'Now we will dance till we drop'

MUMBAI: Every single investment -- emotional and financial -- that Mumbaikars made towards organizing community screenings of the World Cup finally paid off.
For most of Saturday evening, the current run-rate of the Indian team ran neck-and-neck along with the asking rate, compounding the excitement at all the public screenings. But clubs and public pavilions, like Shivaji Park, came alive during the second half of the match as the goal of 275 runs for the Indian side began alternating between dream and reality.
Spirited residents of Chincholi Bunder and Sunder Nagar in Malad kept up the tempo with their drums and vuvuzelas."The dholwalas went into a frenzy every time Sri Lanka lost a wicket," laughed a neighbour who did not need to focus too much on her television to know when exactly that happened. The enthusiasm proved infectious and even those residents who were disinterested at first began to keep score.
Ganpati mandals at Lalbaug and Andheri erected huge hoardings of Sachin Tendulkar in anticipation of his milestone 100th century. Not a single one of them grudged the effort.
Wearing blue jerseys and waving the Indian flag, a big party of 36 cricket-crazy couples met in a Juhu restaurant to celebrate what they felt was a foregone conclusion. "A target of 275 was tough but not out of reach. I knew we would win," laughed telecom professional Mahesh Dongre, bringing out a cache of bombs and rockets to set the night ablaze.
In Andheri, over a hundred members of a real-estate collective cheered as if in a frenzy. Men, women and children had spent the day around an oval table that had white seat-covers and tricolour ribbons running around it. "We were banking on Sehwag and Sachin, both of whom made a quick exit," said the firm's director Inder Bajaj. "Still, the team stabilized after the early overs and we were confident of a win. All the paraphernalia of victory including fireworks, drummers and DJ is in place. Now we intend to dance till we drop.''