Kolkata: The streets of Kolkata were deserted as cricket-crazy fans were glued to their television sets as clock ticked towards the start of the World Cup final between India and Sri Lanka at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium.
Posters of Indian cricketers lined the streets, and were found everywhere in the city. The city streets wore the look of an unofficial shutdown as the day progressed with most office workers deciding to take a day off. Even a few private offices decided to declare the day a weekly off in order to cope up with numerous leave applications yesterday.
As the excitement soared across the country over the World Cup final, politicians in poll-bound West Bengal too wrapped up their campaigning by afternoon and many were glued to their TV sets.
Giant screens have been put up in a few parts of the city and various shopping malls and attracted huge crowds, which cheered for the Men in Blue.
Fanatics
But in midst of all the excitement, there was pain among the cricket fanatics who missed son of soil Sourav Ganguly, and reminisced the 2003 World Cup final under his leadership which India lost to Australia.
"We are happy that India is in the final. But we miss Dada badly. We would have been very happy if he would have been in the field today playing side-by-side with Dhoni and his boys," said Arup Sarkar, a 50 year old office worker.
In Bengaluru, near-empty shopping complexes and malls, deserted roads but packed pubs and clubs was the scene, as well as in major towns across Karnataka as the final began.
Only shops that had TV sets on had people crowding around, not to buy goods but to watch the drama unfold at Mumbai's Wankhede stadium. Traffic police personnel welcomed the break from the usually heavy weekend traffic while auto-drivers rued the day as lack of customers meant many would return home with lower earnings.
In residences, stacks of popcorn, chips, mixtures or the famous Karnataka "muruku" (a spicy fried item made of rice and gram flour and chilly powder) came out of shelves as entire families gathered around the TV sets to catch the action live.
Posters of Indian cricketers lined the streets, and were found everywhere in the city. The city streets wore the look of an unofficial shutdown as the day progressed with most office workers deciding to take a day off. Even a few private offices decided to declare the day a weekly off in order to cope up with numerous leave applications yesterday.
As the excitement soared across the country over the World Cup final, politicians in poll-bound West Bengal too wrapped up their campaigning by afternoon and many were glued to their TV sets.
Giant screens have been put up in a few parts of the city and various shopping malls and attracted huge crowds, which cheered for the Men in Blue.
Fanatics
But in midst of all the excitement, there was pain among the cricket fanatics who missed son of soil Sourav Ganguly, and reminisced the 2003 World Cup final under his leadership which India lost to Australia.
"We are happy that India is in the final. But we miss Dada badly. We would have been very happy if he would have been in the field today playing side-by-side with Dhoni and his boys," said Arup Sarkar, a 50 year old office worker.
In Bengaluru, near-empty shopping complexes and malls, deserted roads but packed pubs and clubs was the scene, as well as in major towns across Karnataka as the final began.
Only shops that had TV sets on had people crowding around, not to buy goods but to watch the drama unfold at Mumbai's Wankhede stadium. Traffic police personnel welcomed the break from the usually heavy weekend traffic while auto-drivers rued the day as lack of customers meant many would return home with lower earnings.
In residences, stacks of popcorn, chips, mixtures or the famous Karnataka "muruku" (a spicy fried item made of rice and gram flour and chilly powder) came out of shelves as entire families gathered around the TV sets to catch the action live.
