A Tragedy

Perhaps the biggest tragedy of this article is that it is written in English. Now why is that a tragedy? It is because what we are about to consider here is the great Indian Culture and its present state, relevance and impact. A few days ago while we were on our way back home from Shegao, my kid cousin brother asked me to play the Hanuman VCD he had brought with him. It so happened that the CD had developed scratches and hung up mid-way creating tensions in the car (the source being my brother who was adamant that I start the CD at any cost and by any means). While I gave up that particular task as being an impossible one, I suddenly realized that he had come to know of the whole Indian mythology through the same medium viz animated movies, cartoon serials etc. While we got our knowledge from our grandparents and books, he was dependent on the TV and the borrowed creativity of a few individuals as well as a totally unreliable medium known as the Compact Disc. Why didn’t he read the literatures directly? Why couldn't he get the information from the same sources that we used? Has the age difference of 14 years completely overhauled the way we get to know our culture? Has the Golden period of India become restricted to these cheap media? Why do we no longer talk about the topics other than those provided by the so-called 24-hour-news-channels? Why does the discussion amongst friends not have topics like Shivchhatrapati or Rani Laxmibai or even Lord Ram? Why are we interested in the third marriage of the second step son of some long-forgotten bollywood heroine more than the myriad cultural nuances of our country? Why do we hesitate to reply strongly to a person when we know that he is wrong? Why are we drinking toilet cleaners like Pepsi and Coke when the list of home made refreshers is virtually unending? Why does the present generation need the international brands of toothpaste while others research on the Indian way of using a neem daatun?

This blog is being viewed most probably on a Windows based PC probably having the Microsoft Office 2007 package and still a select few know that the first code developed for Microsoft Word was developed in Pune by a company employing about 53 people ranging from the MD to the cleaning staff. Why have we started to under estimate the immense potential that lies hidden in our very own minds? When the British decided to take up India as its colony, they conducted a research and found out that the only effective way of establishing its superiority in India was to propagate that the English education system was better than the traditional Indian method. After 61 years, we still maintain the same philosophy!! No one wanted the traditional योग that originated in India. It took a person taking the Indian योग to the foreign countries, package it as YOGA and bring it back to its origin for the people to accept it!! Why have we started living in the make-believe worlds shown in the endlessly hysterical saas-bahu serials rather than discarding them totally and being happy in the life we had? Why does missing a single episode of these serials create atmospheres rivaling the world wars? Why do we let others decide how we are to lead our lives? Why do we let the salesmen on the TV make us believe that we were waiting with bated breath for a particular product which we never imagined and will probably never use it one month after purchasing it? Why? Were the so-called “modern and well equipped” gyms available to Lord Hanuman? For that matter, were they available to Indians before the British? In that case, were Indians never health cautious? There are stories of Indian pehelvaans beating the best built British personnel and yet the first thing that a boy does after his tenth exams is to join a gym! Ridiculous!

Traditional Indian medicine lists 1000 different ways of treating a human eye and its problems. Do you know the number of ways prescribed for the heart? Its zero. Indians never had any problems with the heart. They never had the terms blockages and heart attacks and heart failures and bypass surgeries and all the common words that we use these days. We abandon the Sanskrit, mother of all languages for a language called English that has almost no original words and relies on the words borrowed from other languages. We pull out the latest scientific calculators to add up five 2-digit numbers in a country that has had people capable of beating a supercomputer in calculating the 30th root of a 27 digit number just by using the traditional vedic mathematics skills. The other day, I watched a decades old (it was in black and white so you can imagine how old it was) program of Mr. P. L. Deshpande and had to change the channel thrice in half an hour to control my laughter and the aching sides. Why do we leave that quality for programs that feature stage managed actor audiences that laugh when a sign tells them to laugh?

If I go on listing the relevant points in one blog, perhaps I’ll never get the time to upload it! People!! Indians!! Wake up. Wake up to the knowledge that beckons you before you become incapable of handling it. Wake up to the Indian way of life. दोस्तों, हमारी जिंदगी अब एक ऐसे मोड़ पर है जहाँ हम अपने रास्ते ख़ुद चुनेंगे। हमें ये याद रखना है की हम कौन हैं। अगर अब हम नहीं जागे तो शायद कभी ना जाग पाएंगे। Friends, we are capable of creating wonders. We have the means. We have the brains. We are not dependant on anyone. We are to take charge. We; are the future.

The IPL Effect

A 44 day tournament rivaling the ICC Cricket word cup comes to an end with the so-called minnows Rajasthan rising from the ashes like a phoenix to take away the crown. Big names from various fields came to foray into a hitherto unknown form of cricket derived from the EPL with teams becoming business ventures and players becoming merchandise. Battle lines are redrawn with team mates becoming rivals and rivals becoming teammates. Cricketers don uniforms they never thought they would. A plethora of new activities like these were seen in the long span of the IPL. ICL, the so-called rebel group was washed away in an awe inspiring show of authority by the BCCI which chose to sideline the ICL rather than amalgamating it with the mainstream. While IPL turned out to be the stepping stone for many youngsters for the Indian Cricket team, ICL can virtually be said to be the padlock on those opting for the rebel group. Debates apart, there are certainly some very strong points, both positive as well as negative to be taken from the tournament. Firstly, the so-called big guns of Indian cricket were hardly able to make a mark in a format tailor made for them. With a very few exceptions, the senior pros failed miserably in delivering what was expected from them. Relying on foreign players to a troubling extent was seen from most of the teams. At the start of the tournament, the first few matches sealed the fate of a few teams while other teams witnessed a dramatic change as the tournament progressed. Kolkata, which looked like a formidable team and one of the frontrunners for the crown failed to deliver once players like McCullum returned home for national duties. Deccan Chargers, a team looking fabulous on paper failed to deliver right through the tournament. VVS Laxman, a player whom many labeled as a misfit for the 20-20 format took the opportunity to prove it right (!). Mumbai, starting on a low note and witnessing some ugly moments, rose up like anything and the final few matches that they lost could have gone anywhere. Bangalore. Well this was certainly a team that looked more like a test outfit rather than on 20-20 one. Sure they had the capacity of going great guns but alas, they never showed any desire to prove a point to the Doubting Thomases. In a format labeled as a batsman’s paradise, bowlers showcased the fact that no such thing exists anywhere and hard work always pays. The fact that the conversion rate of the free hits was minuscule itself proves the point. Yes, while we are at it, the much hyped free hit has failed to make a mark not only in the IPL but also in the one-day format. I wonder why the bowlers do not bowl every ball as if it were a free hit!

Perhaps the most important consequence of the IPL tournament is the fact that the bench strength of the national team has improved by leaps and bounds. Already 3-4 youngsters have been roped in for the national side and many more are ready and raring to go. A team having formidable and strong bench strength has the distinct advantage of the players in the playing eleven being aware of the fact that they are expendable, that their place in the side is not to be taken for granted, that there are many lined up to take their spot. This kind of healthy competition is what separates the winners from the posers. It was the key to the success of the once invincible team of Australia and it is the same factor that has played a critical role in the fact that the Indian team never reached that milestone in its totality. But that is perhaps history now that there is a horde waiting to pounce upon a vacant spot. Performance has suddenly returned to the top spot on the list of things you need to do to get a place in the national side. Maybe the tag of ‘Invincibles’ is just around the corner. Maybe…