The Diminutive Giant...

As soon as he come out, the thunder starts

From fifty thousand throats the sun made dry.

You almost hear the fifty thousand hearts,

In ragged unison beat for one boy

Ten years ago they mispronounced his name

At Lord’s, where, with a catch, a myth began.

Tall, cold and arrogant, the captains came

To break this boy, and found he was a man.

Thickest ant stocky, he takes guard today.

Designer stubble coarsens his young cheeks.

What fetches thousands here to see him play?

You feel the watchers stir in the cheap seats

Suddenly, as the sun, he finds his power.

So when the ringmaster assumes his place,

Flashes and whipcracks fill the acrid air,

Though he shows no emotions in his face

The great show’s on the road, the circus tent

Made of leached sky. The Tricolor hangs slack.

Not many people know what it once meant.

The marvelous boy refuses to turn back.

The watchers in cheap seats applaud it all

With puny wooden drums, instead of words.

Fireworks, explode around fences as the ball

Soars up in its huge arc to threaten birds.

Now strings are pulled, the Tricolor unfurled.

But he’s empowered, not reigned by any rope.

Tatters of colors, shred of sound, are whirled around the cheap seats,

In a rage of hope, while with his bat he reinvents their world.-  
Dom Moraes 

Today we are on the brink of another world cup. Yet again eleven men clad in blue will carry the hopes and aspirations of one billion Indians when they take field. A hope that may be this time history will repeat itself; their beloved team will strike gold. But this world cup holds a special place in the hearts of cricket aficionados   for a different reason altogether, this is the last time they will see their hero, the face of Indian cricket for the past two decades, Sachin Tendulkar taking field in the world cup. An era spanning over two decades unblemished unchallenged and untainted finally coming to an end.

 Sachin Tendulkar, the name itself strikes a chord in the hearts of millions of Indians. Who thought that a dreamy eyed sixteen year old guy marching down the steps of National Stadium in Karachi will one day leave an indelible mark on the pages of cricketing history? The man who got out for a zero on his first one day international, yet in an exhibition match reduced Abdul Qadir to paupers scoring 28 runs of an over of his, giving glimpses to the bowling fraternity across the world of the nightmare they were to undergo for the next two decades. Perhaps certain people are destined to be what they turn out to be, or why else an eight year old guy idolizing McEnroe, would suddenly swap his tennis racquet for a piece of willow. Or for that matter why would he drop out from a pace academy where he enrolled to learn the tricks of bowling, failing to impress the coach. Yes Sachin is one of those whom we call ‘destiny’s child’. He was born to be Sachin Tendulkar, the batsman, and not Sachin Tendulkar the bowler or Sachin Tendulkar the racquet man.

I’ll not dwell into analyzing Sachin Tendulkar’s cricketing style or achievements. I’m not eligible to do so. I’ll not even try to answer the debate that whether he’s the greatest cricketer of all time, a question which is as old as hills. Neither will I get into comparing him with Bradman or Sobers. I’ve not watched them play, but I have watched Sachin playing. I’ve seen him as a Messiah who has bailed out his team from numerous tights. I’ve seen him as a gladiator fighting when all hopes have got snuffed. Yes I’ve seen Sachin playing and this is something which I take as an honor, this is something which I’ll be saying to my grandchildren and this is something which I’ll take with me to the grave. We the people of this generation do not have a Da Vinci painting a Mona Lisa for us. We do not have an Einstein explaining us the Theory of Relativity. But we have a Sachin Tendulkar, a man who wields his willow as no man has, as no man can. A man for who even the time has taken a pause to watch him in action. Yes we are the lucky blokes who can say someday “We saw a master in action”.

What is this man made up of? Is he of flesh and blood as we mortals are? Or is he some immortal hero out of some myth who has cascaded into our generation? How else could he otherwise bear with the pressure every time he crosses the rope looking into the sun? Or lift his willow weighing tons out of expectations of millions. Or snuff out billions in prayer while he takes guard. No, he’s no mere mortal, he’s a God, the God of religion called cricket. I’ve often heard folks talking what if Sachin Tendulkar had not existed and then answering themselves bluntly saying “we would have had to invent him”. In practical terms we would never have felt the gap or would have experienced that sense of something missing, because we would never have been wiser to that something. We would never had even fantasized that a day will come when we will see a man scoring over 30000 runs and a hundred centuries in international cricket in a span of just 20 years.

I shudder at the thought that a day will come when we will no more see this magician casting his spells on us again, when Sachin will walk into the shadows one final time and we will no more see the name Sachin Tendulkar donning the scoreboards again. But I will always cherish the fact that I had seen him in action, that I had seen Sachin Tendulkar in action.

The Con-Of-Wealth Games

50 Days, that’s precisely the time Delhi has in its hands before the Commonwealth Games. May be today I should be writing about the eagerness in Delhites about the approaching games, but unfortunately today I’m being forced to write about the shoddiness shown by Delhi in preparing for the games. What was to be Delhi’s tryst with destiny is soon turning out to be its hour of shame. Now the question to be asked is not whether Delhi will host the games successfully or not, but rather who’s responsible for this mess created in the name of Commonwealth Games 2010.

Seven years back to this date India won the bid to host the 19^th Commonwealth Games. Seven years is a long time to prepare for the games given the fact that Delhi need not construct the stadiums rather renovate and upgrade them. But with a day more than 7 weeks to go Delhi’s preparedness lay in shambles. Today Delhi resembles anything but the capital of one of the fastest growing economies of the world and certainly not like the host city of Commonwealth Games. It has its hands filled with problems ranging from missing deadlines in the completion of the games infrastructure to giving its citizens a harrowing time in the name of organizing the games so much so that what was supposed to be a boon for us Delhites is now turning a bane.

As per a latest estimate released by the Sports Ministry the games will cost the country around ` 1200 crores, but this does not include the spending of Delhi govt. and various agencies like the Delhi Development Authority, Municipal Corporation of Delhi etc on beautification and infrastructural projects. An independent report suggests that by the time of culmination of the games the country would have spent anywhere between ` 45000 and ` 50000 crores in organizing the games. At the time of bidding the budgeted expenditure was shown at an estimation of ` 1200 crores and at the time of the cabinet approval of the first games budget the budgeted expenditure was ` 3566 crores. And how it escalated by leaps and bounds, well the facts are before all of us I don't want to any further. Now with 50 days left for the games the stadiums are not ready, the athletes’ village is far from completion and the Organizing Committee has not yet appointed a caterer to feed 11000 sportspersons coming for the games. With things so tawdry it comes as no surprise seeing the star athletes pull out of the games.

We Indians are a funny lot and keep the word ‘jugaad’ close to our heart. May be at the end everything will fall to place and Delhi with its ‘jugaads’ will be able to put up a good show but today the competency of we Indians, in organizing events of such scale lies bare before the world. It will take India perhaps another century before it even starts dreaming of hosting something by the name of the Olympics…..

Give Them Space.....

“REVOLUTION IS NOT AN APPLE THAT FALLS WHEN IT IS RIPE. YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT FALL”. PERHAPS THE DELHI HIGH COURT HAD THESE LINES OF CHE GUEVARA ON ITS MIND WHEN IT GAVE A HISTORIC VERDICT ON DECRIMINALIZATION OF HOMOSEXUALITY IN INDIA THUS USHERING A REVOLUTION AND A NEW ERA IN INDIAN SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT. THE VERDICT TOOK A LONG TIME COMING. BUT WITH THIS VERDICT INDIA HAS JOINED AN ELITE GROUP OF NATIONS THAT HAVE SUCH SIMILAR LAWS AND ARE MARCHING INTO A NEW ERA OF SOCIAL BROADNESS AND MATURITY. THE VERDICT BRINGS RELIEF AND A SENSE OF JUSTICE TO A SECTION OF THE SOCIETY THAT HAS FOR AGES BEEN SUBJECTED TO CHASTISEMENT AND BIGOTRY.

THE LGBT (LESBIAN GAY BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDERS) ARE THE LARGEST UNSEEN MINORITY OF THIS WORLD. THEY EXIST IN EVERY AND ARE AS MUCH A PART OF IT AS ME AND YOU BUT YOU WILL NEVER FIND ONE PROCLAIMING THEIR IDENTITY OR CARRYING IT ON THEM IN ANY FORM WHAT SO EVER. SO WHY SHOULD THEY BE EVER DISCRIMINATED WITH? THE COURT WAS IN FACT RIGHT IN ITS RULING WHEN IT READ OUT THAT A MAN SHOULD NEVER BE CALLED A CRIMINAL FOR HIS ACTIVITIES IN HIS BED ROOM. IF SEXUAL ACTTIVITES BETWEEN TWO CONSENSUAL ADULTS IS BEING CRIMINALIZED THEN WE ARE DENYING THE CITIZENS OF OUR COUNTRY A RIGHT THAT HAS BEEN STATUTED IN THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE UN. AND IN A COUNTRY LIKE INDIA WHICH SERVES AS AN EXAMPLE OF DEMOCRACY TO THE WORLD THE RULE OF CALLING AN INDIVIUAL INDULGING IN HOMOSEXUALITY AS A CRIMINAL IS BLASPHEMY TO THE CORE.

ARTICLES 14, 15 AND 21 OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION CLEARLY DEFINES THE RIGHT TO EQUALITY FOR ITS CITIZENS, BUT AT THE SAME IT IS HIGHLY IRONICAL THAT THE SAME CONSTITUTION CARRIES A DISCRIMINATORY SECTION 377 THAT BRANDS A SECTION OF THE SOCIETY CRIMINAL WHOLLY BASED ON THE DISAPPROVAL OF THE STATE. THE CALL FOR THE REPELLMENT OF THE ACT HAS BEEN DOING ROUNDS FOR QUITE SOME TIME NOW, BUT THE SUBSEQUENT GOVERNMENTS AT THE CENTRE HAVE BEEN VERY APPREHENSIVE ON TAKING UP THE SUBJECT AS FOR THEM IT IS NOTHING LESS THAN A PANDORA’S BOX. THEY KNOW VERY WELL THAT THE LAW WAS HIGHLY DISCRIMINATORY IN NATURE BUT THEY AT THE SAME TIME NEEDED TO APPEASE THE RELIGIOUS GROUPS AND THEY COULDN’T AFFORD THEIR IRE. SO THE LGBT’S DEMAND HAD LARGELY BEEN IGNORED TILL THE MATTER WAS TAKEN OVER BY THE COURT. BUT EVEN AFTER THE RULING IT NEEDS TO BE ASKED WHY LGBTS WERE CALLED CRIMINALS AT THE FIRST PLACE FOR SOMETHING THAT WAS BEYOND THEIR CONTROL. IT SHOULD BE FIRST UNDERSTOOD THAT AN INDIVIUAL IS NOT HOMOSEXUAL BY WILL BUT RATHER THEY ARE BORN WITH IT. THERE’S AN UNANIMOUS MEDICAL AND PSYCHIATRIC REPORTS FROM ACROSS THE WORLD THAT IT IS NOT A DISEASE OR DISORDER, THEN HOW CAN SOMEONE BE TERMED CRIMINAL FOR SOMETHING HE’S BORN WITH? THE COURT ALSO REFUTTED THE CLAIMS THAT DECRIMINALIZING HOMOSEXUALITY LEADS TO A RISE IN THE CASES OF HIV, CITING THAT THERE HAS BEEN NO SUCH REPORTS FROM THE COUNTRIES THAT HAVE ALREADY DONE THE NEEDFUL. THE COURT’S VERDICT CAME AT A TIME WHEN THE PRO-LGBT GROUP WAS FAST LOSING HOPE. IT WAS HIGH TIME THAT THE CONSTITUTIONAL MORALITY OUTWEIGHS PUBLIC MORALITY EVEN IF IT COMES AGAINST THE MAJORITY PUBLIC VIEWS.

THE RULING OF THE HIGH COURT HAS THE SAME HISTORICAL WEIGHTAGE AS THE ONES THAT HAVE CHANGED THE COURSE OF INDIAN JUDICIARY AND HAS REINFUSED THE HOPE OF INDIVIUALS ON THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM. WE SHOULD NOT FORGET THE FACT THAT ANY FORM OF DISCRIMINATION GOES COUNTER TO THE RIGHTS OF EQUALITY GUARANTEED TO EVERY CITIZEN OF THIS COUNTRY AND IT IS ONLY THROUGH RECOGNITION OF EQUALITY THAT DIGNITY CAN BE FOSTERED IN EVERY INDIVIUAL.

TO HELL WITH FUNDAMENTALISM

ON 25^TH JANUARY, ON THE EVE OF INDIA’S 59^TH REPUBLIC DAY, WHEN THE PRESIDENT, PRATIBHA DEVISINGH PATIL, ADDRESSED THE NATION, A SENSE OF PRIDE DESCENDED ON ALL INDIANS WHO SAW HER DOING SO. INDIA HAD JOINED AN ELITE GROUP OF NATIONS WHO BOAST OF HAVING A MEMBER FROM THE FAIR SEX AS THEIR FIRST CITIZEN. IT SPEAKS VOLUMES ABOUT THE GENDER EQUALITY THAT IS SLOWLY EVOLVING IN OUR COUNTRY. BUT AROUND THE SAME HOUR A DIFFERENT DRAMA WAS UNFOLDING DOWN SOUTH AT MANGALORE, WHERE PUB GOING YOUNG WOMEN WERE BRUTTALY ASSAULTED AND MAN HANDLED BY A GROUP CALLED SRI RAM SENE BRANDING THEMSELVES AS ‘MORAL POLICE’.

INDIANS ARE WELL FAMILIAR WITH THE TERM MORAL POLICING. COME FEBRUARY 14 AND THESE FUNDAMENTALIST GROUPS LIKE THE BAJRANG DAL AND THE SHIV SENAS GET DOWN TO OUTRIGHT VANDALISM, ATTACKING YOUNG COUPLES, SABBOTAGING GIFT SHOPS AND BURNING DOWN ANYTHING THAT IS EVEN REMOTELY ASSOCIATED WITH THE WORD ‘LOVE’, DOING ALL THIS IN THE NAME OF POLICING THE YOUTH OF THIS COUNTRY. ALL RELIGIONS ARE NOT SAME, BUT FUNDAMENTALISM, NO MATTER TO WHICH RELIGION IT MIGHT BELONG TO, IS. FUNDAMENTALISTS INSPITE OF THEIR RELIGIONAL DIFFERENCES ARE NOT A DISPARATE GROUP OF INDIVIUALS. THEY ARE ALL ALIKE, SHARING THE SAME SET OF CREDO AND FOSTERING THE SAME DOGMAS. THEY HAVE AN AVERSION FOR MODERNITY AND LOATHE GENDER EQUALITY. IN FACT IN WOULD BE PERFECTLY PLAUSIBLE IF ONE PUTS THESE SRI RAM SENE, BAJARANG DAL AND THE TALIBANS IN THE SAME BRACKET, AS THEY ALL HARP ON THE SAME CHORD.

THE PROBLEM WITH THESE FUNDAMENTALISTS IS THAT THEIR IDEOLOGIES PREVENT THEM FROM COMPREHENDING THE FACT THAT WOMEN HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO LIVE A LIFE OF THEIR OWN. THEY STILL VISUALIZE A SOCIETY THAT IS MALE DOMINATED. THE MANGALORE PUB INCIDENT IS A TESTIMONY TO THIS. THE GROUP RATIONALIZED THEIR ACT BY ISSUING A STATEMENT SAYING THAT WOMEN ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO INDULGE IN DRINKING. WHAT DIFFERENCE DO YOU SEE IN SRI RAM SENE AND THE TALIBANS, WHO WHIP WOMEN WHOM THEY SEE VENTURING OUT OF THEIR HOMES ALONE? IT IS SAD THAT EVEN IN 21^ST CENTURY THERE EXISTS A SOCIETY THAT IS SO HEAVILY INCLINED TOWARDS MALE CHAUVINISM. BUT WHAT IS SADDER THAT SUCH A SUCH SOCIETY EXISTS IN OUR VERY OWN INDIA, WHICH IS BASKING UNDER THE GLORY OF INCHING CLOSER TO MODERNITY WITH EVERY PASSING YEAR. INDIA IS ONE OF THE FEW COUNTRIES THAT HAS EMERGED FROM THE SHAMBLES OF THE BRITISH RULE AND HAS SO APTLY HANDLED THE MANTLE OF MODERNITY THAT IT HAS AWED THE REST OF THE WORLD. THE IDEAS OF DEMOCRACY, SECULARISM AND EQUALITY THAT INDIA PRACTICES UNDERLINES THE DOCTRINES OF A CIVILIZED AND MODERN SOCIETY. THE STATUS OF EQUALITY TO WOMEN IS GUARANTEED BY THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA. BUT THE PICTURE PROJECTED BY THE ACTIONS OF THESE FUNDAMENTALIST GROUPS IS GRIM AND GHASTLY. WHEN THESE PEOPLE ROB WOMEN OF THE RIGHTS PROVIDED TO THEM BY THE CONSTITUTION WITH SUCH BRUTALITY, THEN YOU ARE FORCED TO RAISE THE QUESTION IS THIS WHAT MODERNITY IS? ARE THESE AN ACT OF A CIVILIZED SOCIETY?

BUT THE WORST PART OF THE IGNOMINY THAT WAS INFLICTED ON THE WOMEN IN THE MANGALORE INCIDENT IS THE SILENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT. IT’S HORRIFYING THAT IN SPITE OF THE MAGNITUDE OF THIS HORRENDOUS ACT IT TOOK A HUE AND CRY FROM THE MEDIA ACROSS THE NATION TO WAKE UP THE STATE GOVERNMENT OF KARNATAKA. AFTER WAKING UP THE GOVERNMENT DID PERFUNCTORILY ARREST PRAMOD MUTHALIK, THE CHIEF OF SRI RAM SENE, BUT GIVEN THAT OUR JUDICIAL SYSTEM IS BOGGED DOWN BY DISCREPANCIES, THIS MOVE SEEMED ALL BUT AS A FARCE. ON THE CONTRARY HE COULD HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO SOME OUT OF THE ORDER METHODS OF PUNISHMENT THAT WAS SUGGESTED BY THE YOUTHS FROM ACROSS THE NATION. FOR INSTANCE HE COULD HAVE BEEN MADE TO SEE A COMPILATION OF RAUNCHY ITEM NUMBERS FROM BOLLYWOOD FLICKS. OR HE COULD HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO SOLITARY CONFINEMENT FOR A DAY IN FRONT OF MTV. MAY BE SUCH INGENIOUS METHODS OF PUNISHMENTS WOULD HAVE ENLIGHTENED ON HIM THE FACT THAT THE POPULAR CULTURE IN INDIA HAS GONE FAR BEYOND PUBS. AND THAT HIS ETHOS IS NOT JUST SEEMINGLY REDUNDANT BUT OUTRIGHTLY DISGUSTING. THE YOUTHS OF THIS COUNTRY DO NOT WANT ANY SAFFRON CLAD, SELF-PROFESSED ‘MORAL POLICE’ TO COME AND SHOW THEM THE WAY TO LEAD LIFE. THEY ARE COMPETENT ENOUGH TO BE SELF-ARBITERS OF THEIR WAY OF LEADING LIFE. ALL THAT THEY WANT TO SAY TO THE LIKES OF MUTHALIK IS “TO HELL WITH YOU AND TO HELL WITH YOUR FUNDAMENTALISM”…….