Sons of the Godforsaken soil

Even as young Indian bowler Ishant Sharma tries to vindicate national pride over regionism (I don’t think this word exists. But we may have just invented it), the parochial nature of us Indians will never cease. Sharma’s fearless (Many of us will again have a different view on his actions. I heard one guy tell another guy “Look at Ishant overdoing it. One of these days, Symonds is going to beat this kid up.” Our first thought as usual is that the white-skinned are magically more powerful, blessed with brute force gifted from the Gods above that is just beyond our scope. They say we bowed down to them till August 17, 1947. But I’d say that somehow somewhere we still do so.) show of aggression is welcome, actually. The ICC chose to focus on the youngster and fine him 15% of his match fees. But if it inspired many of us one billion citizens to stand up to our adversaries, then it is a minor loss.

So, the Aussies still haven’t got used to the cricket world waking up to sledging. It’s true that such displays should be within the limits. But the Aussies never let anyone define the limits. On infinite occasions, the world champions have used their vice-like grip on cricket to win at all costs. The hitch here is that they have dropped bits of respect and sporting spirit along the way, terms that don’t mean much to them you’d reckon. Most of it was lost on that one fateful day in Sydney not long ago.

Coming to regionism, the Tamil Nadu government wants Tamil to become a compulsory language in the state. The difference between compulsory and official here is that non-Tamilians residing in the southern state would be expected to learn it. So what are the reasons for another ludicrous show of 2008’s Absurd Indian Thoughts & Implementations(a post on this soon)? Why is the Supreme Court’s time being wasted in such thoughtless anti-national blow-ups instead of imparting justice in pending court trials? It has been predicted in the past that regional parties could spark a lot of unrest in the national makeup. That means it could get worse than it already is.

Cometh the hour, it is us and us only who make the choice to pursue our own regional interests for the development of our “people” or ensure that national interest prevails above all. Again, for the development of our “people”.

Notice the word “people” in the sentences above. There is no difference. Are we forgetting that?