We the people…

Do these kinds of news come as a shocker to you any longer? I am sure it catches your attention for a while, but the next moment you carry on with our day to day activities. True, there is not much you can do about it but being indifferent towards all these things… blasts, attacks, killings one after another gradually turned us to be emotionless creatures that have even forgotten to react to such incidents.

Few of us who have been brought up in the north-eastern states, probably are more indifferent towards these violence and deaths as we have seen the face of terror from a closer proximity. We have seen and heard people form rest of the country tagging North-East and J&K as the most unsafe zones in the country. But having tasted multiple attacks in both national and financial capitals of Country… I don’t think there is any part in the country which can be called as ‘safe’.

I dropped in to a friend’s place while coming back from office today… and as usual, we started crafting plans for the weekend, especially for a Friday movie… but since no major release taking place this weekend we preferred hold on till next weekend. We also planned to watch Kaminey which is scheduled for release on August 14 – on the eve of our Independence Day. But next moment, the ‘Independence Day’ factor proved to be good enough to put our plan to watch the movie in the backburner.

Reason??? It’s anybody’s guess now days. Even after 62 years of independence we do not feel free to move around in our own country. There is always a fear of a mishap… always there is a chance of being blown away or being shot at by the anti-social elements. We, the citizens of world’s largest democracy prefer to stay inside a locked door during Independence Day or Republic Day rather than going out and celebrating it as a national event. Today, we avoid going to market place during festive season… we are afraid of being a part of public gathering. Well, it’s not a choice… rather has become a compulsion. After all, risking you life is never a wise move either.

At times I ask myself… am I a citizen of this country? If yes, then I would have been able to move around every nook and corner of my country and enjoyed all my socio-economic and political rights and responsibilities, that too holding my head high. Unfortunately, things are not as it was supposed to be.

In their election campaign speeches, our political leaders promise and assure growth, prosperity and security of the nation and its citizen, but deep inside their hearts, they might well know that their speeches are just few words penned down by the party manifesto writers which would never be brought in to practice.

Question is… what do we pass on to our next generation?

* A secured future? Ruled out!
* A corruption free system? Sounds impractical!
* Amity in the society? Too optimistic!

So, what are we left with then? Guess, its high time to think over it…..

Dr. Puri to Ms. Bedi

Do you recognize the person on the right; I am sure most of you do. For those who do not… he is Dr. Narottam Puri, a doctor by profession, a sports analyst par excellence. He was best known as the anchor of the ‘World of Sports’ – a weekly programme on sports that would come on Doordarshan every Sunday. I am talking about the late 80’s when we did not have the luxury of watching cable TV and plethora of sports channels. Though I was too young at that time to know his name or profile, but the very face and his legendary commentary had made him to be a very familiar person to me.

Then there were few gentlemen who have been instrumental in redefining the spoken English of generation-X through their classy cricket commentaries. Yes, I am talking about Jeffery Boycott, Sunil Gavaskar, Allan Wilkins, Ravi Shastri and the likes who took the cricket commentaries to the next level. With their wit and sense of humour, people like Harsha Bhogle and Navjot Singh Sidhu further helped developing cricket commentary as an art and howsoever good or bad English I know today, to a large extent I owe it to these gentlemen and their legendary cricket commentaries.

But all good things come to an end… and probably we as a cricket crazy nation have matured so much that we don’t need an expert any more to talk cricket, rather the centre stage is being offered to pretty faces from showbiz and glamour world.

Thanks to the brilliant idea coined by Sony Entertainment Television when they thought of breaking the rule and introduced the utterly irritating television personality Mandira Bedi to host the Extra Innings during the IIC World Cup 2003. And that was the beginning of the end of quality cricket commentary which is now about to reach its culminating point any time.

It is indeed disheartening to see expert pitch analysts like Ravi Shastri being replaced by Mandira Bedi - a perfect fashion disaster, who remains in news more for wrong reasons like wearing Indian tricolour imprinted saree. Somebody recently termed her as the first lady of Indian Cricket… probably Anjum Chopra, Jhulan Goswami were fools to have wasted their time sweating in the field.

I guess the ‘Gentlemen’s Game’ is taking its last few breaths before getting perished in a world where cricket has been reduced to a mere money spinning game for Film stars and liquor barons; or it may just manage to survive being a part of the corporate world’s seasonal outing.

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