Victory at Lords -- 25 Years Ago

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During the Second World War, the Allies had D-Day ! We in India were never so fortunate but the closest we could have come to that event was when we won the the World Cup at Lords -- exactly 25 years ago.

India as a nation had been around for a long time, but India as a state had arrived ! It was our beachhead in the Global Arena ... yes there will be miles to go, but nevertheless this was where we planted our flag and showed -- not so much to the world, but to ourselves -- that, yes, we could do it. No one had yet thought of offshoring, outsourcing or that the world was flat ! Mittals acquisition of Arcellor or Tata's acquisition of Corus and JLR was inconceivable .. but even though we did not any of this -- nor did most of us suspect that it would turn out this way -- yet it was a defining moment : Yes we could, we would, and we DID it !!

Where was I on that day ? At Goa, in the restaurant of Hotel Zuari having a single plate of biryani for the entire duration of the match ! Why ? Because that was the ONLY place where we could see a TV and all I could afford was just one plate of biriyani with the Rs 400 stipend that I had just received from TELCO ( not yet Tata Motors ) for summer training !

Those pictures of India winning were burnt into my brain but thanks to Star Ananda, I relived those moments again today -- in replayed BBC footage -- which I saw an hour ago !

And I realised how far the world has moved when I grabbed these images of my colour TV with my Sony Ericcson phone and immediately uploaded them to this blogsite for the world to see. A far cry when one had to go a hotel to see a black and white TV !!

Jai Hind


Kapil's famous catch the turned the tide towards India's win.



The moment of victory !! The last West Indies wicket falls !!



Champagne at Lords



The World Cup

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