Rights... Duties...

Just after the Indian chakde at Wanderers and before the heroes reached back, our governments, BCCI etc announced awards as appraisal for the players. This irritated the hockey stars!! What a sad news was that to hear, that they r going to go for hunger strike... I salute the hockey stars, admire the job they did for Asia cup. But they must not have declared that "V r playing for money/recognition and not for the nation". Somebody else should have done that. That would have sent better signals to the citizens here and the world outside.

I do agree with all the arguments of the hockey coach. They don't get money as cricket people get. They also sweat, bring honour and pride to the nation. They are not seen at the screens in our drawing rooms during breaks... Their salary might be low...

Will they go to the different product companies and strike because they are not called to perform in advertisements? I again repeat that i respect their sentiments. In the previous post i had mentioned "The tournament has brought big profit for BCCI also, so its time for them to help other games also to come up...". So its for the Government to do something, the Sports council of India to look into the matter.

This incident will trigger lot of discussions regarding indian sports. The plight of football players, athlets, the recognition they r getting, the infrastructure provided for them etc. New questions will be thrown into the atmosphere. Should the govt feed the hugry or those with full stomatch?

My focus is not on the plight of Indian sports. I would like to depict the drift from our culture during this modern age. In earlier days when we read the epics, we find that there is no reference about RIGHTS. No matter it be a common man, a King, a govt servant, a saint, or a cobbler. Everybody spoke about duties. We may be familiar with 'Raja Dharma', 'Pitru dharma', 'Pitru Dharma', 'Praja Dharma' etc... the list goes on.... Everybody had their own dharma for each role they performed. A man may be a praja, son and a father at the same time. So he had to perform his dharma for each of the roles. Its not that nobody had any rights. The society co-existed in harmony in such a way that the rights of one are the dharmas of others. A boy has the right to study, he needs clothing, shelter, food... these were all dharmas of his parents and the government. Teachers bothered about teaching and making their students the most efficient. they never bothered about their fee. The students their parents and Govt took care of it.

There is a story narrated in the autobiography of Sri Rabindanath Tagore : " Tagore was born in one of the richest families of Bengal. When motor car came into existence. Tagore family decided to buy one. They got the best available car. One day they decided to go for a ride. The members of the family got into the car and moved. The cars of those days suffered from a problem that after moving for a while, it should be stopped and the engine should be cooled using water. After long journey, many times stopping, cooling and moving, they reached a <> village and the car stopped. No water was left to cool the engine. They were in a dilemma. Suddenly an old villager came running to see the new animal, which he had never seen. Tagore told him the problem. He went running and after some time turned up with some water in his hand. The problem was solved and the car got started. Tagore became very happy and gave the man a 100 Rupee note. He became very angry and asked "are you insulting me? is it not my duty to help a guest who got into trouble from my village?" and he walked away. Tagore was surprised by this and it touched him deep. " The story shows how conscious an illiterate, old villager was about his dharma. He was not rich enough to avoid 100 Rs which would have brought him many fortunes. During that period 100 Rs was not a small amount. This is not an incident that happened during the age of Rama. It shows that even during the British raj people were so conscious about their duties. What is the plight, attitude of our people after celebrating 60 years of independence?

Twenty20 WorldCup

Thankz to ICC for giving such a kick start to the T20 matches. With that exciting final, as Ravi Shastri said " T20 will not get a better platform to be established". We can hope that as test cricket gave way to One dayers, gradually One dayers Will give way to T20. The new form of game gives much more vigour and excitement. Also it doesn't make people lazy, compel them to take leave from offices...

ICC has done all the repair of the loss they had in previous world cup, as India crushed out earlier. The victory of team India will do the repair work for the cricket in our country too...
BCCI, being the richest cricket board in the world can simply announce Millions for their players. Of course the effort of the players need appraisal. The tournament has brought big profit for BCCI also, so its time for them to help other games also to come up...

Any way the last half of the year has been incredible for us. May it be the Asia Cup, or WC T20, or through Pankaj Adwani. The rise in the stock market, the reduction in the rates of inflation, the $ being put below 40(this may cut short salary in IT industry still India shining!) everything has contributed to the feel good factor among the youth.

On the other hand Pakistan is flooded with problems. The comeback of Nawas Shareef and the attitude of Musharaf, the up coming polls, the cases going against the Gen. in Supreme Court, and lot more. In early days it was religion that brought about the unity among the people there, but now a days that is not working. Another thing for which they stand united is against India and cricket. They wont mind being kicked out of WC in the beginning itself, but they cant accept loosing to India, that too twice!! It is evident from the protests against the players going on there.

So from all angles, the environment is becoming favourable to us... Let us make use of this and avoid the slavish mentality towards Western Nations. The world has begun looking to East, Let India be the light house here.

Jai Hind