Get ready to kick the habit

There will be Indians who?ve never heard of the expression ?Plus ca change, plus c?est la meme chose?, who will cheer on Les Bleus tomorrow.

The seeds of destruction are contained in the run-up to a climax. If that’s a mouthful for you on a nice Saturday morning, try and remember the hollow feeling you start getting prior to a much-anticipated occasion — whether it’s your marriage, or it’s Diwali, or it’s the Fifa World Cup final. Less than 24 hours away from the high-point of a month-long festival of football that comes our way once in every four years, we’re already thinking of how to measure out our evenings after Sunday night. Whether it’s France that lifts the World Cup or Italy, us desis, untrammelled by Nation-State loyalties — and therefore insured against mass devastation — have only one thing to fear when we come face to face with the days that will inevitably follow our strange tryst with Berlin: an entertainment vacuum.

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Okay, so life will return to its Zidane-less, Totti-less monotone, punctuated once in a while with a trip to the cinema, a jaunt to a restaurant — and the perpetual machine that is modern international cricket. But, for those who have been faithfully, devotedly plonking ourselves in front of screens — a small one at home or a giant one in a public space — will our body clock know that the World Cup is over as soon as the referee blows the whistle late on Sunday night? Knowing how, every 8.30 p.m. and 12.30 a.m., we instinctively craved and got our fix of football at its highest level, can we be so sure that withdrawal symptoms will not show by the time we return from our offices on Monday evening? It’s difficult for outsiders, especially those from countries who played in the 2006 World Cup mela, to understand why we, 117th rankers in world football, need to fear the Big Empty After Sunday. This is as difficult to explain as it is to rationally argue why lines of loyalty have been crisscrossing our populace for the last one month.

There will be Indians who’ve never heard of the expression ‘Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose’, who will cheer on Les Bleus tomorrow; and there will be the other lot who, without any idea that a ravioli (a type of pasta) is different from Roberto Raviola (an Italian comic book artist) who will back the Azurri. Perhaps when the hurly-burly’s done and the battle of Berlin is lost and won, we’ll turn to something that will take our mind off the emptiness. Like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. That’s every Monday to Friday, 10.30 pm taken care of.