"Hi Dad. Yeah, I'm in the stadium." I could barely hear him above all the screaming and yelling at the C stand of Chinnaswamy stadium, Bangalore. "I just heard an explosion when I collected my passes. But a hawker told me its just a generator explosion. Nothing to panic." I yelled into the phone. "They frisked us thoroughly before they let us in. Nothing can go wrong inside here." I sounded as if i am convincing myself. It was five minutes to four. I was wondering why no-one else was bothered about the fact that the toss which was scheduled at half past three had not taken place yet. "I'll message you whenever I can. Don't worry." No sooner did I cut the call, than I realized something was amiss. The men in red and blue who were warming up at the nets had disappeared and the big screen in the stadium said "Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians : Match Delayed"
I immediately sent a message to my room-mate "What's the news on the T.V?" I waited nervously for his reply. Being a Delhi Daredevils supporter he had stayed back. How I wished I had done the same. I remember the night when I stumbled upon the IPLT20 web-site and found that the tickets for the April 17th match were available. My other room-mate being a Mumbai Indians' fan booked two tickets immediately. I was just recovering from the goose-bumps that used to spontaneously spring up when I thought of the stadium experience from the Bangalore- Rajasthan match. I gleefully agreed to join in. And as usual, we had waited till the last moment to get the print-out of the e-tickets. That had messed up our timing and we decide to skip lunch to get good seats. "Is this really worth it?" I thought to myself.
Two short beeps from my cell phone brought me back to reality. 1 message received. Just when i was about to commend on my room-mate's ability to reply so quickly, my gaze fell on the sender. "From Papa: In emergency do not run stay at side of the wall stay away from crowd." Now i understood the problems with SMS. The receiver never gets the tone of the sender. Anger? Helplessness? Concern? I convinced myself that it was out of concern. Don't get upset now. Nice and easy is the way to go about it. Reply and tell them you are OK.
Two short beeps again. This time the message was what I was waiting for. "They are just saying it is delayed. Till now nothin is confirmed.but match will be played mostly." A huge roar from the crowd made me look at the gaint screen. It read "Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians. Match Starts at 5:00. Twenty overs a side" Finally some good news , I told to myself. Shortly afterward, red and blue adorned the pale green ground. Then the big guns showed up. I sprang up to my feet and joined the crowd in cheering the legends of cricket.
I settled down heaving a sigh of relief. I am going to remember this day, I thought aloud. Just one more task to do.
"To Papa: Ok. The match has started. They announced that there's no need to panic. The blast was @ gate 12. I have entered from gate 8. No need to worry. I'll leave early around 8."
All was well...
http://news.oneindia.in/2010/04/17/two-blasts-bangalore-ipl-match-chinnaswamy-stadium.html
