Imagine being invited to the best gourmet party in the city, but when you reach there you meet smartly dressed waiters picking up the dishes and you wonder how those starters would've tasted and how tempting were the desserts you missed.
Or, imagine going to the best strip-club in town, but so late that you only find the babes fully clad, fully packed up, and ready to leave for the day... (ok, ok, don't get me wrong - I'm just being too imaginative...)
Well, thats how the initial feeling was, on landing in Deutchesland on the day of the final. For 4 months I was waiting for the visa to come through and prayed like hell that I reached at the time of the World cup. Finally the day arrived, but only when the World cup got over - I reached there on the day of the finals! There was a feeling of disappointment, almost surreal, a feeling of having missed the bus - the bus to the greatest event in 4 years!
But i could call that premature despair, as I soon realized things were not so bad...
After all:
- I got to watch the final at the open-air screen amongst thousands of screaming fans in Stuttgart, and drowned in the post-match celebrations.
- I actually got to view almost all the matches in the World cup back home in India. The timings were convenient enough for me to go back home after office-hours and catch them live on television. My friends who had moved to Germany earlier found it really difficult to catch up with the games, especially the first match everyday, simply because they were stuck up in office.
Reached Stuttgart on Sunday morning and having done with the luggage and freshening up - by evening was all ready to go to the city-center at the 'Fan Fest'. The atmosphere was MIND-BLOWING!
When you see around all things that you've been waiting for all this long, at that time you don't care about your possible jet-lag, nor your impending sleep and the aching body, nor worry about reporting at office the next day-Monday! You just shut up and enjoy the show! And I did!
And I'm talking about a massive football crazy crowd jumping, shouting and cheering. There were fans from Italia & France of course, and also people from different nationalities all flocked together - there were thousands! The feeling was great to watch the match on giant open-air screens, the greatest event of the world - in the same country where it was all happening!
(I'd missed the 3rd place match the previous day - been on the flight. But was told that when Germany won, the whole of Stuttgart was on the streets! )
When France scored, one side of the supporters went mad. When both sides missed chances, they despaired. When Zidane headbutted Materazzi, everyone put their hands up in shock! And finally when Italy won, it was frenzy all around. Then the festivities continued late till night...
Samba for Brazil!
We cheered for Italia!
With so much beer flowing around... people do need to piss, don't they?
PS: I'm a total sucker for football. Its my drug of choice!
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