Saturday, March 31, 2007

Opium

Karl Marx said that religion is the opium of the masses and in India, since cricket is a religion, cricket becomes the opium of the masses.

It was so clichéd to even write about cricket. Everyone does. Whether they know about it or not! There had been reams and reams of papers written on how we are unrealistically passionate about the game That way I am a bit qualified having played the game for more than 20 years and doing some representative cricket at that. And fetching a first job as a professional cricketer way back in 1985!

There was this piece of action I witnessed in the streets today morning that prompted this blog. Normally it should have kindled positive spirits and look at how beautiful life is and how people do carry passion in their heart.



But I could not see it though. In the light of the recent performances of our team at the Windies! Here in a scorching sun, kids of all sizes are engrossed in a game that has captured their imagination. Spending their money on products endorsed by the stars and hoping to become one like them.

A vision of a handicapped person in a tricycle batting with a fluency that would put the Dravid’s of the world to shame should send warm feelings down your spine. For me it was loathsome. Still I had the temerity to stop and ask them for a pose. But more to showcase the stupid mania this country is afflicted with.



A team which is ranked 06th in the world losing to even lesser ranked team and slipping into the country like fugitives hardly gives happiness. And these guys despite their handicap are involved in the game. They should have been cheering hard for India a few days back and I will tell you, they will still do it when another country visits us and gets bashed up here.

Where exactly are we going? Are we going to allow this madness to continue? Are we going to live with this grandiose feeling? And still root for a shameless bunch of representatives who does not have the nerve and even if they have, don’t know how to hold?

I am pissed, terribly pissed off. I want to bring these nincompoops to my office and show my assistant who single handedly does more work than many. And I mean it. She lost one of her arms early in her life. I have never treated her that way and she doesn’t expect me to be either.

And these are my hero’s really… Not the wimps who sell coke in the idiot box.

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