Take-1: On my birthday, I was on a family outing and as it always happens when I travel with my family, a temple visit is outright mandatory. I was along with my father, mother and my grandma. My father entered the main gabhara nonchalantly and we were about to follow when my mother stopped in her stride and exclaimed, “Bhairavnathachya mandiraat bai-manus jaat nahi!” (It’s not allowed for women to enter the Bhairavnath temple). I reacted, “What? Who the hell made this rule?” Mom, well aware of the fact that I will keep pressing my point, firmly replied, “No, means no.” But I was reluctant to listen to them and almost pushed them inside saying, “Let’s see what happens when a woman enters. Will this temple crash or will God punish us for not obeying the rules made by some idiot who obviously had a thing against women or some incident had happened in his life which prompted him to make such a hopeless rule?” My grandma almost threw herself out begging God to forgive her but I held my mom’s hands tight and asked her to pray without thinking of anything else. She did pray after I calmed her with my father staring angrily at me and her. I tried to explain but as always, ‘how much one tries to explain people with “prejudices”, one seldom succeeds.’
Take-2: Yesterday, a message on my mobile read: Please do not react to provocative SMS targeted to create a rift in the name of 24th September verdict. Regards, Commissioner of Police, Pune.
Take-3: While having a chat with a ‘doctor’ friend this morning, he happily said how he was excited about coming Friday and how he and his friends were planning to celebrate after the 24th September verdict. He seemed so overwhelmed from his voice as if the verdict was already declared in the so-called Hindu group’s favour. They planned to burn crackers to let the world know about their happiness. I, being always opposed to such tactics, tried to explain how their step may fuel something as bad as riots. But then he gave me that old cliché “I know how me and my family have suffered from these riots. U don’t know a thing!” Obviously I kept mum given the gravity of the situation.
Now, what is with this religion and God concept that people get so emotionally flared up? If they are emotional about it, why can’t they be ‘peacefully’ emotional about it? Why there is so much vengeance in their minds when they talk about religion? Or should I say religious disputes? Why are there disputes in the first place when religion is all about peace-of-mind i.e. spirituality?
The answers are not so simple. The issue related to the 24th September verdict is not of the present. It dates back to almost 1889. I am not going to discuss the issue here coz according to me it doesn’t even merit a discussion. What I am going to discuss is what is at the root of this issue. At the root lies our so-called great Indian culture and tradition which teaches that there exist a ‘x’ number of religions co-existing peacefully in India and every religion has its explanation for the existence of God while also stating that people are still divided on the basis of the faith they follow and people should be careful while commenting on religion in public. It’s almost forced upon us to be ‘proud’ of our culture.
Now tell me, how and why should I be proud of a culture which has for ages prevented women from entering a particular temple? And now being in the 21st century, we are still not in a position to change that mindset? Why should I be proud of a culture which till today hasn’t been able to resolve a conflict over a mere piece of land? Whether this land belongs to Hindus or Muslims? (Oh, come on! Can’t a common temple-mosque stand over there just as a show of UNITY to the world?) Are our hearts converted into stones when precious human lives are lost in the name of God and religion? When just for a simple reason that the other person belongs to a different faith, people pick up swords and mercilessly kill each other, does their pride go for a ride? I really don’t find any pride when the second thing asked after my name in any job-application or even a school admission is religion & caste.
According to DR.SARVEPALLI RADHAKRISHNAN,”Nothing is so hostile to religion as other religions. The world would be a much more religious place if all religions were removed from it.” I couldn’t agree more. Taking into account both the functional and dysfunctional aspects of religion, I have found the dysfunctional aspects more convincing than the functional ones. As in the ‘Take-1’ above, rather than giving importance to praying whole-heartedly, the restrictions imposed were thought about more and not to break them was taken care of. There’s no need of “mores” to be followed when what we have to do is as simple a thing as pray. And by the way, who decided these customs and usages? It must be a person or a group of people brandishing themselves as ‘protectors of the tradition’ or ‘servants of God’; but just coz they are being followed since ages, it doesn’t make them RIGHT!
As far as I can remember all the greatest of disputes right from time immemorial have had their seeds in religion or caste. Actually, religion is a byproduct of CASTE. People compared and divided first on the basis of professions then on the basis of their faiths which is unfortunately going on till today. People haven’t been able to break free from the prejudices what their forefathers had, when there’s enough proof to suggest otherwise. This is where I feel is the bane in this problem- it’s easy to teach a 3-year old kid to read and write but it gets impossible to flush out the preconceived notions from a grown-up or even a well-educated adult.
This brings me to the point where the great KARL MARX went to the extent of saying that ‘religion is opium to the people’. When people aren’t able to find solution to their own problems, they search for answers through God who is nothing but a sort of intoxication, maybe at a peaceful level. At first it seemed blasphemous to me but then I came upon another great French philosopher VOLTAIRE’s lines which plainly said, “If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.” For once, it seemed so true to me. And why not? It is some person who is responsible to create this image of God. All these religious scriptures and holy books did not fall from the sky. They were hand-written on this very earth. There is lack of REASON. On the other hand, “Science does provide satisfactory and rational explanation to the evolution of human life which any religion has not been able to till date.”
When the same religion which promised to be peaceful turns life-threatening for my countrymen or my near and dear ones as in the case of 24th September verdict, it’s better to look at that religion ambiguously. Still, I would not describe myself as an atheist. An AGNOSTIC would be better. I know there is very little to separate the two concepts but, who knows, maybe that little itself may become path-breaking in times to come. After all, as the finest English romantic poet PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY said, “The more we study, the more we discover our ignorance!” Maybe there’s a lot of ignorance (even in my own self) around which is needed to be discovered. Maybe or may not be! The whole concept stands on the edge of “MAYBE” which makes it so intriguing and fascinating to study!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
I love MY CRICKET!
The other day in the opening match of the Champions League T20 when Kieron Pollard, after smashing 16 runs in the first five balls of an over, got clean bowled at a crucial juncture, a definitive statement fell on my ears from a corner of my home's drawing room which said, "It's all fixed, why the hell are you so serious about it?" It was said by my brother and I was irritated to say the least. I retaliated, “Come on, those two murderous shots over midwicket cannot be fixed and neither can that awesome Yorker which got Pollard or Tendulkar for that matter!” But my protest was in vain.
When everyday at least a couple of articles on match-fixing go from under your eyes or an explosive half-hour episode on some channel like India TV( which just takes pride in applying the word “exclusive” to any and every good-for-nothing masaledar story ) is shown over and over again, any diehard cricket follower can also be convinced into believing that “it’s all fixed!” But I was never convinced. Just because some a**holes named Mohd Aamer or Asif bowl a front-foot no-ball, you can’t say it’s all fixed. Even if the three accused were playing in that match, it doesn’t mean the other eight players are also guilty. After learning this news, my mind just rushed back to the most awesome jaw-dropping chase I had ever seen on the cricket-field. In the semi-final of 2010 World T20( in which, unfortunately, the above two were playing ), I had seen 70 runs being scored from 30 balls in an intense pressure situation in an extra-ordinary fashion when Aussies were six-down and Michael MAD Hussey had came to the party and ran like his life depended on it and struck sixes in a super-human effort. It was one of those days when I was glad that I enjoyed cricket. When somebody said that this match was fixed, I was plain angry. You can give up a match through match-fixing, but sorry, you cannot snatch a match from the jaws of defeat through fixing. It takes planning and single-minded effort to do what Hussey did.
Also don’t sell me the theory that IPL being the $4 billion enterprise, it is rigged too. The captains of each of the eight IPL teams have not got the captainship only due to their playing credentials, they are the captains because there’s respect in our minds when we take those names. Names like Ganguly, Kumble, Sanga, Gilly, Warne, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Dhoni are respected not just for ‘what’ they have achieved but also ‘how’ they have achieved. I have watched these cricketers close enough to know that they will never play to lose. If you give me a hundred instances to prove that a match is fixed, I can give a thousand instances to show that it isn’t.
This brings me to the point- Why do we play sports in the first place? Why people like me are mad about it? What is the essence of sports?
Sports is competition. Sports is watching two humans compete trying to outdo each other through the skill they possess. Sports is about “Unpredictability”. It is about knowing that even a great like Muttiah Muralidharan can be frustrated for his 800th wicket by a rookie like Ishant Sharma (hadn’t our excitement reached a crescendo when Murali was denied his moment of glory for almost 20 overs on the last day of 1st test between Indo-Lanka). Sports depicts human life at it’s varied best.
So when sports is robbed of it’s most crucial factor i.e. unpredictability, then we as sports-lovers are bound to get disappointed. But for the fault of a few rotten apples, don’t claim all are rotten. They may become rotten, but they don’t deserve to be branded as guilty at the start itself. When we love someone or something, WE GOT TO HAVE THE FAITH..!
And by that definition, I have grown up playing, watching, reading, following cricket. I can’t stop myself from following even a Zimbabwe-Bangladesh match going on in the middle of Africa. The earliest memory I have of my childhood is searching a cricket ball in the bushes near my home with a friend when I was maybe 3 years old or my little brother smashing the bat into pieces for the n-th time out of anger when all others claim he was out, only for him to be thinking otherwise (and after that smashing episode, invariably we got a new bat without asking which shows that the love for cricket was genetic).
At the end of it all, what I want to say is, I believe my cricket is clean. No Aamer or Asif can break my belief so easily. I had loved this game whole-heartedly and will keep loving it till maybe somebody brings me the evidence of a Kumble or Tendulkar being involved in fixing. And I know this is impossible. Some things are indeed impossible. So, just for the sake of my love for cricket, for the first time in my life, I am cheering Pakistan. I desperately want Pakistan team to win in their tour of England and in their future matches except when they face India. GO PAKISTAN GO….
When everyday at least a couple of articles on match-fixing go from under your eyes or an explosive half-hour episode on some channel like India TV( which just takes pride in applying the word “exclusive” to any and every good-for-nothing masaledar story ) is shown over and over again, any diehard cricket follower can also be convinced into believing that “it’s all fixed!” But I was never convinced. Just because some a**holes named Mohd Aamer or Asif bowl a front-foot no-ball, you can’t say it’s all fixed. Even if the three accused were playing in that match, it doesn’t mean the other eight players are also guilty. After learning this news, my mind just rushed back to the most awesome jaw-dropping chase I had ever seen on the cricket-field. In the semi-final of 2010 World T20( in which, unfortunately, the above two were playing ), I had seen 70 runs being scored from 30 balls in an intense pressure situation in an extra-ordinary fashion when Aussies were six-down and Michael MAD Hussey had came to the party and ran like his life depended on it and struck sixes in a super-human effort. It was one of those days when I was glad that I enjoyed cricket. When somebody said that this match was fixed, I was plain angry. You can give up a match through match-fixing, but sorry, you cannot snatch a match from the jaws of defeat through fixing. It takes planning and single-minded effort to do what Hussey did.
Also don’t sell me the theory that IPL being the $4 billion enterprise, it is rigged too. The captains of each of the eight IPL teams have not got the captainship only due to their playing credentials, they are the captains because there’s respect in our minds when we take those names. Names like Ganguly, Kumble, Sanga, Gilly, Warne, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Dhoni are respected not just for ‘what’ they have achieved but also ‘how’ they have achieved. I have watched these cricketers close enough to know that they will never play to lose. If you give me a hundred instances to prove that a match is fixed, I can give a thousand instances to show that it isn’t.
This brings me to the point- Why do we play sports in the first place? Why people like me are mad about it? What is the essence of sports?
Sports is competition. Sports is watching two humans compete trying to outdo each other through the skill they possess. Sports is about “Unpredictability”. It is about knowing that even a great like Muttiah Muralidharan can be frustrated for his 800th wicket by a rookie like Ishant Sharma (hadn’t our excitement reached a crescendo when Murali was denied his moment of glory for almost 20 overs on the last day of 1st test between Indo-Lanka). Sports depicts human life at it’s varied best.
So when sports is robbed of it’s most crucial factor i.e. unpredictability, then we as sports-lovers are bound to get disappointed. But for the fault of a few rotten apples, don’t claim all are rotten. They may become rotten, but they don’t deserve to be branded as guilty at the start itself. When we love someone or something, WE GOT TO HAVE THE FAITH..!
And by that definition, I have grown up playing, watching, reading, following cricket. I can’t stop myself from following even a Zimbabwe-Bangladesh match going on in the middle of Africa. The earliest memory I have of my childhood is searching a cricket ball in the bushes near my home with a friend when I was maybe 3 years old or my little brother smashing the bat into pieces for the n-th time out of anger when all others claim he was out, only for him to be thinking otherwise (and after that smashing episode, invariably we got a new bat without asking which shows that the love for cricket was genetic).
At the end of it all, what I want to say is, I believe my cricket is clean. No Aamer or Asif can break my belief so easily. I had loved this game whole-heartedly and will keep loving it till maybe somebody brings me the evidence of a Kumble or Tendulkar being involved in fixing. And I know this is impossible. Some things are indeed impossible. So, just for the sake of my love for cricket, for the first time in my life, I am cheering Pakistan. I desperately want Pakistan team to win in their tour of England and in their future matches except when they face India. GO PAKISTAN GO….
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Salman unbounded..!
First things first. This is my short review of Salman Khan's latest film-
DABANGG! Of Salman Khan, for Salman Khan and by Salman Khan! Oh sorry, forgot to add the adjective- it's SUPERSTAR Salman. Without a doubt, He's our RAJNIKANTH! I hope u get by what i mean. If u have loved apna Sallu for even one moment in ur life, then u just cannot miss this film. Taran Adarsh gave 4.5 stars but if u love Sallu, it's no less than 5 stars! Only he can carry off a name like Chulbul ROBINHOOD Pande yet seem believable! Only he can go on mouthing all d curse abusive words yet be the HERO getting thunderous claps with elan! Didn't even get a ticket on friday morning in 6 different theatres which is a rarity in Pune nowadays. Just enjoy the most f**k-all lyrics ever written in MUNNI BADNAAM HUI song, but still making u smile just watching Salman's tantrums.. Superhit guaranteed..!
So, here we go. When I write a review, it's always within the first few hours of watching the film, so I am always in the emotions created by the after-effect of the film. This film was no different. I was in awe of the reception people gave to this film.
What is with this film that people thronged the theatres and took it on their heads so much so that it beat the 3 IDIOTS day-1 record box-office collections? Granted that the trailers of this film were kick-ass. But there is neither an iota of brilliance of 3 IDIOTS nor a spoonful of genius of the inimitable Raju Hirani ! The storyline is as ordinary as we get to see onscreen nowadays. But still the film clicked and not just clicked, but smashed records.
It was one-man show all the way. Salman came, saw and conquered. With his zany Hindi, with his i-dont-give-a-damn look on face, with his brat attitude, with his ridiculous yet entertaining dance steps and most of all HIS STYLE! Even after all the controversies hounding him, he is still the darling of the masses. He is still loved by most of the people. Even if we know that he has committed heinous of crimes, we tend to forgive him and go watch his cinema. After watching Dabangg, we understand the definition of 'superstar'! A superstar is one who can ensure the success of his film even if it is the silliest film he ever starred in.
Shahrukh, Big B, Hrithik, Aamir are crystal clean, meaning they have never done anything disrespectful in their personal lives. On the other hand, Salman is all about disrespect. In all the interviews he gave to promote his film this past week, he never cleared the air surrounding any controversy related to him. He just played around with all the questions and effectively brushed past them. What is it with him that people still love him? With not a single so-called big director or banner backing him or not a exceptional storyline either, still how does he deliver superhits? Worth a stormy question right?
There's something about Salman that we love. Maybe we have a fondness for his brattish attitude. Maybe we are awe-struck by his confidence. Maybe we love the "MASALA" in his films. Maybe we love his controversies feeding our gossip-hungry brain. Maybe there's a Salman inside all of us wanting to shout out loud and say- "Maine agar ek baar commitment kar di, toh mein apne aap ki bhi nahi sunta"!
It is not always possible for us to give a i-dont-give-a-damn look on our faces, so we are content in identifying with him through his movies and maybe that is the reason why we still love and will keep loving Salman Khan!
DABANGG! Of Salman Khan, for Salman Khan and by Salman Khan! Oh sorry, forgot to add the adjective- it's SUPERSTAR Salman. Without a doubt, He's our RAJNIKANTH! I hope u get by what i mean. If u have loved apna Sallu for even one moment in ur life, then u just cannot miss this film. Taran Adarsh gave 4.5 stars but if u love Sallu, it's no less than 5 stars! Only he can carry off a name like Chulbul ROBINHOOD Pande yet seem believable! Only he can go on mouthing all d curse abusive words yet be the HERO getting thunderous claps with elan! Didn't even get a ticket on friday morning in 6 different theatres which is a rarity in Pune nowadays. Just enjoy the most f**k-all lyrics ever written in MUNNI BADNAAM HUI song, but still making u smile just watching Salman's tantrums.. Superhit guaranteed..!
So, here we go. When I write a review, it's always within the first few hours of watching the film, so I am always in the emotions created by the after-effect of the film. This film was no different. I was in awe of the reception people gave to this film.
What is with this film that people thronged the theatres and took it on their heads so much so that it beat the 3 IDIOTS day-1 record box-office collections? Granted that the trailers of this film were kick-ass. But there is neither an iota of brilliance of 3 IDIOTS nor a spoonful of genius of the inimitable Raju Hirani ! The storyline is as ordinary as we get to see onscreen nowadays. But still the film clicked and not just clicked, but smashed records.
It was one-man show all the way. Salman came, saw and conquered. With his zany Hindi, with his i-dont-give-a-damn look on face, with his brat attitude, with his ridiculous yet entertaining dance steps and most of all HIS STYLE! Even after all the controversies hounding him, he is still the darling of the masses. He is still loved by most of the people. Even if we know that he has committed heinous of crimes, we tend to forgive him and go watch his cinema. After watching Dabangg, we understand the definition of 'superstar'! A superstar is one who can ensure the success of his film even if it is the silliest film he ever starred in.
Shahrukh, Big B, Hrithik, Aamir are crystal clean, meaning they have never done anything disrespectful in their personal lives. On the other hand, Salman is all about disrespect. In all the interviews he gave to promote his film this past week, he never cleared the air surrounding any controversy related to him. He just played around with all the questions and effectively brushed past them. What is it with him that people still love him? With not a single so-called big director or banner backing him or not a exceptional storyline either, still how does he deliver superhits? Worth a stormy question right?
There's something about Salman that we love. Maybe we have a fondness for his brattish attitude. Maybe we are awe-struck by his confidence. Maybe we love the "MASALA" in his films. Maybe we love his controversies feeding our gossip-hungry brain. Maybe there's a Salman inside all of us wanting to shout out loud and say- "Maine agar ek baar commitment kar di, toh mein apne aap ki bhi nahi sunta"!
It is not always possible for us to give a i-dont-give-a-damn look on our faces, so we are content in identifying with him through his movies and maybe that is the reason why we still love and will keep loving Salman Khan!
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