A Soulberry epic and the nature of the beast

Soulberry's patience with a blogpost means that we have what is an epic by blog standards. Sure, it is a derivative work, tipping its hat to both Orwell as well as JRod, but in the end it is more than a sum of its parts. And as if my sense of anticipation wasn't already peering over the edge of the cliff, this post has me licking my lips in anticipation of a free fall (one that I know will hurt from memory). Well done!

The hurt from Sydney required the euphoria-balm of Perth. If not for Veeru and Pathan and the rest, I can imagine the dark feelings I'd have been harbouring right now. Those sections of our personalities that we spend an entire lifetime attempting to surprss, require only one cathartic moment (or a series of events) to grow and take control - The Exorcist, Bhool Bhulaiyya style..

I saw the ugly Indian cricket fan grow inside me, and I wrote about it, disdainfully observing the effigy-burners outside my self, but fully aware that there was one within me. Thank god for Perth, thank god for the tri-series, for the ruffian within had a good reason to go back within his shell. Phew, I am sophisticated again, I can glibly talk about the games many 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune', how you 'win some and you lose some'..

Or did he?

What is the nature of this beast? Is he separate from the remaining, more respectable (the reading, English newspaper reading, DVD-purchasing, argumentative) parts of my self? How different is the effigy burner from the joyous dancer at India Gate when the young ones took everything at Jo'burg, or the one who lost his voice in the swooning Mumbai crowd? Are they the same person, only manifesting differently to a changed cricketing environment? Very primal - comfortable when winning, or even losing by an inch, but lose badly or raise a suspicion of being cheated out of a win, and there is no damming this ugliness, like an mother beast with its cubs and back to the wall.

I am without sophistication. This is me, the cricket fan.