flamy Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 Shady, shady times were these past few weeks. It gave us a good hard look at the mirror and what we are truly made of. Is it that easy for us to turn on each other for regional pride? Was "Unity in Diversity" just worth 1 mark in the final social exam or more? I have only just begun to find a new love for India after having spent close to half a year away from my home. It added fuel to the fire that always used to burn when watching cricket. That was the only time I truly recognized the Indian in me. Being a city slicker, it is easy to lose a little perspective when it comes to the meaning of 'Indian-ness'. But, cricket always had me ferociously passionate and emotionally overboard for India. Then came IPL. When the tournament started, I was rudderless. No clue. My roots were India - the whole of it. There wasn't just one place in India that I'd call home. That's the beauty of India for me. The linguistic bifurcation places a Telugu guy, born in Madras, brought up in Bihar, Bengal, UP, Maharashtra, Orissa and Bangalore in a situation. Now I wonder, how our dear brothers in foreign countries cope with this identity crisis. We all started off unsure and amused. Then, threw a little banter at each other. That brought out all the insecurities, fears, stereotypes and basically all kinds of food hit the fan. Now that it is all over, I wonder, if we can return to normalcy... or will there always be a little ugly beneath the surface? :isalute: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fineleg Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 India was divided based on language. That was a mistake - division should not have been done like that. There will be on and off problems because people identify themselves at different levels - sometimes, country, sometimes state, sometimes language etc. Hopefully, at some level, the identification with India will help carry things forward despite occasional fights. The main thing is to NOT insult someone else's language, food, culinary (eat with hands, spoon, chopsticks whatever other details) , clothing, culture etc. Everyone can follow their way. For some reasons, Indians seem to like "needling", and those sorta 'needling in the name of banter' can explode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f.b.m Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 Oh, please! Some walt disney cricket in a circus and suddenly its the dawn of a new age? Perspective! Please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fineleg Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 Some walt disney cricket in a circus Have to agree the above is true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamy Posted June 1, 2008 Author Share Posted June 1, 2008 Oh, please! Some walt disney cricket in a circus and suddenly its the dawn of a new age? Perspective! Please! Thats whats disconcerting :(( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f.b.m Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 I dont know but the whole tournament felt very empty. I was watching England play New Zealand with a lot of interest despite them being the 2 most boring sides playing test cricket right now. Thats the effect that IPL has had on me, I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 It's very common the divide. We get this kind of divide during the super 14 with our regional states playing in the rugby super 14 competition. If not worse, the hatred for each other's team is on similar lines. Similarly in English premier the fanatic supporters would not stand teams other than their ones. Why do you think there was hooliganism in soccer in Europe? IPL has bred good competition between regional teams and that is exactly what it was designed to do. There is nothing wrong in it as it stayed fairly decent other than couple of guys going over board. The same couple of guys can go over board even without IPL so it's not so much a problem. Most were well mannered and the success of IPL has proved this format of cricket now here to stay. In the past people used to complain about lack of response for domestic cricket in India. Now there is tremendous enthusiasm for local teams and domestic twenty20 cricket. I don't understand why there is unhappiness about it? IPL may rub off on domestic cricket and the local Indians from now on may start following the domestic cricket a bit closely given that the domestic cricketers are also house hold names now. I think IPL has done good for the Indian domestic cricket to flourish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fineleg Posted June 2, 2008 Share Posted June 2, 2008 I hope IPL does not rub on so much that T20 becomes a 'dominant' format. We need Tests to be the dominant format, what is it now? 2 Tests with England? *sigh* Is India producing enough quality Test batsmen (and bowlers) who can take the Test team forward after the Big-4 retire? Rohit Sharma is one quality batsman who can probably do well at Test level. Who else? Youngsters who can transcend the circus variety, and have potential for Tests? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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