World Cup ’11: A Weakest Review

Finally, the most awaited dream of the every cricket fan of this country where cricket is practiced like the first religion was fulfilled when Mahindra Singh Dhoni smashed the ball for a long six into the crowd in his very own helicopter style. The wait is over and the cup is ours after 28 long years.

In between we had our chances of ups and downs but were never able to bring the cup back in our courtyard. Now, we are the champions for at least four years. Critics raised eyes on many-a-times on the decision taken up by the skipper Mahindra Singh Dhoni, but always his management of team kept all of them at bay. 

This cup symbolizes not only a great victory and teamwork but also it shows the world and the country the importance of small towns. The scenario in the country has changed, due to rapid industrialization and development once small towns have risen up to a level to get engrossed with a feeling of competiveness. These small towns will soon become the modern day Delhi or Mumbai and will shine like any other developed city. 

Winning Cricket World Cup 2011 was a very proud and yet emotional moment for the Little Master Sachin Tendulkar. Every record in the cricketing book is under his name yet he had to digest the painful fact that his team had never won the Cup. It’s not like as if though India had never been close to a World Cup win in between all this 28 years. In one of the occasion we reached the semis and then in 2003 we were the runner-ups as we lost to the much better side, the Aussies, in the finals.  

Indian team had the inherent advantage of playing on the home ground but tackling pressure in one’s own country was never an easy task. Also from the day one we were the favorites of not only the Indian media but also of the foreign media, which further aggravated the pressure. So credit must go to each and every member of the team and the management for the way they handled such an immense pressure. 

I know we won this cup just because of the sheer skill and talent of our playing eleven but, we must never forget the important roles played by many other players from time to time in making this dream come true. Contribution from players like Saurav, Srinath, Kumble, Kaif, Agarkar, Laxman, Dravid, Jadeja, Robin Singh, and Prasad to name few must never be forgotten. This cup belongs to all of them as much as it belongs to the playing eleven. 

 

I don’t know whether our PM would agree with this or not but certainly cricket provided him the much needed respite he was looking for from so many days. Cricket diverted even the attention of the sharp-eyed opposition for the time-being. Yet, our politicians never underestimated the power of cricket and used it wisely to suit their political career. 

One thing I love the most about cricket is its social influence. Nothing binds us as strongly as cricket does, which was quite apparent in this six weeks. Never for once I heard the Shiv Sainiks and their sister organization restricting a North Indian from coming to Mumbai for watching the finals. 

But then, I find it quite painful and hard to digest whenever I read news stating various state governments and PSU’s announcing gifts worth millions. Isn’t all this money the same which we borrowed from the World Bank? So the money which was in reality must have been used for the various development programs now is been used otherwise to make a multi-millionaire become a billionaire. Also, I guess most of our PSU’s are in a very bad taste and are undergoing the process of disinvestment to raise money. So from where the hell are they going to sustain the cost of liberties which they gifted otherwise?

It was really heartbreaking when I saw the whole stadium doing boo in Quarter final match against Australians when Ponting got out instead of raising their hands in unison for greeting such a splendid knock. Also, the jingoism associated with the Pakistan match and all those messages circulating hysteria backed by the corporate giants ebb the true sporting feeling of the cricket. The skyrocketing price of the tickets for the stadium baffles me up.  Words from my gatekeeper truly symbolize this, he says… “Yeh sab Amiro ke chochle hain bhai g”. 

To end this post I must again congratulate MSD for his brilliant captaincy, team management for backing and providing the team with the support they needed and all the players who made us proud. 

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Words Unheard: The story of a Onion

Words Unheard, I guess, it’s the most appropriate topic for the article written hereafter. Onion constitutes the basic ingredient of Indian food and yet it’s far away from their reach. It’s the staple vegetable of India. But, the skyrocketing price of Onion has compelled the common man to keep a distance from it.

Isn’t it quite embarrassing on the part of the UPA government who are making all sorts of tall claims to curb the high inflation rate? Government yet again blamed the uneven weather for the current rise in Onion prices. But, isn’t it worrisome that a country like ours which needs to feed the 15% of the world population still depends on weather for the production of one of its most staple vegetable? The uncertain weather has always been a problem for agriculture so don’t you feel the government should focus more on unconventional means of farming rather than sticking to the dogmas?

So, why a sudden price hike? Government blames the high rainfall in the Nasik region which unfortunately is the Asia’s biggest Onion production region for the sudden spur in prices. But, a closer look will tell you that a close nexus in between the government officials and the middlemen holds the key to the whole price hike problem. Government knew that there will be a shortage of Onion in the domestic market in the coming days, yet it never banned its export. This shows its incompetency to predict the natural fallout of an event. Adding to the problem was the strike of trade unions in Nashik and Delhi. 

Now, the only respite for the country is to wait for the trucks full of Onions being imported from the neighboring country Pakistan. According to recent reports, government has asked the people to bear the price hike for at least 2-3 weeks more. Till then, people are left either with the choice of not eating a Onion or to buy one for Rs. 100 per Kg. 

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Kashmir: The Troubled Frontier

Yesterday, I read a news article about the ongoing debate whether the Kashmir is an integral part of India or not. A noted novelist had made a comment saying Kashmir was never a part of India and now it’s the right time for Indian government to liberate it. This post contains mine observation regarding the mention topic.

Britishers brought in with them a centralized form of governance. They united all big and small princely states under one umbrella; in simple language they unified the great Indian Subcontinent. But, Britishers unlike Mughals never invaded India with a motive of being a part of it; instead they only wanted to loot its immense wealth. They can be compared with modern day Taliban. Only difference was that the Britishers were an organized army of robbers.

So, after World War 2 when the world power scenario changed and it became difficult (almost impossible) to rule India, Britishers came up with a new ideology. They could have transformed the power as was vested in the hands of Britishers. But, they went ahead with a new idea of handing over the power to group of people from each community or religion. It was not just the Britishers but also the Allied forces who never wanted to leave the great Indian Subcontinent. They knew that this land had all the elements to become world power again, which could be a trouble for them in future. As a matter of fact, they still control the politics of some countries of the region like Afghanistan and Pakistan. So, they coined the theory of partitioning the country on religious lines. It was left over to rulers of princely states whether to remain with free India or go with the new state of Pakistan.

Sardar Vallabhai Patel with his group of loyal administrators did a commendable job by making most of the princely states to remain with free India either by using political pressure or by force. But, the Maharaja of Kashmir was an ambitious and very arrogant man. He neither wanted to be a part of free India or the new state of Pakistan. In-fact, he wanted to divide India further by making Kashmir a third country to be formed beside Pakistan. But, soon he realized his mistake when the Mujahedeen backed by the Pakistani army attacked the princely state of Kashmir. He realized that it was better to be a part of a secular India rather than to be a part of a country like Pakistan which was formed on religious grounds. He signed the annexation papers and formally the state of Kashmir became an integral part of the Union of India. Later on, acting like a fatherly figure India gave few chunks of Kashmir to Pakistan in order to calm it down. As it is said, the greediness never goes away, so was the case here; Pakistan from the very moment of its formation wanted Kashmir to be an integral part of it. When it became clear that India has a better military then that of the Pakistan, they went ahead with the new setup. And that was building, supporting and providing logistics for cross border terrorism into the territory of India.

Two points should be made very clear: Firstly, as hyped, if the Kashmir is set free as an Independent country, sooner or later the state of Pakistan back by the China would attack it and would enslave them. In that case only one country, the Union of India, can come to their rescue. Secondly, Kashmir will have to depend on India for its resources and daily needs. They will have to import it from the Indian government. In both the scenario, India can never be detached from Kashmir.

In recent media reports I heard some of the Huriyat leaders crying about the double standard of Indian government for the Kashmir. Indian Government never treated Kashmir as an integral part of India and seen it as an outsider, they said. But, they kept mum on the special privileges and autonomy which only the state of Kashmir gets. They cry about the army Special Power Act but never for once they condemned the militancy. Also, the people who think that partition is only way for a permanent solution of the Kashmir problem must for once look at the state of Pakistan.

Lastly, Kashmir was, is and will always be an integral part of the Union of India.

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Read more about KASHMIR and INDIA at: Wikipedia