“Good Grief”

Well I wasn’t planning to write again so soon, just shared my first online blog earlier this week, so still deciding how often/ frequently I should write (well, write and share publicly that is)…

But yeah, watched the India-England T20 World Cup semifinal earlier today, and this is the outfall (or fallout, or whatever… shucks, keep writing and ignore the words/ grammar for once)…

So yeah, back to all that it brought out within me (“out within”, really ??? I mean can you say that, can anyone bring about their innermost ‘within’ to the outside indeed? For those who can, waah waah already)…

So yeah, back to the topic, and what was the topic, eh? (fooled ya, this time I know what the topic was, I think that is)

This World Cup brings back memories that go back to 1992, I was a 14-yr-old boy giving his 10th standard board exams then…
… and the way our parents used to be over-cautious, over-caring, over-worried during those ‘crucial’ years and especially the exam days.

So yeah, I was expected to eat on time, get up on time, sleep on time, and everything in between…
… but what did I actually do, I watched the entire 1992 ODI World Cup unknown to my parents (don’t worry, called my mom earlier this evening to confess, so that she doesn’t have to find that out in a public forum)

And my trick was getting the TV on mute as quickly/ systematically as possible… you see back then our TV used to make a peculiar sound while switching on (kinda loud in those unearthly hours of an Australian WC)…
… so I used to fold our tablecloth, and hold it over the speaker till I could get the TV on mute, for the fear of waking up my parents.

And that’s also why I used to like Perth more than any other Australian venue…
… it was a time zone thing back then… my love for it’s true/ honest bounce and the beautifully wicked “WACA”ness came much later (this is for mad cricket lovers, others kindly ignore, thank you)

So it was this World Cup in Australia, and the Final was on the last day of our 10th standard board exams…
… and my dad used to take me to and from the exams every single day (love him for that, never said it to him, and probably never will, some things are better left unsaid).
But that day I was like I want to drive (ride actually, we had a Luna) back home, and considering my exams were over he let me too… and I drove (rode, whatever) like crazy that day to get us back home just in time for the last over of the first innings (Derek Pringle, 2 runs, few wickets, the wickets I don’t remember, but just 2 runs in the last over of an ODI, and a World Cup final at that, yes that part I’ve always remembered).

So where’s all this going and how does it connect to the title, right ??? I know… but those World Cup memories just came flooding, and what else could I do other than jotting them down (or should I say “down under”… eeew already… 😬😬😬)…

So the way today’s semifinal went, and the way India surrendered and meekly bowed out (would prefer if we’d been clean knocked out instead, but after a bloody fight) of the World Cup… it gave me much grief, I was in pain, more like torment actually… no exaggeration.

But the very next thing that came to mind was Jos Buttler’s (current England captain) post-match press conference after they had lost to Ireland… quoting him verbatim… so here’s what he had to say…
“I think we should let it hurt, to be honest. I think days like today are really, really disappointing, and you’ve got to feel that. There’s no point in saying let’s sweep it under the carpet and move on. I think we’ve got to reflect – we’ve got to do it quickly obviously with a game soon after, but today should hurt.”

That sentiment resonated with me, I have been/ still am (who knows) on similar grounds in recent times.
And that’s where the title “Good Grief” connects… aaa haaaa (or ‘phew, finally’ I guess, or dare I say good grief)… 😜😜😜

So back to another different background, a bit (read a lot) more personal.
Me and my brother play and share these daily Wordle and Phrazle quiz games…
… and below is what I wrote to him one day, a few months back, after sharing my Phrazle result with screenshot.

“So happy with today’s Phrazle… the 1st attempt is always random, was just trying to use up all the vowels…
… and आंधळ्याचा हात बुडकुल्यात style (Marathi phrase for some random windfall), it had suddenly narrowed down to 4 out of 5 letters of the 2nd word (I, G, E from yellow plus R from pink) although nothing on the exact spot.
And then I was like I just have to get this word right, and the rest will follow… no more random trial-and-error guesses… control Uday control… 🤣🤣🤣
The word ‘GRIPE’ repeatedly kept coming to mind, and I kept pushing it away saying there’s no E in the last (5th letter) place…
… kept fighting that urge of just entering it for the sake of further clues or narrowing down.
More than actively thinking of alternatives, I was actually spending more energy just resisting that temptation… 😜😜😜
And then suddenly ‘GRIEF’ struck (pun intended)…
… and I was like WTF, how could I not see GRIEF, something so very close to me, and now more than ever.
Extending it to ‘GOOD GRIEF’ from there on was pretty obvious…
… but it felt more like thanks for persisting, and not taking the easy way out.
And then, yet another thought came to mind from that phrase… ‘Good’ grief…
Going through (and eventually coming across) this grief is going to make me a better person (hopefully) in the long run…
… so this grief may actually be a good thing for me… ‘Good’ grief, attaboy… that way… 💕💕💕
Got to listen to ‘Pain, you made me a believer’ right after this… 🤪🤪🤪”

Right, so that’s where the whole connection thing lies… whether to ‘gripe’ about India losing yet another World Cup which they could’ve/ should’ve won…
… or to turn it into a ‘Good’ grief, and come back stronger the next time around.

Till then, and always, bleed blue… 💙💙💙

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