We Indians are a funny lot. We love to live life the way we want. We are not the uber-perfect nation, and frankly, to borrow a quote from Rang De Basanti, no nation is perfect. But we are happy to be in this country, despite some shortcomings, if any. We love to make fun of other nations. More so, we even make fun of people of our own country if they don't belong to our city or state. People from northeast would definitely vouch for the same. But nothing unites us more than 2 things in this world: Pakistan and Cricket. I will reserve my opinion about how Pakistan unites us in this piece but we will turn our attention to Cricket and a not-so-distant country, Bangladesh.
So, we got beaten by Bangladesh in cricket last month. Though not for the first time in cricket matches, but for the first time we lost a bilateral series. A big deal for the cricket-crazy nation, as you must have guessed. But, we downplayed the event to excessive cricket being played by our cricketers since the start of the Australian series last year, to new players trying to cement their place in the team and taking time in doing so. There were occasional praises for Bangladesh as well, and maybe the Indian fans just praised the neighbors so as to avoid being called sore-losers and cocky. But all hell broke loose when a Bangladeshi media house put up a picture of their new sensational hero, Mustafizur Rehman, fancying a 'cutter' or a 'razor' with some Indian players shown as half-bald, including test captain Virat Kohli and ODI/T20 captain MS Dhoni. How could they do it, have they not got any shame or respect, this is outrageous...these were some of the responses (toned-down) in the Indian social media and other channels. One Mumbai radio channel even went to the extreme of asking the Bangladeshi media house to apologize to Indian cricket fans, who had got 'hurt by this senseless and tasteless act of Bangladesh'.
This one incident shows how feeble our strength is when it comes to taking a joke made on us. Twitter was overflowing with outrage against Bangladesh, with people tweeting about how India helped in the formation of Bangladesh in 1971 and how India is a father to Bangladesh. It seems like a big section of us haven't really grown up. When Star Sports made the unofficial anthem of 2015 World Cup in the form of 'Mauka Mauka' ads, it was all taken in the right spirit and some even added their own twists to those ads. If the current outrage is because of sudden outburst of patriotism in the people who are outraging against Bangladesh, where was it during the 'mauka' ads? Or where was it when the same channel called Bangladesh a kid in cricket during the build up to the above bilateral series?
I am not saying that one should keep quiet when someone says something about his/her country or countrymen. I am just saying we should learn taking fun in the same vein in which we make fun of others. And not carry a false sense of patriotism with ourselves. For starters, there is a lot to change with ourselves and our society as well. The constant discrimination against a dark-skinned person and a sudden spurt in confidence after applying a fairness cream shows the kind of thinking we have developed. Maybe the Bangladeshi ad was not in good taste, maybe our own was not either, but let's stop outraging for the sake of outraging. There may be real issues on our hand which will benefit more if we channel our attention and energy towards them.
So, we got beaten by Bangladesh in cricket last month. Though not for the first time in cricket matches, but for the first time we lost a bilateral series. A big deal for the cricket-crazy nation, as you must have guessed. But, we downplayed the event to excessive cricket being played by our cricketers since the start of the Australian series last year, to new players trying to cement their place in the team and taking time in doing so. There were occasional praises for Bangladesh as well, and maybe the Indian fans just praised the neighbors so as to avoid being called sore-losers and cocky. But all hell broke loose when a Bangladeshi media house put up a picture of their new sensational hero, Mustafizur Rehman, fancying a 'cutter' or a 'razor' with some Indian players shown as half-bald, including test captain Virat Kohli and ODI/T20 captain MS Dhoni. How could they do it, have they not got any shame or respect, this is outrageous...these were some of the responses (toned-down) in the Indian social media and other channels. One Mumbai radio channel even went to the extreme of asking the Bangladeshi media house to apologize to Indian cricket fans, who had got 'hurt by this senseless and tasteless act of Bangladesh'.
This one incident shows how feeble our strength is when it comes to taking a joke made on us. Twitter was overflowing with outrage against Bangladesh, with people tweeting about how India helped in the formation of Bangladesh in 1971 and how India is a father to Bangladesh. It seems like a big section of us haven't really grown up. When Star Sports made the unofficial anthem of 2015 World Cup in the form of 'Mauka Mauka' ads, it was all taken in the right spirit and some even added their own twists to those ads. If the current outrage is because of sudden outburst of patriotism in the people who are outraging against Bangladesh, where was it during the 'mauka' ads? Or where was it when the same channel called Bangladesh a kid in cricket during the build up to the above bilateral series?
I am not saying that one should keep quiet when someone says something about his/her country or countrymen. I am just saying we should learn taking fun in the same vein in which we make fun of others. And not carry a false sense of patriotism with ourselves. For starters, there is a lot to change with ourselves and our society as well. The constant discrimination against a dark-skinned person and a sudden spurt in confidence after applying a fairness cream shows the kind of thinking we have developed. Maybe the Bangladeshi ad was not in good taste, maybe our own was not either, but let's stop outraging for the sake of outraging. There may be real issues on our hand which will benefit more if we channel our attention and energy towards them.
No comments:
Post a Comment