A motley group of people headed back to the Gateway of India from the Elephanta Island on Sunday evening. They were returning from the annual cultural festival on the island, after being enthralled by a Bharathanatyam performance by Padmashri Geeta Chandran.

There was no mistaking the love of cricket among the tourists. On this wonderful Sunday, India was playing Ireland. Greeting visitors on arrival at the island was cricket commentary and the loud, cute and rickety toy train.

Commentary could also be heard along the shops lining the path leading up to the famous Elephanta caves. We're not taking into account the ‘expert' running commentary by fans on the island.

We wish we had a picture of this: seated with his family and enjoying the cultural performance was a young visitor wearing a 2011 Cricket World Cup T-shirt. If it had been India against a bigger team, he confessed that he wouldn't have made the trip.

The return journey on a bobbing ferry proved to be an experience as memorable as the dance and music extravaganza, thanks to a miniature television set in the cabin of the ferry man - and Doordarshan.

The waves the ferry waded through determined the shakiness of the boat, and thereby, that of the picture on screen. Nevertheless, most connoisseurs - and enthusiasts - of culture, who had spent about two hours getting to the island, were as engrossed in the match as they were in the dance performance.

When the ferry took off from the island, India were chasing a modest total and MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh were at the crease.

Most of India knows what ensued. Surely, readers of this column do. Yusuf Pathan lived up to expectations. India won before the ferry could reach the Gateway.

The enchanting night, replete with the starry sky above and the soothing sea beneath, lost to team India on a nine-inch TV.

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