26th May 1999
Udaipur, Rajasthan …
I sit in
massive room surrounded by at least more than a dozen of my cricket crazy
relatives. It is the cricket World Cup in England that has caught the
imagination of one and all, not to mention all my fanatic relatives here who
love to dissect the game in details. It is India vs Sri Lanka at the Taunton;
an important league game for us as we haven’t fared too well before this in the
tournament. A victory is imperative. India is batting first and the prince of
Kolkata, Sourav Ganguly has opened the batting for India. My relatives knew
very well that I was from Kolkata and of my love for Ganguly. Out came some not so
nice comments, “Kya re, tera Dadaji kuch karega ki nahi..?“ .. 13 years old
then, I just told them silently, “He is the best..You will see..”
They laughed…I prayed….
They laughed…I prayed….
Soon as the
match progressed, the prince showed his class…Scoring an outstanding 183
studded with glorious drives and 7 scintillating sixes. I was over the moon.
However, what was even more surprising was to see each of my relative, uncles,
aunts, cousins, cheering each cover drive Ganguly stroked…With each six some of
them would reply…"Dada kya mara hai…Khub bhalo…Khub bhalo....” As he got out
after scoring his magical innings, all my relatives stood up and applauded;
among them was a 65 year old uncle and a 9 year old kid… I watched them around
fondly..They had always teased my state Bengal and Ganguly, but when it really
came to it, they were cheering and egging him on.. Miles apart from his city
some true blue Rajasthanis were cheering a Bengali for bringing the country
some glory.. I felt elated …Felt like a true Indian..
5th May 2012
Kolkata, West Bengal …
 |
| Its' just a game dude..Just a game...!! |
I sit in a
massive café with a couple of my friends surrounded by plenty of cricket crazy
fans, or so I believed. It is the Indian Premiere League (IPL) that has caught
everyone’s attention. It’s a big match today; the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
vs the Pune Warriors India (PWI). Though
it should have remained a normal cricket match fans here have built it up as
the clash of the Prince, Sourav Ganguly who now is the captain of the Pune side,
against his own state team. Some of the
unusually biased media houses here have billed it as ‘The return of the Prince
to his lair”. The city supposedly would be divided in its support for its
beloved Dada and their own city team.
I scoff at all this. Surely, that should not happen. There is something called the city pride, city loyalty. And moreover, no individual can be bigger than the game. No matter what.. In the end, it should remain just a normal cricket match. But as it turned out, it was far from that. As we watched the match on a giant TV , the scenes unfolding at the Eden Gardens make my brains go numb. More than half of the crowd is donning the Pune jerseys and showing placards which welcomes Dada and asks him to beat KKR to pulp. I feel sick.
The match
starts..KKR have gotten off to a blazing start, but stumble later on. As some
wickets fall, some people sitting nearby start cheering every fall of the
wicket and making their feelings clear on whose side they are on. I am baffled.
Isn’t this the same city which keeps crying about loyalty, sports love and all
that? Where is the sports love? From the
looks of it all it matters was communal loyalty and love for one’s regional
idol and nothing else…I felt frustrated..Ashamed to be an Indian..
 |
| That's what you get SRK for doing what you think is right |
The
contrasts that I have put here by displaying two incidents from my lifetime
which left a deep mark on my psyche is deliberate. You can take it the way you
want to. The smart ones would decipher my real intentions of doing so. The not
so smart ones would well..Remain dumb..So I won’t really bother.. This blog of
mine has covered issues similar to this. Every time I see some regionalistic
maniacs go wild, it makes me frustrated.
Unfortunately, enough, I keep seeing
them in my very own city. Days before
the IPL match I kept seeing comments on a social networking site from various
people here, displaying their zealous emotions towards their beloved Dada.
Pictures were drawn which showed Ganguly running with a sword after KKR owner
Shah Rukh Khan. SRK obviously is now the most hated person among many Dada fans here for doing what he thought was right with his own team after three years of failure with the 'world's greatest captain'. But then again, you can't add logic to any Dada related conversation here. Some posted status updates openly challenging and abusing the
KKR supporters and SRK. Another particular picture caught my attention, which informed
fellow Bengalis (not Kolkatans mind you) that Warriors are owned by a Bengali and
captained by a Bengali, as opposed to Knight Riders, who are owned by a Delhi
Pathan who now lives in Mumbai and captained by a brash Punjabi from Delhi, and
they should thus support ‘their’ team. Really
what has the world come to?
The number of ‘likes’ in the picture rose to
thousands, shouting their approval for the same. Ideally, I would have just
laughed it out, but it wasn’t a laughing matter anymore. I can’t even claim
this to be a one off incident. Kolkata, though very proudly claims to be a
sports loving city, the reality though seems far from that. Most of them it
seems are obsessed with their culture, religion and idol worshiping of their
hero who is beyond any criticism, beyond any reasoning..He can do no wrong.. He
is bigger than the game. Rahul Dravid
and his Indian team experienced something similar in 2005 when they came to
play a match against South Africa here. The ‘sports loving’ crowd booed India, and
applauded South Africa for thrashing the team that had no use for
their Dada. Dravid had famously commented then upon arrival in Mumbai that
it felt good to be back in India.
This kind of
attitude defeats the very purpose of us being united as Indians, as one. If we
are so obsessed with our own regions, culture et al how shall we progress? The
time of me being a 13 year old kid in awe of Mr. Ganguly is long gone. Some cricketing reasons and some of this
‘there is no one bigger than Dada’ has contributed to it. I shall not waste my
time here, comparing with statistics on who really is great and who is not.
It’s futile in any case. The picture though is larger than just a cricket
match. It speaks volumes on how utterly
obsessed we still are with our own religions and castes. It’s a simple point
that I keep shouting that in the end we are not Bengalis, or Sindhis, or a
Marathi manoos or Muslims.. We are just plain and simple Indians..The day all
of us inculcate that in ourselves we shall perhaps see a better India.
It’s evening
time at the café. I am still with my friends watching the match on TV. Ganguly
has arrived for the Pune team and plods and scratches his way to a 30. He hits
a six soon, and the Pune supporters next to us cheer madly. One of them
comments, ‘Look at him. At 40 hitting a
six..What a player..” My best friend
goes red with anger on hearing this. The next ball Ganguly holds out in the
deep. To my surprise many in the cafe erupt in unison. My best friend, a
Bengali and known to be a Ganguly fan, jumps
up in elation and gives Dada a mouthful as he walks back to the pavilion.
Perhaps the Kolkatan in him couldn’t take it anymore. Pune, after that loses
the match in a thrilling last over. It was great game of cricket, but in the
end cricket won…My city lost…
Or did it??
As the match
ends, chants of KKR …KKR.. chorused around the café. The Pune supporters had
already thinned out. The Dada fans sitting next to our table however were numb
with disbelief as their beloved icon had not claimed his lair. Suddenly, out of nowhere a girl came striding
in towards them, her boyfriend tries to stop her. But she is adamant and shouts
a loud ‘Loser’ to the Dada fans.. I laugh, so do my friends..She looks at us,
and gives us winning smile..Is she a Bengali?? I think to myself..Does it
matter?? No, it doesn’t.. I answer back..
I feel relieved…A little sane…There still are some normal people out there after all..!!
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