Sports - A paradox!

   

     I love sports. I've played almost all sports for which my school PET room had equipment for. Like many i hate losing. So i cheated quite a few times so that i slept happily that night thinking i played better than others. As years passed i started taking wins and loses more or less equally. I started having more peaceful sleeps thinking that i exhibited better sportsmanship that day. It was then i started questioning why we play a sport. More accurately why would have humans invented sports.
     I was able to arrive at two probable reasons. One that man wanted to wile away time in a more interesting fashion. The other that man wanted to satisfy his Egoes without much of a blood shed. The second more or less goes to express a continuity with the way today's society treats sports. Most of us today love sports because its a more peaceful way of quenching ones animal instincts engulfed by ego. Probable that is why some of the widely followed sports are all about power, hitting hard, smashing and the likes.When India beats Pakistan in cricket we tend to take it as a victory in a battlefield. There have been many days when i couldn't sleep properly because India lost a match that day. But we have given sports a more elegant and Utopian picture. We have coined a term called "Sportsmanship". We try to portray sports as something which is beyond hatred. To our knowledge we treat sports as being the human activity closest to humanity (Probably that is why we have been banning a few sports terming them inhuman).
    This to me looks like a paradox. On the one hand we attribute all positive human emotions as the basis of sports. On the other each one of us including the sportsmen treat it like a war most of the times. The paradox according to me hasn't benefited sports or the society as such. Nevertheless it has great commercial value. I strongly believe that using sports as peaceful medium of exhibiting hatred is doing more bad to our civilization than good.
     Such a treatment of sports some may say is a vent for human emotions. A stress buster. While i agree with that, It can only be a temporary fix. Its like a stressed man getting relief from smoking cigar or consuming alcohol. The sooner we relieve ourselves from its clutches and start using it for the real betterment of the human community as such the better its is for the survival of the both. I strongly believe that the civilization lives only as long as sports breeds true sportsmanship not only among the players but also among the audience. Long live true sporting spirit. Long live the civilization.

We are Guilty!

Can there be something more brutal than the gang-rape in Delhi? Yes there is. You and me talking as if we are in no way connected to such incidents and finding only those men and exposing women guilty. Most of you reading this would be blaming those evil minded men. And there will be those funny conservative minds that identifies women wearing exposing clothes as the ones responsible for such incidents. I would say, you and me are responsible. Definitely not completely accountable, But we surely have our hands on this.

Any disparity in this society, according to me, holds each and everyone of us responsible for it. Unless we are completely idealistic, we won't understand this, rather refuse to understand this. May it be poverty and illiteracy to name a few disparities or Theft and Rape to name a few social crimes. Each one of us have our hand on it. To be more precise we contribute to these disparities/crimes in many ways namely, by being a part of it, being negligent, being weak, being 'provocative' and also by being the victim. Many of us will understand and acknowledge the first three ways whereas we won't be able to swallow the last two. The truth is always bitter.

I felt like writing this because of the recent news on violence against women. Why do you think brutal crimes like rape occur? Undoubtedly, the only answer to this question is the perception of womanhood by men in this world. It is a kind of mentality that men of this world have developed over time. The mentality of men from time immemorial. Each one of us are responsible for nurturing and grooming men that way. All along the evolution of this human race, we have let this happen. We have never tried to curb this. But now i think we have got the power to change this.

The most dis-heartening thing is the usual blame game being played all over the country. There is no constructive debate on the solution to this problem. While few people go to the streets demanding hanging of those animals, there are few others liking and commenting on status messages in FB. While some take a candle march in an attempt to pay homage to the victim, there are few who blame the victim herself for the incident. The worst of all is the media that wants its TRP to pump up by focusing on foolish comments by well known people of this society. Let us not be a part of this senseless mob. Let us discuss something constructive-The Solution.

Is hanging the criminals going to be the only solution? There will always be people who commit the crime and get hanged. Will asking all women to be at home before it is dark be a better solution? Never, for over 50% of such crimes happen at home. Will castrating all such men be the solution. But how are we going to identify them in this world without them committing the crime. Are we going to wait till they commit the crime? Will empowering women with financial and social strength be the complete solution? But from where will they get the physical strength to fight those animals. Having said all this there will never be a complete solution to such issues other than a total change in our perception of womanhood. Here 'Our' means not just men but also women. How are we going to make this happen?

Here comes to picture the Objectification of women. This concept of objectification of women is a brainchild of 'man'. The system we live in was framed by man (here man means only man not human). Ever since the arrival on this planet men have continued their dominance over women. We need to accept the fact that, it was this mentality, that has resulted in the world we live in today.I've a few key thing in mind that will change this society by changing each one of us and our perspective.

1. Nowadays i see girls and boys shouting "Son of a B****" or "B*****D" with anger at guys. I'm not sure if they know what they mean. As a means of hurting the guy they actually call a woman "B****" (Most of the times they don't even know who she is). I don mind a guy or girl calling a real "B****" that way. Where does your responsibility of saving the dignity of womanhood stay. When we educated people are so barbaric how can you expect the 30% illiterates and the other Barbarians to respect a woman. The intention behind pointing this is, every other dirty word that exists in the world refers to a woman in the worst possible sense. This attitude is again a reflection of male chauvinism. This needs to change if our interpretation of womanhood needs to be revived. 

2. As men, we should treat woman in the society same as we expect the society to treat our women. Right from how we treat our neighbor, classmate and any stranger on the streets, everything has to change if we intend to change this society. 

3. A woman is not just one person. She represents the entire womanhood. She is not just responsible for what people think about her and her family. She is responsible for how she portrays a woman. Girls should remember wearing a cloth you desire is not the only means to establish you are equal to men. In-fact it is not even a means to do that. Exposing cloths are the brainchild of man. Man from the beginning wanted to use woman to satisfy his needs. Wearing such cloths indirectly means you are inclined to the current perception of womanhood. Have anyone thought why there are no low neck T-shirts or the skinny leggings for men. Man always wanted woman to wear such cloths and impress him. If you still wish to be objects of this society please do wear such cloths. Some may ask what about the children and old women who are abused, do they wear such cloths? My reply to them is, This is not about when a woman gets raped or abused. It is about what kind of a society we nurture and develop. It is very much about how we portray womanhood. Real Women don't expose!

4. 'As you sow, so you reap'. Having created a society by feeding it continuously with malicious thoughts and desires and expecting nothing to happen is another viral problem of this society. For instance, After watching a movie 10/10 people talk about how sexy the heroine was and how brave the hero was. It is this very basic thought of handling women as objects of desire the soul reason for such heartbreaking incidents. Today's media holds a great deal of responsibility in sustaining this infection in our society. It is also those women who wear exposing clothes on the screen that continuously insist this world that women are nothing more than an object of man's desire. It is those item numbers in movies that emphasizes the same. The sensor Boards now have a greater role in deciding who can see what.

5. Of course we need the strictest of laws to curb anything that happens beyond this.

If only you, I, he and she think that we are responsible for the death of the girl will this atrocity stop. We should be the change we wish to see in this world.

It is hard to have no opinion!

                The wisdom of homo-sapiens has taken us to this far in this world of uncertainties. Every uncertain thing around man made him think, react and evolve. To be true it is not only the human race that has evolved so much but the nature too. To be more practical the evolution of mankind can be termed at least a “little bit desirable”, but nature along with man has been forced to adapt to the evolution. Still man is weaker than the nature. One of the many absurdities in this universe – ‘the stronger being bent by the weaker’.

                With every newspaper, news telecast and face-book page trying to give their share of opinion about the “Built” and “Ready to be launched” Koodangulam Nuclear power-plant, I hardly doubt the depth and common sense in those views. We need it or we don’t need it? Before me sharing my opinion I would like to talk about a thing related to this issue that made me write this.

                All people who want the power-plant to be shut down ask this question. Is 14000 Cr INR (supposed to have been spent on the power-plant so far) worth more than the lives of people? Do we really need something that has a potential danger of swallowing thousands of lives in it?

I would ask them back. If people who are smoking are asked to quit smoking citing reasons that they induce cancerous cells in the body of other non-smokers (passive smoking), will they be able to stop. Or if someone who has got a house near a highway wants the Govt. to close the road because there are “chances” of vehicles running into their houses, will that be right?

If everybody who has got a motored vehicle is asked to check the emissions and abandon their vehicles if they don’t meet high emission standards how many will turn up at a nearby center to test their vehicle. Not even to save this world for their future generation. Can we all turn off our mobile phones and their towers because the radiations from them have nearly made “Sparrows Extinct?”

Nobody can deny the intensity of the hazard these things can cause to us. Even if one of these can cost “1” life, you can’t say it is in any way less significant than the thousand lives you are talking about.

            BUT, if they can’t do all this it does not mean we can have the nuclear plant. If at all the power-plant gets damaged by a natural or man-made disaster, to be frank I won’t be able to even imagine the day when everybody in Tamilnadu is asked to evacuate their homes. I can’t imagine a day when my homeland becomes infertile and incapable of nurturing the millions of scholars, leaders and more than all the human beings which it has been producing all these days.

It has become a question of Luxury Versus Survival. But that luxury is close to become a need for survival. What we need to understand now is to bring a change in this life style driven by technology and luxury. We are in one way molding a world which is turning incapable of supporting life. Almost 70% water below and above the ground can’t be consumed without a purification process. Once we had to search dust and smoke in air and now we are searching for air amongst dust and smoke. At least 30% of land which was once cultivatable has turned impotent. I fear if nuclear energy will worsen this condition if not managed properly.  There will be a day when we are in a position to choose between two things in life that are very vital to our mere existence. The horizon of that day isn’t so far.

The worst thing in life is being killed when one is asleep having the best of his dreams, not able to fight for ones life. I’m not sure if we can make this world live forever. But definitely we can make this world wake up and fight for its life. To have no opinion is “just like being dead”. Let us be alive. Have our opinions and act like human beings!

Now or Never

I don't know if its those Maniratnam-Shankar stuff that drove me to write up as an Indian. But I am sure its not as utopian as their dreams about the nation are. Beyond every incident that fate has inscribed in Indian History I always felt India and Indians deserved a Earlier-Better post freedom life. It took just so many years for me to scream out my deep regrets, fears and displeasure about this quickly gonna be Trillion people. Hope this writing won't be a drop lost in the sea. Let us make it an oasis in the desert.

“One individual may die for an idea; but that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself in a thousand lives. That is how the wheel of evolution moves on and the ideas and dreams of one nation are bequeathed to the next’”

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose