There is a recent ad on 7 Up where an avid football follower gets really worked up when his friend passes some comments about Argentina losing the match and the protagonist questions the guy's passion and affiliation for the country when he doesn't even know where it is located on the world map, leave alone having visited it even once. To think of it, its quite interesting to see the passion that we all have for things that don't really affect us in our real life.
Our affinity towards cricket, football teams; actors, clubs, i mean to think of it what difference (and i am committing a big sacrilege by saying this) does it make to me if India wins the World Cup or not,nothing changes in my life. But no i was glued to the television set watching each and every match of India, getting angry for all runs not scored and wickets gone, cheering on all 6s and 4s and wickets taken as if my whole life depended on India winning the World Cup. (Well to let out a secret, another reason i wanted India to win was just to avoid seeing my husband sulk in depression for at-least 10 days had India lost the match). The loyalty by the way is not constant, the moment you divide the same Indian cricket team into KKR, DD, Mumbai Indians, in an IPL match, i cheer the same Malinga for taking wickets when i wished Dhoni to hit him for a six during the world cup match.
Not only cricket, the way we frantically send smses just to make sure that our favorite contestants win xyz dance, singing or farting competition is really strange because the bottom line is "Its not going to make any difference to my life". There is a quote by Oscar Wilde stating" “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation" which is true for most of us, but as another person rightly says “Passion, it lies in all of us, sleeping... waiting... and though unwanted... unbidden... it will stir... open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us... guides us... passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love... the clarity of hatred... and the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion maybe we'd know some kind of peace... but we would be hollow... Empty rooms shuttered and dank. Without passion we'd be truly dead.” And it is in all these things Cricket, Football, Country, Region, Gali, Nukkad that we search for our passion because without it our life will be hollow.
P.S: There is a KKR match tomorrow, just keeping my fingers crossed for them to win it!!
1 comment:
I was really wondering during that Pune vs Delhi match held in DY Patil - why were we cheering for Pune? Just because BCCI made DY Patil in Mumbai a home ground for Pune? If it was a home ground for Delhi, we would have cheered for Delhi that day. So, its all a mystery - these are just short term passions and supports.
As for all the club football fans, its more to do with the desire to associate themselves with something 'perceived to be elite' - like all those Chelsea and Liverpool fans. They love football because common men in India loves cricket, and they can't be seen dead in doing what common men does.
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