A Rotten Apple

Have been contemplating for a while to write a post about the ongoing controversy on the Bharat Ratna, and how our leaders have devalued it by using it as a tool to show personal gratitude to their fellows rather than highlighting the nation's pride in the awardees actions.. And I was also thinking about how the State Awards have become a matter of oneupmanship, where each one is trying to get his/her protege/mentor the award.. And I said to myself : Look what they have done.. What a rotten thing..

And then, events in quick succession sent me thinking : Is it just the country's political leaders who are doing this.. And the answer that I came up with was a stunning NO.. I went over the events of the past few months, and realized that this attitude is deep rooted into all of us, and with regard to every award possible.. There is no point in blaming our politicians for this : after all they come from the society, and represent the society at large.. This apple is rotten to the very core.

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By the people, of the people, for the people!!!

This infrastructure project is meant for the people, belongs to the people(coming from their tax money), and built by the people(NHAI- a PSU). And then, why should the people wait for the VVIPs to tell them to use something that is essentially their own.. They should rightfully take what is meant for them. Exactly what Delhi did, and the public did what can only be defined as commendable. In this act, they took cue from India's supercop, who had, in her times, thrown open the Zuari bridge, after people were tired of waiting for the PM to inaugrate it. Legend goes it was to be named after the PM, but then, the small act by one Traffic SP of removing the barricades by hand, changed all that.. Long live the people.

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Khel Khel mein

There is every reason for India to withdraw from the ongoing Border-Gavaskar trophy.. The series has been clearly undone for India by extremely poor umpiring, not to mention the uncorroborated racial abuse slur against the team..

What is known as a gentle-man's game is not so anymore : the Australians displayed scant respect for the rules of the game.. Symonds was given not out in the first innings on 30, and he went on to score 162.. And after that, he went off to tell the press he was indeed out on 30.. Why did he not walk off the field?? Where was his conscience.. This dismissal appeal apart, there were a dozen other umpiring errors, that went mostly against India. Whats the point in playing when you know you cant get a fair deal anyway..

India has been at the receiving end of umpiring errors for quite some time, in particular from Steve Bucknor, and its time the board that generates most of crickets money puts it foot down to ask for a fair share..

And next comes the racial slur against Symonds.. Apparently, Bhajji called him a monkey, and that constitutes an abuse based on descent, I suppose.. Well, there is no proof except for the word of his team, whose integrity is anyway in question..

The one man, who maintained his composure throughout all this ruckus, and managed to come clean is the Indian skipper. Fabulous performances with both the bat and the ball, he went on to say "Its just a game after all".

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Hindi hain hum, watan hai, hindustan hamara

This report left me stunned.. I don't know if I should be feeling happy or sad. When China can have a national language that is spoken by just about half of the country, why cant Hindi be our National Language.. Why did people undergo self-immolation, buses have to be torched, and students killed in police firing..

And I must admit, all this, it turned out, was not entirely bad for the country. We all learned English, and were able to become a global force in the services sector. But who knows, just like Japan or Germany, we could have become a global hub even with a national language apart from English. But the greatest fallout of this violent agitation is that we will, as a country, never have the national integration as envisioned by our freedom fighter forefathers. For a lot of people I know, the state still comes before the nation. And from my personal experiences, I can say this feeling exists mostly in the non-Hindi speaking states.


And to all who think I oppose local languages, please note, I dont. I favor the classical status to Tamil, and the government support for regional literature. But this does not mean that everyone is taught their mother tounge as the first language under the education system. We should be teaching English as a first language, Hindi as second language, and the native language as the third language. This is only fair to communicate with the world, the nation, and your neighbor. Unfortunately, these priorities are applied in reverse today.

The sentiments of 1965 linger today, and anyone speaking Hindi or for that matter any language apart from Tamil is given stares, and occasionally wrong directions in the land of Periyar.. I just hope we have another Iron-Man, who will perform the thankless task of national integration, just like Sardar Patel did the job of political integration. Or may be I could do it.

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