Skip to main content

More than a Match?

Does an India-Pak Match need any publicity? Obviously, it doesn't, specially when it's after a long break. Then why does it have to be so "in the face". People are knowledgeable enough to understanding the gravity of the event, at the stage as huge as the World Cup, and in a match as important as the semi-final. No team wants to lose, no team wants to think about losing but one will lose.

This is not "just another game". It brings from within the people the inherent hatred that is there for the other nation and for some, towards the other community. A show of hostility, lets them express their true feelings. It's an event to cherish for every one; the Opportunists, the Pessimists, the Xenophobic and the Remaining.

The Hype is not because there is a match between two teams but because it's an arena for everyone to showcase their products; the patriotism, the loyalty, the modesty, the courtesy and the tolerance. None of which they might actually possess. The forth estate of our esteemed Motherland seems to find nothing worthwhile other than a game of cricket between two countries, which would last not more than the 8 hours. This in a country which has scams, rapes, murders happening every hour.

The event is way beyond cricket and cricketers now; it's about diplomacy, votes, bureaucracy and the corporates. The patriotism possessed by the common men is something they don't possess even in traces. It's all about the footage, the PR that they can gain.

In the middle of all this, remember we have a game that would be played, which could like any other game in any other sport, have any of the two possible result with equal probabilities. All the other possibilities do exist to. It could be a one sided game. The Pundit in everyone might disagree with me here but the fact remains.

Supporting one's team is no measure of someone's patriotism. There is no greater patriot than the man serving our nation at the Siachen and I believe he has no access to this larger than life game involving larger than life Heroes. But none is truer than him.

For 8-10 hrs tomorrow, I too will lose myself to the hysteria and probably the connection with reality. Because that's what sports is meant to be, a form of entertainment. I will forget about everything and cheer India! But, I promise to return to the reality and think rationally after it.

Lots of respect for everyone who won't be able to watch the match tomorrow, the soldiers, the train drivers, the farmers; they are the true patriots and not the one's attending it. I as someone who will be watching it tomorrow; realise its not something patriotic I am doing for my country; it's just another one of those things I love. The hockey match of the same country wasn't so keenly awaited event for me.

"Overvaluing your own contribution while undermining other's; you lose touch with reality."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

He who knows how to be Poor knows Everything

In today's materialistic world, being poor is the worst thing that can happen to you. Being educated, being moralistic and being principled amount to almost nothing if you are poor. There are no opportunities to come out of that quagmire. Someone who has been through this and has somehow overcome the mountain of difficulties, would possess incredible amounts of determination, will and belief in his ability. Such talent is rare but often results in producing the greats. Being poor teaches you time management, how to make the most of your time to survive. It teaches you adaptability, how to adjust to the extremes of living conditions. It pushes you to extend your boundries and grow farther. It makes you emotionally and mentally strong. Someone who has been facing defeat after defeat but still gets up everytime to face adds so many facets to his personality. You learn only from your mistakes. If you have never faced defeat, it would be hard to survive. To relate to my own l...

Belief in Virtue is more important than Virtue itself

Just pause for a second from your daily life. The life that you are so desperately trying to organise, to make worthy, to make grand. The future plans that you are putting together, the aspiration and the fantasies; put them aside and think about this- "We spend a lot of time trying to organize the world, we build clocks and calendars and we try to predict the weather but what part of our life is truly under our control. What if we choose to exist purely in our reality of our own making, does that render us insane. If that does, isn't that better than a life of despair?" Rationality and irrationality is purely subjective. Also what's better is only a matter of how deeply you apply your thoughts to it. If being happy and content is all that you want in life, then isn't living an insane life in a world of your own, the perfect thing for you. The problem with us is that we don't know what we actually want, and when we do, we hate to accept them and instead...

The God Delusion

People all over the world create delusions around themselves, a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidences. In India alone we have 33 crore Gods to choose from, for the 100 crore population; a sort of personalised delusion for everyone. In addition to that there are crores of God men. The social structure is so formed that it makes us oblivious to the delusion. We continously doubt our own abilities, and associate results to the blessings of some higher beings. The degraded self-esteem is what pushes you deeper into the delusion. To quote Douglas Adams - "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" The belief that the world was created by some God and that everything in this world is His creation is fundamentally flawed. If he created everything than who created Him. Putting the creation of everything under the ambit of one entity was to simplify the exp...