Devil's advocate...

As the whole country thunders and celebrates the win of young Indian team in the latest avatar of world cricket, so called “T20 championship”, probably it’s time to step back and relish this moment. True that such a moment comes rarely, especially in a country like ours with abundant talents and volatile temperaments. Even truer is the fact that we are perennially short of worthy national heroes who could inspire a generation to look forward with pride and self belief.
I am not a cricket pundit and hence wouldn’t go into technical details of how this could benefit our cricket and sport in general; neither would I think that this is a miniscule performance even if my attitude towards this new formed “tamashaa” has been hostile. But, I do reserve my comment about the potential of Indian cricket. The fact that these young boys jumped into adulthood with such poise and commensurate ease has pleased me beyond my expectations; Dhoni’s refreshing attitude towards captaincy, Yuvi’s daring shots while batting and Sharma’s poise in the death – should augur well for the future. If only we could manage to provide a supply network without congestion, a channel to harness temperament and a structure to fall back in distress – we could challenge the mighty Aussies in their own den. But, I am doubly sure that such things won’t happen in Indian sport, cricket in particular and hence this euphoria is short lived.

I call the modern T20 version a use and throw format – where you live by the sword knowing that anyway your life is not precious, you play for the gallery because that’s what you aim for in this tourney, you pray only for a burst of brilliance as sustenance wouldn’t bring any extra laurel. So, there is absolutely no doubt that marketability of cricket would increase only at the expense of glory, stamina and perseverance – traits any sportsperson would vouch for. Cricket has never been a rival to soccer; neither has it been thought of as global as other sports because of its very nature. But, that has not made ICC a beggar; neither has it stopped countries from playing provided they get the infrastructure. Probably, ICC’s greed has overshadowed its responsibility towards the game and lured it into using players as mere pawns to generate revenue. They don’t bother about the sport as long as crowd says – “I’m loving it”.

By now, majority of readers must be cursing me for being a spoilsport at such a joyous moment or even think of branding me anti national. I agree that I have always believed in giving sense precedence over emotions and personally I have always benefited.
What holds true for a singular collectively holds true for a nation also. Recent splurge of money into players coffers, attitude of governments in deciding the priority as well as drama of BCCI to grab attention in the glory of unexpected windfall – all these show a wholesale callousness prevailing in the society.
On Tuesday, 25th of September 2007, there were two news which were relegated to the second stage following India’s victory in T20 championship. The first one about a lady doctor being raped in a Delhi hospital and the second about the recent controversies in Pakistan and Thailand. Even if for argument’s sake I accord to the point that news of Indian team attracts more viewers than say events in Pakistan or Thailand, but I failed to get any excuse in the first case. Even horrific has been the reactions of government. There are two ways I look at it –
The government (starting from her highness to Delhi CM Ms Sheila Dikshit and honorable PM) is only trying to look around other way and fool people by giving money to cricketers who are rich anyway and at the same time abducting its responsibility towards providing safe society. The public has been equally guilty. There has been no protest whatsoever, no uproar in the parliament, no discussions on TV and total ignorance of priority. Delhi government has given 5 lakh each to Shewag and Gambhir, but not a single penny to the doctor who is in coma now.
The second is even more pertinent. T20 is not equivalent in stature to a World Cup and without dwarfing Dhoni’s achievements I can say that there is no sure winner in this format. Simply because, the format is such that everybody is vulnerable on a particular day. There was a proposal for BCCI (which is cash rich) to come out and support other sports to grow – but recent things don’t point in that direction. The players have been extraordinary, they have brought laurels for the country and I appreciate their work. There is a huge market for them where they would get more than what they want. But think of a player in chess, in badminton, in shooting, in weightlifting or for that matter in hockey. What is the attitude of Indian public towards such events? I am sorry to say, but ignorant Indians value T20 more than they value a gold or silver in Olympic – even though it is tougher to get the latter one. My memory fails to recollect such a welcome for – Rajyabardhan rathode, Karnam Malleswari, Leander Peas, Prakash Padukone, Bula Sen or even P.T Usha. Each of them has been great in their field but probably the only mistake they did was not to play cricket. The irony is, even a baseball player turned cricketer would earn more respect here than a champion swimmer or stylish badminton player.
And, I attribute this phenomenon of step motherly attitude to nothing but money and glamour. The hungry public only sees the dancing of money and this dangling carrot forces millions to think that everybody in their home could be a Tendulkar. People want their children to be a cricketer not because they love the sport, but it would bring more than they could dream about.

Sounds cynic? Feels like I have spoiled the mood of the nation? If so, I am happy to do that. There should be times when unnecessary histrionics and madness of the public at large needs to be condemned, even at the risk of being branded “pessimistic spoilsport”.
Good luck to “Team India” for their upcoming upheavals.

India's war against terrorism...

Thanks to the lack of any will (political or apolitical), citizens of India remain vulnerable to all sorts of terrorist attacks within their own motherland. We have a countless list of haves and only a single blot in the have not part – we don’t have any assurance of a natural death, or in a country with increasing life expectancy the life of citizens are cut short by non physiological problems.
The list of reasons for the unnatural death is long for India – malnourishment, pre natal negligence, pregnancy and delivery failures due to untrained nurses, rowdy drivers prowling on the roads – it goes on and on. Terrorism is the coolest entry in this list - an entry as destructive as any natural calamity and as mouthwatering for the political parties to cash on vote bank politics.
From Delhi, to Varanasi, to Mumbai, to Malegaon, to Bangalore, to Hyderabad – the list of cities under terrorist threat is increasing and if the latest statement from honorable home minister is taken seriously then Indians should brace for more such incidents. If my knowledge of geography is right then USA or China or Russia is bigger in size than India – yet according to official statement it is because of the vastness of our country that such attacks couldn’t be prevented. With all negatives to American adventures in foreign shores – no American life has been lost post 9/11 due to terrorist attack. A country which doesn’t give enough value to the lives of its citizens is rare to find – and as always all such records belong to India. How easy it is to blame the neighbors – even before investigation starts – to wash away hands off the responsibility. How easy it is to talk of resilience, to talk of being calm and composed and to talk of people being jealous about our progress and communal harmony. All successive governments irrespective of political ideology and power has shown nothing but callous attitude towards the value of citizen’s life – probably because a dead person is no more a factor in the voter’s list. Those hapless families – uncountable as they now must be, are left to the vagaries of the cruel liabilities – forgotten under heaps of garlands and hollow promises.
India has become a soft state and there is absolutely no debate on that. The focus has now turned into a grim reality staring in your face situation – how many more innocent lives need to be lost before the country wakes up? I am neither a knowledgeable bureaucrat nor a learned journalist – hence statistics is not my forte. But my simple question is – how much of it is a coincidence that till date, hardly any politician or people in the power circle have been targeted by the terrorists? The fact that they are capable enough to do that was proven by the attack on the parliament; hence their sudden change of focus is intriguing. I guess, by now even the terrorists have understood that government of India is only concerned about saving their own skins. Till such times when suicide bombers hit parliament or kill half a dozen politicians, none from Delhi would pose any challenge to terrorism. It’s an easy documentary – be aloof from such heinous crimes till innocent citizens are finished, keep garlands and speeches ready for such occasions laced with crocodile tears and blindly blame neighbors to avoid any meaningful investigation inside India.
Till even few months back, I used to think that I should be proud to be an Indian, but no more. Being an Indian was never my choice and given one, I wouldn’t want to be. I don’t want a life (not for me and neither for my children) where every step outside home could potentially lead to fatal separation, I don’t respect a country which gives a damn to it’s citizen’s life and I refuse to live just with the burden of a glorified past camouflaged to hide horrific present. Those gory scenes of shredded bodies, of spilled blood are not what I want to present to the future generations.
And how dearly I wish that I had a choice of choosing my nation – a nation where the citizen is not used as a pawn in the game of terror, where a child could enjoy a safe life and where people wouldn’t think twice before enjoying their life the way they want – a life colorful and joyous enough to be cherished and valued by every citizen of that country.