Ode to Tiger

Imagine a lazy saturday afternoon 25 years from today. Your's truely sitting around in warm November sunshine with wife knitting that new sweator for the latest entry to the "Family" lementing about the ways of the new generation. Wife dear is specially agitated about the "Papa ki Ladli's" latest antics with her newest boyfriend.

Next door neighbour Sharmaji, "are bhai wohi IBM wale" decides to scrap his afternoon siesta and have that friendly chit chat he's been itching to have ever since formar India skipper "Dada" decided to open a new cricket coaching academy in cash-starved Sudan (where as per latest reports Allied troops lead by US are almost within a mile of catching Isama Bin laden).

"What is the need to spend money and time on Sub Saharan Africa, tell me kumar saheb !!! Dada should be focussing on Eastern Zone cricket academies na."

"Come come Sharma ji, Kindly prepare some tea for him na" This sheelu's Mom always gives that look when u ask for a cup of tea, doesnot even understand people like me and sharmaji can now understand the signals after being married for 20 long years. And immediately, my mind races back in time.... time of the "Fab Five" the Golden era of Indian Cricket. I still remember the time when we as a nation were starting to realise the potential that we all had hidden and wrapped inside. And boy o boy cricket........ to say it was national obscession is to call Manhatten Kandivalli.

What were the defining moments that Dada gave us? What are the things that immediately comes to your mind when u think of him even after so many years? Here is my only pick:

1> The "Soccor" style celebrations among a suit clad audiance of lords. Purists screamed "Blasphemy", Indians shouted "well done Dada"

That moment was an epitome of all that Dada has done for indian cricket. The no holds barred attitude, the die hard commitment to young talent, the zeal to reform the ills plaguing Indian Cricket. Dada's contribution to Indian Cricket is not just confined to the number of runs he scored or the number of matches he won for India or the number of series he won as captain. Dada showed the way, like a pathfinder..... he was there to lead, nurture and inspire a whole crop of young cricketers. Dada was not missed... not beacause he was no longer required, but because his lads didnot allow us to say "had Dada been there ......."

"Sharmaji.... the Indian cricket needs captains like Dada in these times. What do you think?" .... and saturday afternoon is gone in a blink !!!

---My small tribute the Tiger we all knew as the Prince of Kolkata.---

THE CONCEPT OF A NATION

"We the poeple" have come a long way from the nomadic hunter gatherers to the present day civilisation. We have done well, we have made progress and made a better life available to everyone. But are we perfect, is this the pinnacle of the human civilisation, do all the roads lead down from the dizziying heights of our achievement.

Or should we look forward to a greater world, a better world free from terrorism, hate crimes etc etc. And before i get to rhetorical lemme set the context first. Who am i, where do i belong to, what is my national identity? what is my sub-national identity? and why does this "sub-nationality" exists"

Historically nations have been fromed on the basis of ethnic identity. People belonging to a particular tribe/race/religion grouped together and fromed states with the leader appointed as the "king". Progressively we moved to stronger concepts of nationhood like "Republic" and away from "princely" states. we invented governance and greater dissipation of power among the people in habiting the nation, we created "Democracy, Theocracy, Military rule, Communism" (Order not in any order of importance or merit). We created wars, redrew boundries, established world order and still there is something wrong....... wrong with the way percieve things .... interpret our freedom .... judge our success or failure.

When i am asked outside India where are you from i say "India"

When in India i say "Bihar"

When in Bihar i say "central Bihar" ...... so on and so forth

For the same question the response is different, and so lets be clear on one thing there are no simple explanations and solutions. There are no black and white answers. Well then where do we start the "objective" analysis?

We have a natural instinct to get identified with a group, as they say "There is something that doesnot love a wall". There is something inside us which doesnot respect Unity, which hates great congegretion of humanity called "Country". Is this an unsurmountable force which cannot be overcome or reasoned with? What is its name? Why are we infected with it? What good has it done ever except give wars and death? This force is Individualism. And yes its not "evil"

This instinct has kept us alive through the dark ages, get over huge mountains and seas..... but is it a Franskeintein monster now destroying the very tenants of humanity that we have created with ardous labour in the past 500 years of modern civilisation (Assuming last 500 years constitute the modern world..... and the figure is just a figment of my imagination if at all there is a phase in human evolution called as the modern age). Like all basic instincts this is simple as well

"Stick to a group to survive and resort to individualism to grab the maximum possible share of the spoils" Evolution if u believe me has changed the "group" of hunters to nation of today and "individualism" has evolved to fancy names like "Fundamental rights" "Human rights" "Right to live" etc etc . But at the heart of the issue is still the clash of the group interest and self interest.

The smaller the group i belong to the greater will be the my chances to outdo others for the largest share of the spoils and lesser will be the security cover against the attack from a more powerful group.

We can see this clash playing out in all spheres of our life, right wing political parties in every country trying to appeal to smaller and smaller sections of society to get a foothold and try to justify their existance as a voice of the people, and still trying to keep the flock together and not destroy the concept of the nation.

So, lets not blame Raj, here is a guy who wants to desperately try and justify his existance without the title he has "Thakrey" and to become relevant atleast in state level politics. He is just playing by his instincts. All those people and politicians who oestracise him now first try and look within and ask the questions "Have i not tried to appeal to my constituency on the basis of caste/religion/state/tribe" People like you and me.... have we not answered "Marathi,Bihari,Tamil" to the questions concerning your identity sometime or the other or asked someone "where in India?" to the friendly guy at London tube or New-york subway?.

"He who hath not sinned throw the first stone"