I was lucky; someone gave me a ticket to the Mumbai Indians vs Gujarat Titans match at Wankhede Stadium. Here are my photo-notes of the experience.

Gate number 4, I said to myself. The police did not allow my car to enter the lane from Marine Lines although few cars entered it. Strange are the ways of Mumbai Police. But one thing was clear – Wise men will not argue with people in power. It was important to reach the Stadium and not end up in the lock up room of Mumbai Police.

I got out of my car and entered the lane and walked towards the entrance to Wankhede Stadium. A group was getting ready. They were wearing Mumbai Indians blue T shirts, and golden and blue caps. Fans come in many shapes and sizes!

I moved on, there were at least four places where my ticket was checked. I refrained from taking their snaps. You know why, right?

‘Move on, move on’ they said. Crowds were building up. Then came the mandatory search – frisking. This job was divided between two people. One frisked you ‘generally’ and the other carefully searched to check if you are carrying anything in your pocket.

One look at my face and they would have been convinced of my inability to make any mischief.  But a process is a process and reading other people accurately is a lost skill, so they went ahead with the frisking.

As I approached Staircase 9, guys in blue were hitting ‘tasha’ and ‘dhol’ with great fervor. That made me reach my seat with some speed.

And then I looked to my right. My first click inside the stadium. With neat converging lines it was a good click, I felt.

Having taken a click on my right-hand side of the stadium, I decided to click one on the left-hand side. Balance, as they say, is everything!

Converging lines are here too. Note the flags; they keep one on each seat for the spectator to wave for Mumbai Indians.

We Indians are obsessed with flags. A flag is a leadership symbol. Rohit, the most popular Captain and a leader, has hung up his boots as far as the Test cricket is concerned. His popularity at Wankhede is to be seen to be believed. Spectators rise and wave flags when the ‘Hitman’ arrives and takes stance at the crease.

Earlier in the cricket matches a fan used to paint his body in tricolor and with ‘Tendulkar 10’. He was a fan with an original idea, whether you liked it or not. Now it seems to have become a fashion. Here is one waving the Mumbai Indians flag.

And here is one waving the Gujarat Titans flag. Gujarat Titans won, not convincingly, but they won, and ‘that is what matters’ as my darling Gujju wife says.

Well, she is entitled to that, her loyalties are with Gujju Titans, but my loyalties are with Mumbai Indians, and I made that clear by waving the flag.

With due respect and with apology to Norman Thomas, I will say that “The secret of a good (married) life is to have the right loyalties and hold them in the right scale of values” which means ‘that a fulfilling married life is built upon prioritizing the right things and giving them the appropriate importance.’ You must have noted that I practice it!

Wankhede Stadium is a place where you see Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans supporters sitting together in perfect harmony, waving their flags. No ‘outsider’ here; a cricketer’s birthright to cheer for his/her team is accepted and respected.

Let that be a lesson to all about ‘having the right loyalties and holding them in the right scale of values.’

Vivek S Patwardhan

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”