Divided we Fall

When I was in school I used to read great things about India. We have so many states, so many religions, so many languages, so many cultures. I was amazed by all this knowledge and I truly believed what I read in the books. Soon, I found these books had a knack of showing only the shiny side of things. It was when I started reading the papers, that I began seeing reality.

India has so many states! And every state hates its neighboring states. There's always competition, there's always tension. Who is controlling the water. Who is controlling power. And now its a new trend to fight within states. Everybody wants that beautiful Chief Minister's title. What's the simplest way to get there? Definitely not struggle, work your way up, gain respect and earn the Chair. No. Start a new party (based on caste, language, region, religion etc.) and protest for a separate state. Excellent. I love rock music. I'll gather a big bunch of Rock fans and create a Hard Rock State of my own! Sounds wonderful doesn't it? I'll be Hard Rock CM. And for my political campaigns, Mark Tremonti will be shredding guitar. Oh! And my party symbol can easily be a guitar. \m/

India has so many religions! Once again I was brainwashed by the books. That all religions co-exist peacefully. I used to listen to all kinds of patriotic songs that praised the secular nature of India. And what do I see on TV. Communal riots, religious clashes, all kinds of nonsense. People openly criticizing other religions without even knowing that in the end all prayers are heard by One or heard by None! I strongly believe it's the latter!

When it comes to language, my brain goes into a tizzy. 1800 odd languages? (Its 1652, but I'm including the unknown ones too!) 1.2 Billion people. That's 666,666 people for every language (oops 666). Ok that was illogical! There are a few languages that are spoken like within a handful of people, so calculations and averages count for nothing. Obviously that would spring a new problem. It gets us back to the State separation. They were originally separated according to linguistic differences and probably that helped organise the country (which is still pretty highly disorganised) but ended up creating big barriers for the same reason of linguistic differences. So in theory, that gives us 1800 states! Can we live like that? Obviously, people move in and out of states and languages get jumbled. Sometimes it's work, sometimes family, sometimes something else. In the end we find people speaking multiple languages to converse and survive.

Is that bad? Then why all the mess that was splashed all over the news? The assembly hall becoming a wrestling arena because the oath-taker was speaking in the National Language and not regional? I got one word for it! Overly Frustrated Attention Seekers (oops that's 4 words). After centuries of coexistence, we still can't bear these minor differences that pop up. Why should only Marathis live in Maharashtra and why should they only speak in Marathi when there are 1799 other languages that belong to our country? Why should a Telangana state be created only for people living in that region? When the world is running away with technological advancements, ambitious, innovative, path-breaking, out-of-the-box ideas, we are still confining ourselves to within-the-box. And foolishly, we are making that box smaller. Things are supposed to grow over time, not shrink. Minds are supposed to get broader. Like people always rightly observe, there are only 2 things that grow in India. Economy and Population. Nothing else.

Already there was a huge debate over the so-called 'Pub Culture' and 'Mall Culture', as if they are some kinda cultures. Like people would prefer to buy 100 things in 100 shops than under a single roof called a Mall. How the heck could that be against Indian Culture? Did those ancient culture-creators, guess that 21st Century people will experience 'newer' cultures? Did they predict that people would try to save time buying all things at once, and that people would find hanging out in a public-house as a form of relaxation? Surely they wouldn't have been able to. And surely they wouldn't have written any rules that these were against 'our culture'. I feel like laughing thinking about this senseless thinking.

India is Democratic! Should have been the best thing about our country. But is it? Its letting people do what they want. Create state? Create. Create Language? Create. Protest new government? Protest. Demolish Mosque? Demolish. Start Riot? Start it. Own rules? So be it. Its as easy as creating a new variable and assigning your own value and properties to it for Programming. No one to stop you. No one to ask you. You do whatever it takes to feel comfortable and make your program work. Let the other variables get garbage values. Makes no difference to my variable.

So, we are diverse. Extremely diverse in all respects. And we have no respect for it. We were supposed to be proud of it, but we have been brainwashed. We were supposed to be together but we forgot. We need some reminding. We need more Tendulkars who proudly declare themselves as belonging to the country than a particular state or city or whatever (Never mind those handful of self-proclaimed 'protectors' of Culture). Natural Calamities, Terrorist Attacks, these are what bring people together. The few times when the barriers of religion, race, etc vanish (only to reappear once the calamity has passed). Can't even call them a 'Blessing in Disguise' with the unjust loss of so many lives. But only such radical stuff seems to be working for us. Or else, we continue to remain divided and we continue to fall apart.

The Run Fest

I'm definitely not a fan of Cricket. Being born in a country where Cricket is more of a religion than just a sport, I'm blatantly out of place, but when its a matter of country pride, I can't step back.

Yesterday was one of those days when I let my heart rule. I found myself sitting at among the highest seats of the Hyderabad International Cricket Stadium from where the view was like those 360 panoramas that we see of stadiums, watching the 5th ODI of the India Vs Australia Series. All this was thanks to Raj Kiran who kindly managed to arrange for the tickets.

While the 'inside' of the stadium was all fun, getting there was a mega-task. My friends parked their vehicles at my home because of the proximity to the stadium and their intention to avoid that huge traffic build up on the Tarnaka-Uppal road. We had to walk down the 1.5 KM distance to the stadium and find our seats. Sounded simple. But it wasn't. After walking all the way towards the Eastern side of it, we were told Gate 9 is on the other side. So we walked the half the perimeter around and only landed at Gate 7. When we asked again, we were told to go 'round a hill' to find 9. Round a Hill! I knew this place well because at the time the stadium wasn't yet so popular I used to learn to drive my car in these roads. And they weren't exactly what one would call roads. This was the back end of a colony in Habsiguda which ended at the foot of a rocky hill. Walking up and down these roads is more like a mini-trek. Cursing every stone and bush we came across and trying to think only of the fun we would have at the end of this long walk, we went 'trekking'. Finally, after doing nearly 3/4th perimeter (We could have done 1/4th and landed at the same point if we knew where to go!!!) we came around the hill and landed at Gate 9.

Once in, everything changed. We forgot all that we went through and get absorbed into the match. The Aussie batsmen were having a Run Fest down there and every ball seemed to be landing in the audience. The crowd was very participative and very patriotic but appreciative too. When Marsh completed his century, there was a good resounding applause for his effort. The runs just seemed to flow effortlessly. I was told this pitch is a very high scoring pitch and the rate at which the Aussie batsmen were scoring, it was getting obvious. Go down, buy a drink and 30-40 runs are added. The bowlers seemed incapable of taking wickets and we just watched silently occasionally clapping for this and that. Soon the scoreline read Aus: 350 runs. A decade back 350 was impossible to score. Now a lot more than that is possible.

We hunted for some food during the break. And I hunted for a camera which I obviously didn't have. The sunset behind the stadium looked awesome and I desperately wanted to click a snap. I had only my MotoRazr V3i in my hand with a 1.3MP camera with what I call 'beginner's' options. None of it helped me in any way so I just succumbed to the situation and clicked a few. I also managed a 3-photo Panorama with Natarajan's HTC touch (the image at the start). These were what I could click.








After the break, the Indian batsmen descended and now we realised the potential of the crowd. They were screaming themselves hoarse. Especially for Sachin Tendulkar. After scoring 7, he completed his career's 17,000 runs for which the fans erupted. It felt like the stadium shook during that 'eruption'. Little did they know that he had much much more in store for them. Sehwag's inital blast took the light away from Sachin but it came back after wickets just kept tumbling. In fact, the only one who was keeping his cool was Sachin. After Raina came things settled down a bit and the pressure eased. The 351 target suddenly seemed gettable. Very gettable. Sachin was just giving treat after treat with his flawless and super-cool, timed shots. He crossed 50. Fans went mad. He crossed 100, madder. He reached 150. The stadium was shaking now. If he went on at this pace, 200 was achievable. Where did he get all that energy from? No answer. He was so ultra-cool that sometimes if he was caught outside the line he never made an attempt to get back in a hurry. It was as if he knew the fielder wouldn't be able to hit the wickets. He ran patiently all through the game, saving energy with every step, walking where he could, jogging mostly, but avoiding to run.

Suddenly at 175 he fell. For a few seconds the crowd couldn't take it. We all expected him to play 'Start to Finish' and win the match for us. Nonetheless there was a long, tremendous applause as he slowly left the field advising the next batsman on the way. After Sachin left, hope started to ebb, and the wickets started falling faster than the runs scored. All the last wickets fell in just 15 runs and that closed the game with India just 4 runs short. The crowd just fell silent unable to accept what just happened.

The Jinx of Hyderabad still lives on. India hasn't been able to win at this new stadium ever since it replaced LB stadium. And the jinx moves to even club level with Deccan Chargers having a horrid time at this ground. I myself watched a game here that DC lost badly. I could hear funny comments about breaking down this stadium and building a new one! What beliefs! What Superstitions! I don't believe in all that, so I chose to remain silent just ruing about how badly the tailenders failed to make those 15 odd runs. But I did enjoy the match because there were so many good shots, so many sixes and fours, lots of entertainment. The game had everything in it except the home team winning.

Once out of the stadium, it was that long walk back home and this time thankfully, I knew the shortest route out with no confusion. These guys wanted to spend more time outside but it was getting too late and we decided to call it a day.

And with that, the long day-night ended. It was already the next day by the time I fell asleep...

Of Brain And Brawn

When Honda fell and became Brawn GP, I assumed, "Here's another team which will simply disappear into the back of the grid". And when I saw the colours, I was even more astonished. White and Florescent Green? I would never have chosen that combo for a Racing Car. The Team Drivers: Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button. I just couldn't make head or tail of this bizzare story. Big drivers, new team, no sponsors, what was going on?

It felt funny to see a new team being born out of another team's ashes. I didn't know what to expect and I decided to let things unfold and I'll make my assumptions later. And off went the season.

Jenson Button snatched 6 out of the first 7 and that was when I realised never to underestimate any F1 team. And following closely behind was Red Bull Racing. Another team I never expected to be finishing so well. Where were the biggies? Mc-Laren Mercedes? Ferrari? Hamilton? Raikkonen? All of them were just side-swept by the Horsepower and Brainpower of Brawn. Though Button didn't manage to win later, his inital burst gave him enough to be Champion. His first, his team's first, every thing was a first. Brain better than Brawn? Maybe it's time to re-write that little sentence.

It was one heck of a season in the end, though my favourite Ferrari could manage to finish only 4th in the Constructor's. Force India did manage to win some hearts by grabbing a few points. And what preceded that? A sentence from a big guy, "F1 is not a sport!". Force India's tiny fistful of points ensured that the rest of F1 critics in India kept their mouths shut. After seeing what Massa went through, no one would dare to call F1 a not-so-physically-demanding sport. And with the hope that F1 comes to Delhi, it would be another boost for the sport in India where 99% of the One-point-something Billion don't believe in the existence of sports other than Cricket.

The new races were pretty fun to watch. Suddenly Asia seems to have become a hot spot for F1. The Singapore night-light race was awesome to watch. Wish I could get one chance to sit in that giant Merry-Go-Round and have a 360 view of the circuit! Abu Dhabi was breath-taking in all ways. Unique to the core. Built on a man-made island. Day-Night Grand Prix. Scariest Pit lane exit I ever saw. Scary to the viewer, nightmare for the driver. Awesome structures in and around the circuit. Ferrari Theme park!?! Someone pinch me!

Yeah, even when Button won the Championship, I was like, "Someone pinch me". This whole season was quite a blast for me. I did miss a few races either due to the stupid cable connection or my own ignorance. But in the end, whatever I saw, I enjoyed.

Next year seems to be more promising. BMW may be out, but others are coming in. And Korea is hosting. And come 2011, the Indian GP is getting ready. Things have only just started to change in F1, may the change continue.