A little known(more little known than you might imagine) person named Vishwanathan Anand recently hit number one in the world of chess.
An even more insignificant speck in the world of sports named Saina Nehwal won the World Junior Badminton championship.
Yet another splattered bug on the windshield of world sport named Pankaj Advani is already on his way into the record books in the world of cue sport.
If you're not among the news, and you trust the newspaper instead, well then good for you. You should be well versed about their achievements.
Then again, if you're one of the news channel addicts(my battle against which shall probably be emphasized in my next post) you've either never heard of them, or find yourself scratching your head vaguely trying to remember one of them from an Advertisement for AMD(they make computer processors, by the way). And my dear friends, if you fall into this category of people, this post is entirely in your honour.
I don't blame you.
You're probably more concerned about why yuvraj split with his now ex girlfriend and why dhoni cut his hair rather than how those three (whose names I rather cruelly belittled at first) probably revolutionized their respective disciplines.
They're not unknowns. They aren't little insignificant specks. They aren't splattered bugs on the windshield of a car named 'sports'.
It's just the cricket obsession that has eaten up into their air time. Today, news channels would rather air a segment about how dhoni styles his hair, rather than how any of them actually did the incredible things they did.
I don't blame Dhoni. It's not his fault.
It's ours. I could take the high stand and say I'm nto the die hard cricket fan most of you are and therefore I'm exempted, but I won't. I'm as guilty as any of you are.
It's fantastic to love a sport. Even more fantastic for an entire nation to be so deeply involved with one, but then again, with cricket all I see is a death sentence for most other sports as far as encouraging emerging and established sportspersons are concerned.
Aren't we all taking it a bit too far?
How long can this go on for? it's almost as though the entire craze has taken a turn that will stop at nothing until every little boy or girl in india is holding a cricket bat and parents will all look on with teary eyes and say, "Look honey, he's(or she's)playing his(or her) first stroke!"
If we thought things were getting tough all this while to break in other sprots into the mainstream, just wait till we hit IPL season again and you'll see the final nail in the coffin being hammered in.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Shift in Agenda
Shift in agenda. This blog will no longer contain any coherent pieces of writing that have gone through my usual one-time review. Instead, i have decided to make it a point to log on here once a week at the least and just start typing about anything in my mind and not stop to either edit or read what I have written before I post it. It's just an experiment in sanity and evidently typing as well. This startign introduction post would be the first real test and I hope I haven't made any type-o's so far. Oh and in case you were wnodergin, no, I'm not even looking at the screen I'm just staring at the keyborad.
Friday, May 2, 2008
The 'Right' government?
Well it's election time next year. There's a lot of talk about inflation and the 'aam aadmi' and the state of the middle class and those below it. There's also a lot of talk about how this government's not good, and how another one should be in place. Then there's those who say, the NDA is bad news and the Congress is the way ahead. Well, this little rant of mine is going to punch holes in all of these thoughts. I present to you, my view of the state of politics in India today.
Lets go in Alphabetical order shall we?
The Bharatiya Janata Party today is ruled and governed by the most communal principles of a doctrine based purely on Hindutva. In a nation that prides itself on religious tolerance and secularism, we have here a party whose ideology is governed by the principle of the Hindu religion being 'right' and the only real path to 'god' (my belief on the existence of god, as tempting as it feels right now, is not the focus here). So, is that who you're going to vote for? A single one dimensional party incapable of true secularism and ruled by a generation which probably should have seen its dusk a decade ago? Would you stand by and let them ink your fingers after voting for a party whose posterboy, and icon, (Narendra Modi) is tainted with the blood of innumerable innocent people? It saddens me to think so.
Ah, the Congress. The uniting force in this country fifty years ago, and a bloch on the face of this great country today. We have today, a single person of foreign origin, who is the President and the Prime Minister without being either one. Why does she command such respect and adulation? Why she is the widow of a former Prime Minister and was, at the time, the perfect banner for the sympathy vote. Why was this former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, such an admired figure? Granted, his abolishment of the Industry cap was one of the factors, but overall, he came to power, because he was the young son of an assassinated Prime Minister. See some kind of strange pattern here? Why, now, was Indira Gandhi thrust to the forefront of Indian politics? Simple. She was the daughter of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Why was he the Prime Minister? Well you don't have to worry, I'm not doubting his credentials here. Oh and who is Rahul Gandhi? Well I wouldnt bet against you if you said he's a future Prime Minister. He is of course, supremely qualified by his magnificent surname.
Yes, what a wonderful, wonderful way of picking your leaders. Is this even a democracy anymore? We have here, a party where you just HAVE to be a Gandhi to get somewhere good. So please, do go ahead and cast your vote for the most autocratic charade in the Indian democratic system.
Oh how could I leave out the most celebrated stick in the mud?!
We shall now take a look at the hospitable, left. The CPM. It seems to me that they've been in charge of the 'grumble no matter what you do' department. Now, you have GOT to admit they're doing a damned good job of it. They're the wet blankets of politics. The equivalent of a Bollywood wannabe. The little child you see at the mall, crying for some sweets and throwing it away in disgust once he/she gets it. The thorn in the foot of virtually anyone who could try doing some good. Why? Well they've got an unattainable utopia in their little narrow minds and seem to believe conforming to nonconformity is the only way to go about doing it. With Octogenarians at their helm, and egotistical, pontificating 'leaders' just below them.. MAN! You can just imagine the recipe for disaster this seems to be.
How then are we still moving forward? How is India growing and becoming so successful with this circus of a political system? How are we shining in these seemingly dire circumstances? How are we, today, part of a country that is touted to be a superpower?
To put it bluntly, we're not.
If moving forward is watching a hundred farmers kill themselves every month, we're headed forward. If success, is watching one end of the population by a formula one team, and the other end starve to death, then we certainly are on the road to success. If a shining India, is one where we can consider drunk driving worthy of a life sentence and still believe a rapist should walk free in a few years, then we certainly are shimmering.
The problem is not in the way we do things. That is a consequence of the way we SEE things. THAT, my friends, is the problem with not just India, but the whole world. Our measure of success is a perversion of the true meaning of that word with reference to humanity as a whole.
It isnt just about politics anymore. It's about you and me. It's our negligence and our disinterest that's responsible for how truly "messed" up (I would like to keep this article clean) this whole world is right now. So come, 2009, what is expected of you?
It's quite simple really. Pick one and hope for the best. It isnt the lesser of two evils anymore. It just seems like two choices to the same path that inevitably leads to the point where we, as humans, must decide what's right.
Lets go in Alphabetical order shall we?
The Bharatiya Janata Party today is ruled and governed by the most communal principles of a doctrine based purely on Hindutva. In a nation that prides itself on religious tolerance and secularism, we have here a party whose ideology is governed by the principle of the Hindu religion being 'right' and the only real path to 'god' (my belief on the existence of god, as tempting as it feels right now, is not the focus here). So, is that who you're going to vote for? A single one dimensional party incapable of true secularism and ruled by a generation which probably should have seen its dusk a decade ago? Would you stand by and let them ink your fingers after voting for a party whose posterboy, and icon, (Narendra Modi) is tainted with the blood of innumerable innocent people? It saddens me to think so.
Ah, the Congress. The uniting force in this country fifty years ago, and a bloch on the face of this great country today. We have today, a single person of foreign origin, who is the President and the Prime Minister without being either one. Why does she command such respect and adulation? Why she is the widow of a former Prime Minister and was, at the time, the perfect banner for the sympathy vote. Why was this former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, such an admired figure? Granted, his abolishment of the Industry cap was one of the factors, but overall, he came to power, because he was the young son of an assassinated Prime Minister. See some kind of strange pattern here? Why, now, was Indira Gandhi thrust to the forefront of Indian politics? Simple. She was the daughter of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Why was he the Prime Minister? Well you don't have to worry, I'm not doubting his credentials here. Oh and who is Rahul Gandhi? Well I wouldnt bet against you if you said he's a future Prime Minister. He is of course, supremely qualified by his magnificent surname.
Yes, what a wonderful, wonderful way of picking your leaders. Is this even a democracy anymore? We have here, a party where you just HAVE to be a Gandhi to get somewhere good. So please, do go ahead and cast your vote for the most autocratic charade in the Indian democratic system.
Oh how could I leave out the most celebrated stick in the mud?!
We shall now take a look at the hospitable, left. The CPM. It seems to me that they've been in charge of the 'grumble no matter what you do' department. Now, you have GOT to admit they're doing a damned good job of it. They're the wet blankets of politics. The equivalent of a Bollywood wannabe. The little child you see at the mall, crying for some sweets and throwing it away in disgust once he/she gets it. The thorn in the foot of virtually anyone who could try doing some good. Why? Well they've got an unattainable utopia in their little narrow minds and seem to believe conforming to nonconformity is the only way to go about doing it. With Octogenarians at their helm, and egotistical, pontificating 'leaders' just below them.. MAN! You can just imagine the recipe for disaster this seems to be.
How then are we still moving forward? How is India growing and becoming so successful with this circus of a political system? How are we shining in these seemingly dire circumstances? How are we, today, part of a country that is touted to be a superpower?
To put it bluntly, we're not.
If moving forward is watching a hundred farmers kill themselves every month, we're headed forward. If success, is watching one end of the population by a formula one team, and the other end starve to death, then we certainly are on the road to success. If a shining India, is one where we can consider drunk driving worthy of a life sentence and still believe a rapist should walk free in a few years, then we certainly are shimmering.
The problem is not in the way we do things. That is a consequence of the way we SEE things. THAT, my friends, is the problem with not just India, but the whole world. Our measure of success is a perversion of the true meaning of that word with reference to humanity as a whole.
It isnt just about politics anymore. It's about you and me. It's our negligence and our disinterest that's responsible for how truly "messed" up (I would like to keep this article clean) this whole world is right now. So come, 2009, what is expected of you?
It's quite simple really. Pick one and hope for the best. It isnt the lesser of two evils anymore. It just seems like two choices to the same path that inevitably leads to the point where we, as humans, must decide what's right.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)