Wow. What a Wednesday! The India-Pakistan faceoff lived up to the hype and showed the world the enormous talent that lives in the sub-continent. I'm sure the rest of the (cricket-playing)world must be thanking Jinnah for being instrumental in the partition of India and Pakistan. I mean, Imagine.. IMAGINE the super-team that would have resulted from the unified India. But then again, we all love an Ind-Pak encounter, so I guess everything happens for the best. Yeah, ok. So that's that.

So there's this often used, cliched line - History repeats itself. It has, does and will. I presume that the title of this post used in the same breath as 'History repeats itself' will lead you (Yes, YOU dear reader *plastic smile*) to the notion that I am referring to an encore of 1983. Yes, of course I am, right? What other history could I be talking about? At this point ,dear reader, I'd like you to stretch your history a leetle more. A leetle more historious(is it even a word?) than 1983.



In short, I'd request you to just go back a few hundred thousand years.

Ok. Now that we've gone way back in time, look around you. What's happening?
Yes.
YOU guessed it right!
(or did you? smartass)

Its the Ramayana happening all around you!

Not that I am a pundit at mythological stuff, but I expect you to know, ATLEAST, about the Ramayan/Ramayana. So the idea for this post struck me in class. I came in late, as usual, to class and sat next to a booming-voiced deep-baritoned friend who told me in that very deep-baritone 'Bhai, Saturday ko Lanka jalegi!' (Brother, Lanka will burn on Saturday). I'm sure you're thinking the translation wasn't required, but for the kind of friends I have, I always take the 'Just In Case' route. Coming back, as the File Structures class sluggishly moved on, my mind was set racing at nearly double the speed (which made it normal thinking actually). I couldn't help but draw parallels between the two events, the two countries, the two circumstances and the two sides of people. It struck me with the force of 10-ton truck that the entire situation HAS repeated itself after waiting for a couple thousand years. The Ramayana IS happening around you people, so you can come back here to the present. Well settled with the idea? Great! So now I can change the cliched 'History repeats itself' to a more 'Ancient History repeats itself' or a 'Mythological History repeats itself'. I hope my English teacher isn't reading this.

So lets start drawing parallels. I'm typing this down at around 11:00 am today and I'm sure after having introduced you to this idea, you could come up with more, better parallels than I will. But I'll take it off here. So the World Cup is Sita, for what else are both the teams fighting for? The coveted Golden beauty everyone wants. And I'd like to think of Sachin Tendulkar as Ram, because I think he, more than anyone else in the team, deserves Sita. And Ram is Bhagwan Ram and Sachin is Sachin 'God' Tendulkar. So that's justified. I'm sure some of you must want M S Dhoni to be Ram, but for me he's more like Sugriva, leading the army of monkeys like Nehra and Munaf. Mind you, the monkeys played their part, so I am in NO way putting down Munaf or Nehra (though I'd have loved to a week back). So that brings us to Hanuman. I'm sure pressed for this, but I think I'd go with Yuvraj as Hanuman, for he's got us the Sanjeevani at more occasions than one in this World Cup. Sehwag is, of course, Laxman. The maverick power that they both were, faltered with aggression at times.

Now we come to the bad side. Ravan would best be Sangakkara, for among all captains, he's certainely showed more will at winning the World Cup. Murali is Kumbhkaran, for as contrasting as their personas are, Murali is the trump card that Sangakkara is hoping will work. They both are expected to awaken from their slumber and deliver at this great finale. Again, as with Kumbhkaran, I think Hanuman will humble the spin beast and will once again bring the Sanjeevani for Team India. Malinga on the other hand is a clear cut hangover of Indrajit. Both have strong personalities that have the all important controlled aggression. In the Ramayana, Indrajit turned out to be lethal for Laxman. Lets just hope that isn't the case with tomorrow.

Oh, and Sreesanth is Jatayu. Keeps flying into the ground when required, while Yousuf Pathan and R Ashwin make up the brothers left back at Ayodhya. Please be free-willed to continue with your own interpretations.

So this is the basic idea of what transpired in my mind in the FS class yesterday. I'm sure most of you would brand me crazy(or worse!) and curse me for wasting your time, not to mention tag this blog entry as 'tasteless and hysterical'. But when it comes to cricket.. and that too a World Cup Final, I'm all ready to bear the 'Crazy' tag. Thank You!

We all know what happened at the end in the Ramayana. Ram will, WILL take Sita back home. Its a happy ending in ancient history that I hope will repeat itself. It will :-)

At the end of it all, irrespective of how tomorrow's match turns out, I'd like to thank the Indian Cricket Team for providing us with a roller-coster of a month. Thank you Misbah and Umar Gul, for making sure we made it to the finals. Thank you Kris Srikanth, for selecting this wonderful team. Thank you Sreesanth, for not playing. Thank you Raina, for sealing your ODI berth in the team. Thank you Sachin, for we are what we are today because of you.

And thank YOU dear reader, if you, like me, stood by our Indian team till the end.

Lets all go India... INDI-YEAH!!