As India took to the streets at midnight to celebrate the World Cup victory, my grandfather’s reminiscences about the night of independence, when the whole of Delhi converged to the Red Fort to usher in freedom from British rule, came to mind. The only difference was that this time the crowds converged to India Gate, as Delhiites do when they want to express joy (and to Jantar Mantar when they want to protest)! And if there was no Pandit Nehru to deliver the ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech, there were Tricolours being waved by untiring arms, as people danced to the beat of dhols and the ice-cream vendors of India Gate had a field day (night)!

With one mind, the whole of Delhi (or so it felt like)—the old and the young; the rich, the middle class and the poor—came dancing out on the streets, as the night was set ablaze with fireworks, the headlights of vehicles and the euphoria of the populace. The emotions of the Indians fizzed like vintage champagne, as complete strangers in passing vehicles nodded and smiled, and gave each other the high five!

Within minutes the roads of the Capital, which had seemed under curfew since late afternoon, were congested with vehicles of all shapes, sizes and descriptions, full of people intoxicated with victory, looking for an outlet for their exuberance. Not a single sound of irritated honking or angry remonstrance could be heard as the revellers smiled benignly at the milling crowds that blocked the traffic at midnight. Every few feet or so, there were groups of people dancing in the open street, as they are wont to do in wedding processions!

The Delhiites, most of whom normally tend to be acrid people with sharp edges, and a current of aggression running just under the surface, now overflowed with bonhomie! What a difference this shared sense of achievement has made to the nation, if only for a short while!

As the waves of positivity and sheer joy eddy in the normally wary, tense and at times hostile atmosphere of the Capital, realization strikes fully, of the price we have been paying as a nation, for our inadequacies—in law and order, in infrastructure, in the integrity of our officials and politicians, and most of all, in our acquiescence in the face of all these inadequacies. The shared achievement of winning the World Cup, even though the actual task was performed by the Boys in Blue, temporarily made the people shed their defensive armour of hostility and wariness and become, for the time being, joyful citizens of a nation that had lived up to its potential in some way.

In the shower of Facebook posts from Indians—both resident and non-resident—there is a fierce rush of nationalist pride, and one realizes that this is what it takes to bring us together: shared achievements born out of teamwork and excellence. As the nation raises a toast to the Boys in Blue, let us learn from their performance in the World Cup final and its outcome, the value of giving our best under seemingly impossible circumstances!