Evenings won’t be the same without IPL fever
It’s back to home chores and the rough and tumble of life that could set you up for the blues
Call it burnout or withdrawal or even fatigue but for millions of cricket-loving Indians, the post Indian Premier League (IPL) days are grey and blank in the evenings. Not just in India but all over the world, people are readjusting to life without the four-hour visual intravenous. If there are arguments today in many homes the absence of the cricket cushion could well be the cause.
The daily diet plus a double on the weekends had guaranteed a total stoppage of other customary activities, and gathering round the telly was central to life. Dinner, guests, parties, family obligations, going out in the evening, even walking and exercise routines were all curtailed and the sudden end to this feast is like yanking away the dish from the dining table before it is over. Except it is over.
Just like we have post-vacation blues or come to the end of a cruise, major sports events like the Olympics or the soccer World Cup or even in a lesser but more concentrated form tennis at Wimbledon or Flushing Meadows so completely captures our attention that when it’s over we go into a state of medical withdrawal.
In the case of such blues, according to a study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, that sense of well-being and happiness we were getting from the pleasurable experience quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people. Suddenly, life was boring and predictable. Besides the sense of resentment at being ‘cheated’ by the coming of the end, the adjustment is not easy for many and there is this irritation, annoyance and a short fuse as one stumbles back into society. Sometimes, the symptoms can make one lethargic, feel at a loose end and adversely affect work efficiency.
The IPL crutch is broken today and now one has to return to normality. When you feel down and lost as if a good friend and companion has left you, this ‘loneliness’ should not be mocked. Because depression is a possibility that cannot be ignored. According to a study done on the post Superbowl mood by the US based Loyola University Medical Centre psychiatrist Dr Angelos Halaris, fans need support and understanding in this phase.
He compares the uneasiness to going cold turkey on smoking for example and the snappy and grumpy phase which follows. Medically, when you are engaged in backing your team a neurotransmitter called dopamine is released in a part of the brain called the nucleas accumbens. And it adds to the ‘feel good’ sensation. Over the days, the ‘fix’ is needed and when its reason stops there is a sense of deprivation.
And this evening dopamine will be in short supply in many a home as cricket lovers gather to watch the match and moan about it only to discover it is over, nothing to see there.
Much relief for those who dislike cricket and whose lives have been dismantled these past seven weeks by the all-consuming IPL. Says one such individual: Half a billion people spending four billion manhours watching cricket. In a day. Takes three million to make a major hospital facility or a top grade school. In 13 million manhours, one could lay 120 kilometres of track or as much as 200 kilometres of roadway. You could create an airport city of the highest level for 140 million manhours.
Of course, you cannot put half a billion people to work on a project so the stats are skewered but they still do underscore how we can squander time being watchers rather than doers and that’s what happened during this mega tournament.
According to Wing Commander Mani Sishta, an aviation medicine specialist, the high of a prolonged sports event is more like a family wedding and in the aftermath much the same. Much excitement in the build-up and the events that lead to the big finale after which it is suddenly all over and the magnificent diversion that had added colour to life is snatched away rudely. The Wing Commander suggests that it might be healthy to ‘wean’ oneself off the screen by spending the next few days watching an alternate sport even if it does not intrigue or gain your attention to that level.
Dr Halaris concurs and adds that if you were watching with friends, continue to meet them and discuss the matches and how they went. There is evidence that men especially are more resentful of the ‘end’ and wives tend to express relief and ready to take offense. Family quarrels sparked by delayed household chores, comparative lack of attention to the children and repairs that need looking into are now on the front burner. For those who backed teams that lost out, the dismay is even more tangible. Bikram Vohra is former editor of Khaleej Times
When you feel down and lost as if a good friend and companion has left you this ‘loneliness’ should not be mocked.