For the nation where ‘cricket’ is worshipped as a ‘religion’, the semi-final between India and Pakistan was an event that caught maximum eye-balls. And surely many were biting their nails, holding their breath at every ball, and having nerve-wrecking moments throughout this meeting of titans. And there could have been no other way to let lose the expression of euphoria for the people to come on the street and join in the frenzy. It was a maddening release of pent of emotional stress by dancing in the streets, driving like crazy on the roads, hanging from the windows of their cars and waving their shirts…it was sheer mania.
Youngsters blocked the roads and danced in the streets. Police had a harrowing time controlling the unruly mobs of men, women and children dancing in the streets and blocking traffic. Others quietly stood on the sidelines or leaned over their balconies to witness and wonder at the way people behave. At the end of the match even well-to-do people behaved strangely picking up chairs in the restaurants and jumping on to the tables.
Many youngsters could be seen taking a repeated round of the main road which led to the PCA stadium (where the match was being held) and displaying their antics unmindful of the danger they were posing to themselves and the people standing on the road sides.
Blaring loud music, open consumption of liquor, public smoking in a city where it is banned, hanging out of the car windows, standing on the pillion of the motorbikes, over speeding, by a large number of individuals, was a collective celebration or mass hysteria? Two boys lost their lives, turning their joy into a harrowing experience for their families left behind.
Is it the Frankenstein within each one of us that is always rearing to come out at the very first opportunity? That perhaps unveils the way we drive.
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