Me and the Indian Team

This was written during early January 2007. This again is outdated. But then, this has its own reason for being here because it deals with my passion, Indian Cricket. As they say, the Indian Cricket Team seldom disappoints you. Your gut feeling is always true, either in a win or a loss. This was written before the World Cup with the hope that the team will win. They didn't, which again was not surprising. But that did not stop me from being a fan, nor will further losses. I am a die hard fan and I shall remain so till my death. This post is titled "Me and the Indian Team".

Ask Soumya Paul aka Somu and he would say that ‘Murgi’ as I am known to him and almost all my school friends, is not bad at/in English. By that he would mean that I can write ‘theek thaak’ English, certainly not up to an author’s calibre (not even a blogger’s) but again not the ‘How is you?’ level as well. Coming from Somu, a person who stood first in the state in the 12th Standard Board Exams (he has many other such distinctions but this has to be his most significant), the point should be taken without any cross questioning. Ok. So, I am somewhere there in between the people who are well versed in English and the ones who don’t know English.
You might be wondering ‘Where is this guy going?’, ‘He seems to be absolutely lost’ etc. etc. Well, you might be right and again you might be wrong. I certainly don’t know where this ‘writing’ of mine is leading. I just wanted to write or to be more precise, type and as such I am writing, oops typing. Wait a minute, I just got an idea. The first paragraph may very well act as a disclaimer to any grammatical mistake, error in sentence framing, inappropriate word etc. that the following paragraph(s) may contain (I know there would be a lot of them; again a disclaimer). See, I am going somewhere (actually, I am still going nowhere).

Let us continue with the misery. I am not much of an expressive person. It has more to do with ability than intent. But I need to express myself now. You never know what an idle mind and a sorrow at heart can do to you. Don’t get me wrong on this. My personal life is smooth and my mind is idle because of the so called ‘holiday season’ going on somewhere in the U.S. As such, I am out of work for the moment. Now I need to justify the sorrow in my heart. Well, herein lies the reason for my boring you all with all the previous lines and the ones to follow.

My sorrow at heart can be summed up in two words, ‘INDIAN CRICKET’. You might be thinking, ‘Aha, now we know. The same old story. Yet another cricket fan showing his displeasure at the performance of the Indian Cricket Team.’ You might be right this time, just that it is not displeasure this time, it is heartache (For me it was never displeasure, it was always a heartache). Have you ever given a serious thought to the gravity of the word ‘PASSION’? You might be compelled to choose between the many things you like, if someone asks you straight in the face someday, ‘What IS your passion?’. For me, it was never an issue. I like many things, but for me, passion means only one thing and that has to be Indian Cricket and the Indian Cricket Team. Right form the day, I watched Sachin Tendulkar take on Abdul Qadir and hit him for a few glorious sixes, to the day I watched them succumb meekly to a pumped up albeit not extraordinary South African team, I have been and shall ever remain an Indian Cricket Fan. ‘Don’t you have any better things to do than to waste your time on a bunch who lose day in and day out, have no pride in playing for the country, are very well to do financially (courtesy the endorsements) etc.?’, my friends would ask me. However, I refute them. I refute them day in and day out. For the record, the Indian Cricket Team does not lose day in and day out, they have given us some memorable victories in the near past. They do have pride in playing for the country (never question their pride) and the money that they get through endorsements has to come while the sun shines just because they have a very short playing career after which most of their principal source of income is no more. As such, they have to secure their future financially when they have the opportunity to do so.

Why then does my heart ache? Why am I not being able to digest the glorious opportunity missed by the team in beating a South African team at home for the first time? Why wasn’t the light not good enough to play in the final day of the second test when on all other days, it was pretty pathetic? Why wasn’t Kallis given out in the final day of the third test when he had quite evidently nicked one to the keeper? Just Why? You know and you are right, I am looking for excuses, but I have no other option. I need a good night’s sleep. But I can’t sleep until I justified the result in South Africa. We should have won and we were winning. How then did Graeme Smith lift the trophy at the concluding ceremony? It should have been Rahul there on the podium lifting the trophy. There has been a mistake. The script is not well written. They should revisit it and correct it. With only two months to go before the World Cup starts, this is not the sort of preparation that I was praying for. What should I do now? Do I see my team winning the World Cup? Guess what? I do. I do see my team winning the World Cup because if I don’t, I don’t have anything to look forward to. Hope, they say, is the most fundamental of all human desires and I shall hope. I shall hope and pray that the team wins the World Cup. But for now, I am disappointed, very disappointed. I know this disappointment will last only till the next ecstasy or disappointment (whichever the case may be). Please give me a good night’s sleep. Please win the World Cup. PLEASE……

Censorship

This was written long back....Sometime during September 2005. This was also my first...So, its appropiate that the blog should begin with this post, howsoever out dated the views might seem(trust me, they were very relevant then...but then times change :)). However, the fact remains that to relate to this post, you have to travel back in time to the not so near yet not so far past. Happy reading. This post is titled "Censorship".

Censorship seems to be the order of the day in as closed a society as ours. Venting thoughts and opinions which border on the radical, invites censure even from peers.

Censorship from a third party is always resented. While political organizations who consider themselves ideologically driven impose their version of civility, our democratic souls are irked to a high degree. What’s in a name? Ask the activists from a prominent political organization in the country and you’d feel as if it’s the beginning and the end of everything. How else could you justify their act of going all out in a successful attempt to preserve the culture and heritage of our beloved Mumbai, which they felt was being threatened when a certain director named his yet to be released movie ‘Bombay Godfather’? These activists burnt effigies of the director, held protest rallies and saw to it that the director ‘corrects’ the name of the film to ‘Mumbai Godfather’. Mumbai’s culture and heritage which was on the verge of being shattered, was restored thanks to these ‘patriotic’ individuals with foresight. I guess, one fine morning I'll wake up to find that they have changed Mani Ratnam's 'Bombay' to 'Mumbai'!

An artist hates the scissors as a prisoner hates the rope. Shyam Benegal hallucinates about human beings morphing into scissors whenever he hears the word ‘censor’. Nagesh Kukunoor can’t stop talking about his seven films that have been snipped before they have been declared fit for proper viewing. This when the Censor Board has passed other films which have the cusswords tossed around for special effects and violence against women/animals defined in the Cinematograph Act as their running theme. What is obscenity? How much liberty can a filmmaker take when showing violence? Which film is suitable for viewing by a teenager and what makes watchable fare for a ‘mature adult’? Filmmakers have long grappled with these questions with the Censor Board giving them cuts instead of satisfactory answers.

Here's something I read somewhere the other day. A man, after a long day of hard work in the office, goes for a movie. He's all excited and is anticipating quality cinema as the movie is by a famous and critically acclaimed director of his time. Inside the theatre, he sees everything but a movie. He's showered with advertisements, ranging from detergents to deosprays; he has to put through countless documentaries highlighting our heritage and culture, all in the expectation of the movie. After about one and a half hour there's a big 'The End' on the screen. The show has ended. Disappointed and confused the man asks his neighbour, ‘Is it over?’. The neighbour answers, ‘Yes’. ‘But where's the movie?’ asks our man. To this his neighbour promptly replies, ‘All of it has been censored’!

Though hypothetical, such a situation is not difficult to imagine with the kind of censorship that the present day cinema is subjected to. Recently (or not so recently), they have started the concept of 'Parallel Cinema' which deals with matters of utmost concern in today's society. But with the Censor Board sticking it's pair of scissors out, there's not much a director can portray in such cinema. Censorship limits the artist's creativity but as we all know art is limitless.

Personal censorship is what we observe when we prefer 'the bird and the bees' over 'man and woman', its what we face when we indulge in phony shows of nationalism, when reproduction lectures end up producing the amoeba and doesn’t progress beyond that concept, when dressing up or dressing down is regulated by the intangible rules of socializing. Unfortunately, in our country, sex is a taboo subject. Parents and teachers shun from giving the young generation education on that particular subject. ‘How can I discuss sex with my daughter? What am I supposed to say?’ asks a particular parent. This seems to be the general trend. But then, they do not realize that in avoiding the subject they are only spreading ignorance. The time has come that we forego the attitude that ‘ignorance is bliss’ and perform our responsibilities in guiding the young generation through the right path.

Ever wondered why Sachin Tendulkar, arguably the greatest batsman of all time (with due regards to Sir Donald Bradman), till date, never commented about the evils that the game offers, lest he sparks off a controversy. It isn’t surprising that players turn to the ‘art’ of commentary only when they have well and truly retired. Our heroes would never draw their swords until and unless they are dead sure that the war is over. Speaking of controversy, a nineteen year wait for an elusive win outside the subcontinent being ended, also took a backseat amidst the controversy surrounding the persons holding the two most difficult jobs in India( and probably the world ), those of the Coach and the Captain of the Indian cricket team. So when Greg Chappel and Sourav Ganguly made a mistake in coming out in the open with their differences, it came as no surprise that the media took full advantage and hyped the issue to such an extent that a private discussion on team matters in the dressing room became the most publicly speculated matter in the entire country in recent times. Don’t you think they should be left alone? Afterall both of them have the same objective and that is to carry the team forward towards glory.

We have been censoring ourselves since time immemorial and that too, conditioned by rules made by some who don’t matter much. Even in personal life, we forfeit many a free thought at the altar of tact, compromise and diplomacy. Free speech you say. I say, I disagree.