This blog has a lot of posts about sporting heroes. Actually, no, this blog has very few posts, a lot of which are about sporting heroes. In this post too I shall talk of Sporting heroes, before which we shall touch upon some very recent events gone by.
Security forces of Pakistan were indeed unaware about the little party that the US Navy Seals had in their premises, sort of the opposite of asian students in the USA having parties that the landlord doesn't know off. Of course, in the student parties, kegs of beer get murdered along with any veils of decency that people from countries of "rich heritage, richer than youvar country" put up when abroad; and in Abbottabad the keg of beer was the most wanted man of the last two decades, and the veils of decency were the several facades put up by both US dipplomats and Pak officials, that our illustrious neighbours were doing everything they can to curtail terror. The largest sufferers of this botched, ill-fated alliance of money and dimwits, are the people of Pak. Whom, apart from already facing terror threats day in and day out, are at higher risk now, since the head has been taken off, and they sit to be, easy targets. While Mr. Obama pats himself on the back, and the world heralds the beginning of more peaceful times, I just hope they aren't just talking about the 'developed' world.
In a shocking incident that should make the entire Yoga teacher community rise as one (breathe in sloooo-wlyyy) and metaphysically stone (Yoga helps achieve non-violence) this jerk (breathe out slowlyyy) , a yoga teacher in Thalaghattapura horrifyingly butchered his long time girlfriend turned mistress, and froze her body in his own house, all with his wife in the next room. I don't understand why we haven't yet implemented chemical castration punishments. murderers of women should be chemically castrated. And considering our government regulates so much already, women must now get all relationships approved by a neutral (run by eunuchs) Government body. I say this for the good of men and mankind. clearly more women make mistakes in judgements and as long as it's only emotional cacophony, there's nothing wrong with it. But surely an already depleted sex ratio being further more in danger because of things like this, it's time we act. But seriously, condolensces with the bereaved. What a terrible way to lose a loved one.
These last few months, years even, have done the Kaliyuga no good service, justifying its title to mean The age of "strife, discord, quarrel, or contention". From billion dollar scams to human tragedy in natural calamities to treachery of the worst kinds, the country, and indeed the world has seen it all. Enough and more has been said about the 2G scam, and this blog is late in reacting to the same. But with Kanimozhi saying prophectically the she is "prepared for the worst", I wonder what the nation has to hope for. The most gruesome of all tragedies of most, that the world has seen was the TÅhoku earthquake and tsunami that hit the busybody Land of the Rising Sun one afternoon in March this year. While the direct damage of the earthquake and the Tsunami is numerically smaller than couple of other seismic events of similar order of the recent past, the consequences of this one are without doubt the epitome of what KaliYuga is supposed to be. We are yet to know what the true extent of Chernobyl's damage to the world is; the wiki page has a very disturbing picture of a mutated pup that was born near the site; and so it will be another half a century before we know the true extent of the Fukushima Accident. And while most people who will read this, being dead around that time, we may not have much to fear for ourselves, as MJ says "What about sunrise? What about rain? What about all the things, that you said we were to gain?"
On a definitely happier note, India won the World Cup, Cricket, of course. The captain, MS Dhoni very generously credited the ascent of Indian Cricket over the last decade and a half, to the Fab 5 that we grew up with. (Dhoni missed out on Laxman, without doubt that is a name that should be in that elite set. Some would argue Javagal Srinath deserves mention too). Even more honest on Dhoni's part to mention other sports where India has been doing very well recently (he left out boxing I think, Mary Kom and Vijender Singh deserve mention and acclaim). However with the victory came the jingoism. The ugly face of the Indian fan. People will castigate me for saying this, but somehow the sheen of the Cup was tarnished with the biker jerk who almost crashed into my car screaming "Pakistan Murdabad". In hindsight, I should run over the idiot. All of them. It seems I have some rage issues.
I blame the marketing frenzy of the Cup that seemed to take vile pleasure in inciting the common public to side with their country with brainwashing images of the tricolour brandished on every conceivable patch of skin that can be shown. And then there was Poonam Pandey. Oh God.
In the wake of the World Cup came the IPL, and I was pleasantly surprised by an ad about how the IPL was not about countries and borders anymore, just people playing cricket and more people cheering. Refreshing thought, if only it wasn't because the teams got reshuffled this year and they needed some way to make people like the tourney. In any case, as much as the pommie journos would like to believe otherwise, while the ratings are a bit low this time around, this IPL has actually had some nice contests. It is especially refreshing to watch the veterans going about their business in this brisk format with so much more ease than their younger colleagues. That being said, Shane Warne announcing today that this is his last IPL was very painful. As it is, we the fans, are deprived of Kumble, respectfully so, Murali appears to be fading (maybe it's a phase, there is next year after all), there is the impending retirement of the remaining trio of the original fab 5 from the Indian test team, the IPL was a good way to wean ourselves from being so in love with these icons. So today, when Warne's telling us "It's not you, it's me", and "we'll still be friends"; we know all too well, it may never be the same again.
By a bittersweet coincidence I will be able to watch Warne in action on his 'home'ground very soon. But too bad Liz Hurley has already returned to pursue her own busy life of fashion and photoshoots.
