take care of him” if he were to ever show up. Some ladies cautioned that this pervert could get violent as he had threatened to slap a lady once.
For Ramila Mistry (right), it was a day to say her good-byes before she takes the train tomorrow to Delhi for an onward trip to Haridwar-Rishikesh. There she would be attending a camp of her spiritual guru and on April 15, be returning with 35 litres of Ganges water. Let us wish her a safe, fulfilling and enjoyable journey.