One Prayer Here:

April 03/2011: April 02, Saturday evening, the whole nation came to a standstill. India won the Cricket World Cup at Bombay. Playing against Sri Lanka, this victory came to India after 28 years of being in the sidelines. Every television viewer across the sub continent must have relished the details of the game. A sudden spurt of patriotism was palpable all over India. ‘Sahara’ t shirts could be seen worn by almost all on the streets of metros to villages. Without spending any money, that corporate had a field day of publicity. Bugles were heard. Sparklers illuminated the skies. Mobile telephone Inboxes were filled with messages-both pleasant and unpleasant. One of the messages of an extremely low taste had a Hindi language couplet. It said first we defeated the ‘goras’ (Australia), then we defeated the ‘haramkhors’ (Pakistan) and finally we have defeated the ‘Sita ka Chors’. If we, even jokingly, consider all our neighbors as abhorrent, we will be doing a great damage to our own image. Similar messages filling up the Inbox must have irritated many a mobile user. Truly speaking, Indians are no great sport lovers. We are not, as a mass, outdoorsy. No one is a greater fool than us if we think we are world travelers by viewing travel and living programs on telly. Compare this to what happens in other countries. Right from school days, parents and schools encourage outings, outdoor sports and many physical activities. When this is mentioned here in India, even our expensive schools give excuses that those are costly affairs that cannot be affordable for normal Indian kids. Yet many Indian children play outdoor games such as football (soccer), hockey and kabaddi and have brought laurels to themselves. Since there are no advertisers or financial backing for these games, the media tends to ignore and underplay them as if they do not exist. Resultantly, the common man does not acknowledge these talents simply because they remain unknown.

The desire here is not to suppress the enthusiasm generated by the Cup win. Still, when news media headlines scream ‘Conquered the World’ or ‘World at our Feet’, let us not forget that the Cricket World Cup is played by only 12 to 14 countries of the world. Kenya, Holland, Canada and Ireland were unofficial teams and did not matter. Unfortunately, all, barring none, of these countries were colonized at some time or the other by United Kingdom and so their history is kind of sad and murky. A game born out of oppression and deprivation should, logically, have a life that is surely not glorified. Cricket in this sub continent did not have that kind of a shameful road to tread.

Nations like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and lately Sri Lanka have been basking in the glory of a game that does not take pride in the physical prowess of the players but more on the scheming, plotting and planning abilities of the man called the Captain of the team. Let it not be misunderstood that we here are deriding those abilities. They are, in reality, the pivotal points to gain championships in cricket.

When political parties call ‘Bandhs” to highlight a public issue where governments neglect people’s demands, there are many non governmental organizations that come up with surveys and tentative assessments as to how many millions of rupees were lost due to the loss in work and how it impairs growth of the nation. The media laps it up and goes haywire publishing such stories. Courts take suo moto notice of these incidents and come down heavy on the political system. An ODI is approximately for 8 hours. Millions of television viewers watching the players sit incapacitated like dumbos. However, no one seems to do a study on the colossal national loss that occurs when such games paralyze the whole nation.

When Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh or even LK Advani wish to get out of their secured Black Cat protected lives and homes to get into the celebrations, let none be confused that this is a ploy. And the intention is to get out of the cobwebs of being defamed and regain access to the public that has started mistrusting all their activities.

It is an accepted fact that Lalit Mody’s IPL games debunked the so called national fervor. It destroyed the national teams. Lalit’s style of propagating the game gave him benefits running into billions of dollars but it created a negative mindset against that inpidual. However, it has to be accepted that his angular games had a positive aspect too. Taking shelter under no national flags, every player had to perform to his best of abilities and was noticed as such. This stopped the false patriotism encouraged by a nation’s team and instead brought out the players’ prowess.

Cricket World Cup is over. India are the Champions. At the same time, Indians have to realize that their country has not won the World. Negativism should not be the rule. Recognizing realities makes any race great. While congratulating the Board of Control for Cricket in India and certain state governments that have bestowed millions from government exchequers on to the players, let us also remember that we, as a nation, do not figure anywhere in truly international sports events like the Olympics. It is time that Indians start dreaming to gain acceptability in the world as a sports loving country.

The earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in Japan brought about an unbelievable situation in that island nation. It was amazing how the Japanese, instead of waiting for government help, actually helped each other. Those kinds of scenes are still visible. All of us know how an orderly behavior helps in building a prosperous nation. Let us learn something from the Japs.  One prayer here. Like the false unity and patriotism displayed by Indians after this cricket victory, may the day dawn soon when Indians truly display such camaraderie in their day to day lives and also when devastations and natural calamities strike this people.