From Angels to Demons …

Today MS Dhoni finally joins a very elite and prestigious club which has been graced by the former greats of the Indian cricket including Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Azhar, M K Pataudi and I guess almost all Indian Cricket Captains must be in that league. India's Most Hated . An extremely natural reaction of the Indian cricket fan who worships his/her cricketing heros and makes them demigods only to tear them down after their dreams are shattered.

Truly being an cricketing idol in the Indian Subcontinent has always been a double edged sword, no one better than Wasim Akram knows this who had stones pelted at his house, and the Pakistanis had to change the city where they were supposed to land at in order to avoid angry mobs. Remember 1996 World Cup, where the crowds became unruly and the defining image of a crying Vinod Kambli leaving the stadium showed the ugly side of Indian cricket fan.

Dhoni Today 09

So Dhoni went from the being Ranchi's poster boy to having his effigy burnt in his own hometown. Life does come a complete circle. The Captain Cool is now a boy scout and a petty squabbler with Virendra Sehwag and off course the Indian media. His every decision has been analyzed and postmortems conducted which labels him as an incompetent leader.

Dhoni Yesterday 07

A flash back, Its the 2007 T20 World Cup Final the dream match India vs Pakistan, Dhoni gave the ball to Joginder Sharma much to the horror of the Indian fans, and Misba hu Haq who till then had played a splendid innings played an extremely unnecessary reverse sweep which was held by Sreesanth to give India its second moment of World Cup glory and a hero in Indian Cricket was born. The boy from Ranchi, Jharkhand, and it heralded the birth of the new Indian Icon who would eclipse all the existing Indian stars.

What if ?

But just imagine instead Misba spanking it down the ground for a boundary, Dhoni's legend would have died a premature death and Joginder Sharma would have become a national villain like poor Ravinder Jadeja today.

Lessons

There lies the fine line between victory and defeat, glory and failure, fame and obscurity. That is indeed the beauty of sport, its unpredictability and the thrill it brings. Success and failure in life are always separated usually by a small margin but the repercussions always been more drastic. But there is a good news in this, life gives you a second chance, third and a fourth chance in fact, if you are ready to learn your lesson. The problem is we feel so gutted that we ignore the second chances to get back on track and some times meander in mediocrity without discovering our true potential.

Do we not back our friends, children or a close one when they fail, is that not our ideal role. So it is our time to be mature and stand by our team. Sure mistakes were done and the corrective steps must be taken but our heros do not deserve this kind of lynching. We must be more patient, less eager to put some one on a pedestal and later avoid baying for blood at the first sign of failure.

So where does MS Dhoni go from here, well after an introspection, he will reflect on 07 and 09 World Cup campaigns and he will probably realize that This too shall pass ...

I guess the Indian fans should realize this as well :)

Being a second class citizen in a first world country !

Oscar Wilde aptly put it “Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious”, although one can be proud of one's nation but the strong sense of identity should not extend so much that one hates other nationals. It is fairly ridiculous for me to believe just because I am born in a particular country, that nation becomes the greatest nation in the world and the rest are somehow inferior. The focus on racism has emerged in view of the recent attacks on Indians in Australia and some murders of Andhra students in the US couple of years back.

This kind of identity based ideology has always lead to ugly civil wars and genocides, may it be against the Jews, the Lankan Tamils conflict and the racism discrimination in South Africa of Blacks and Asians including Indians. Although these were really horrendous crimes against humanity, the current crisis in Australia is more a result of fear and mistrust rather than a deep seated racial bias.

I would like to raise a question if it is really racism or other factors at play. I believe it is more a case of xenophobia – a dislike/fear of some one different from oneself which is a subtle difference owning to one cultural differences and secondly the increasing economic recession which makes them hostile towards India, arguably the largest back office of the world.

It is indeed surprising in a first world country in the 21st century, where education levels are so high and countries which have better human rights records, why do such citizens of this civilized society demonstrate such base violent emotions. For a moment here I would like to play Devil's advocate, to understand why would people from the first world countries hate Indians.


Racial profiling post Sept 11 - Let us face it, post Sept 11 any Asian person in a public place who acts a little weird sends shivers down the spines of our Caucasian friends. The fear leads to anger and anger leads to hate which finally takes more violent proportions


Cultural Differences – Indians hang out in groups, dont really want to mingle in a bar and speak their own native language that is a criticism often laid on students here. I guess it must also be a result of discomfort they feel in a new country they kind of bond with their own to get adjusted intially. But my friends in the States, seem to have only desi friends not even good foreign acquaintances. ( I may be wrong here, people can correct me) This could be a factor why the two cultures do not assimilate comfortably.
But then Indians have always bad at inclusiveness, a group of Tamilians or Bengalis can isolate Indians from other part of the same country, where does an Australian or American have a chance to mingle in :)


Where does you loyalty lie Mate ? - It is ironic, when you watch a India- England match at Lords, all our NRIs come in smart blue Sahara India cricket shirts and cheer India beat England in their own country, they celebrate Rajini kant movies and the Pakistanis scream Pakistan zindabad in a must win match for England in the T-20 World Cup match. I am sure this kind of disloyalty is not going to win hearts in the home country.


Its about the money honey – No one really cares if immigrants live here, only when the sinking feeling beings to start that, we are getting marginalized in our own backyard leads to instant hatred towards the outsiders, The fact that the Australian GDP growth has dropped to 0.3% and people cheering Obama on when he imposes work permit restrictions while advocating free market economy for all other goods ( talk about double standards, perhaps better left for another blogpost )


These are perhaps a few reasons, why Indians aboard are hated, although any form of violence cannot be justified and it is condemnable in all forms. However, There is introspection needed on both sides to see how in this era of globalization, this sort of nation based identity can be diluted and we see each other as just as human beings. The world economy has moved irrecoverably wherein the boundaries between nations have been breached, so people need to break those boundaries in their hearts as well.

Although I do feel sympathy for Indians abroad, I do also believe we need to get our act together at home as well, wherein students from Bihar UP are beaten in Mumbai for wanting to appear in Railway Examinations, a shame considering we being villians at home and calling foul abroad. Kind of ironic isnt it ?