Last night, I dropped by a local paanwaala (a recommendation, incidentally) somewhere around Jayanagar. While the babu put his craft and skill into action, another customer joined us, and questioned the early closure of the dukaan last night.

Kya bhai? Kal badi jaldi thi? Raat ko kahan the?

Match dekhraha tha sir

acha, mazaa aaya nee?

haan ji

And I could only grin back in admiration. Here was a guy who barely made enough to make ends meet. Someone for whom tax isn’t applicable. But the chap promptly closes shop to catch his team playing. That is passion.

He caught my grin. Bhagwaan ne chaaha, tho kal bhi jeetengay.

I wish I could tell him that India doesn’t stand a chance when they take on the Aussies in a few hours from now. Hayden’s hit a purple patch, and no matter how good we’ve been of late, it’ll take something special. Still, Twenty20 bridges the gap between the good and the great, so match on, I guess.

But the typical bhagwaan ne chaaha statement coupled by a few InshaAllahs from my Muslim neighbors made me wonder. What role do divine forces have in a game decided by bat and ball anyway? Luck?

Of course, the funniest thing I’ve seen all day has been the hero-worship and astrology. It’s all happening in India - Dhoni replaces Lord Ganesha and people now worship the Jharkand’s photograph. That’s hardly anything though - numerologists and astrologers are having a field day. There’s this whole (ball) talk of Jupiter, Saturn and whatchamacallits being in position or out of line, and how that affects things.

It’s a scary thought, folks. Where are we headed with this astronomy thing on cricket anyway? Are we moving from fielding positions to planetary? Who dictates where the ball should pitch - common cricketing sense or astronomy? What’s the deal here - tactical fielding plans or vaastu-compliant ones?

And just as I was typing this one out, Umar Gul - today’s man of the match - walked up to the presentation platform. On the finals, he was about to go ‘I will try to perform well’, and then checked his statement, popping in the magical ‘I’ word, before going ‘InshaAllah, I will perform well’.

The consolation? Well, atleast this game’s been looked after by someone divine. It makes India tick anyway, doesn’t it?

Which reminds me, match starting in a bit. Adios, and at the risk of hypocrisy, good luck India.