Wanted to make this post last night itself but was too drunk to type anything. Last week I met a person from Hyderabad on Discord, and we planned to meet sometime. They asked me to pick a place and after a lot of pondering, I picked Repete (Jubilee Hills) cause they've got great beers, and the ambience is pretty nice too.

Since it was our first time meeting, I was looking forward to get to know them and just talk a lot. But when we reached the place, it was so damn noisy and that's when we got to know there's a live screening of a cricket match (didn't even know which one).

We were about to leave when they asked us to pay cover charge (1k per head), but the manager told us we could sit on the rooftop where there's no projector. And we stayed, went up and it was like the rooftop was made ust for us. The noise was still an issue and a while later I got to know it was an India-Pakistan match.

The last time I was excited about cricket was the 2011 World Cup I guess. So I wasn't much interested, and even made a joke that if I don't cheer, they'd brand me anti-national.

But I don't know what happened, but when my friend left 3-4 times, I got up and started watching the match. And the place soon got crowded, people started Hi-Fi-ing me everytime there was a wicket, a boundary..

From being super-annoyed by all the noise, the crowd, I started to feel a sense of belonging around them, and the last 3 overs were so intense. And God, I'm such a sucker for Hardik Pandya.. everyone were hoping DK to finish in style and were chanting his name.. There was hope we'd win but the last over was so damn nail-biting, and I was so happy India won.

Seeing all the people around me celebrate was such a heartwarming moment. And I feel that cricket will always be a part of each and everyone of us.