If you want to see just how passionate India is about cricket, watch what happens when the Indian team travels overseas.
The flags come out. Cricket shirts suddenly appear everywhere. WhatsApp groups get busy. Tickets to the games get sold out quickly. Indian restaurants and takeaways get busier than usual. And conversations that otherwise have nothing to do with cricket somehow find their way back to the Indian team. And yes, everyone has an opinion!
This October, the Indian cricket team comes to New Zealand.
And if you’ve ever been to India, or grown up around Indian culture, or simply have an Indian friend or colleague, you will know that the excitement around the team is about much more than cricket.
Earlier this year, our Good Food Journeys group found themselves watching the T20 World Cup final between India and New Zealand in a hotel in Mumbai. A small bunch of Kiwis, surrounded by a room full of passionate Indian cricket fans. It wasn’t exactly the result that the Black Caps would have hoped for. But despite the result, our group enjoyed the legendary Indian hospitality and were very well looked after.
Cricket is rarely just cricket in India
In India, cricket has a way of bringing people together like very few other things can. Just like food, it is something that connects Indians to their culture, wherever they live.
For Indians living away from home, following the national team can be a surprisingly powerful connection to India. You might be thousands of kilometres away, but for a few hours, you are sharing the same excitement as millions of people back home.
And when the team arrives in your city, that connection becomes very real.
The Black Caps will play India 12 games in 5 cities over a 6-week period. The sea of blue in the stands is going to be quite something to watch!
For many Indians living overseas, these matches are more than sporting events. They are an opportunity to gather with family and friends, share the excitement, and pass that excitement to the next generation.
And back in India, another great part of that cultural calendar is about to begin.
Dusserah.
Meanwhile, India is getting ready to celebrate
While Indian cricket fans in New Zealand are preparing for the tour, India itself is entering one of the most exciting times of the year.
Dusserah is celebrated across the country in October, marking the triumph of good over evil. What makes Indian festivals so fascinating is that there is rarely one way of celebrating them.
In many parts of India, enormous effigies of the ten-headed demon king Ravana are set alight. His ten heads are traditionally seen as representing the 10 negative qualities he embodied, including anger, pride, greed and jealousy, and burning his effigy symbolises the triumph of good over evil and the destruction of these human failings.
Then there are celebrations, processions, music, theatre and elaborate rituals across the country. In West Bengal, the focus turns to Durga Puja. In Karnataka, the city of Mysore comes alive with its spectacular Dusserah celebrations. And in my hometown of Pune, there is the traditional ceremonial worship of weapons and tools.
Different traditions. Different stories. Different foods. But the same sense of celebration.
And Dussehra is also something of a curtain-raiser for what comes next.
A few weeks later, homes across India will begin to glow with oil lamps, markets will fill with sweets and gifts, families will come together and the country will celebrate Diwali.
I am saving that story for next month.
You have to experience India to understand India
You can get a taste of India here in New Zealand. You can watch the cricket, eat the food, celebrate the festivals and share in the enthusiasm of friends and colleagues.
But experiencing these things in India is something else.
It’s being in a city as it prepares for a festival. The noise and colour of a procession. The unexpected conversations. Sitting down to a meal and discovering something you’ve never tasted before. And those little moments that aren’t on any itinerary but somehow become the ones you remember most.
Some of my favourite memories from our journeys are not the things we planned at all. They are the conversations, the connections, the unexpected discoveries and the little moments that simply happen along the way.
That is what keeps drawing me back to India, and what I love sharing with our guests on our hosted tours.
As for the cricket, it doesn’t happen often that the Indian cricket team visits NZ during Diwali. I will be in the stands with my family and friends this October – all of us wearing blue. I won’t be surprised to see more blue jerseys than black in the stands! I suspect there will be some fireworks. 😉
See you next month, when we light the lamps for Diwali.
With warm regards,
From Malhar and the team at Good Food Journeys.
Perhaps this is the year you say yes, and experience India early next year. If you have been thinking about joining us in January, September is the month to make your decision.
This is a small group tour with a maximum of 14 guests. We have a few spots left on this tour, and we would love to host you in India.
If you confirm your place by 30 September, you will be in the draw for a suite upgrade at the ITC Mughal in Agra.
And perhaps, next year, you will join us at our next reunion.
Perhaps this is the year you say yes, and experience India early next year.
We have deliberately kept this journey small, with a maximum of 15 guests.
Warm regards,
Malhar
Good Food Journeys
