Jai Ho
I have to admit, I've never really understood our gung-ho and sometimes misplaced sense of patriotism.
Don't get me wrong. I love living in this country, I can't imagine living elsewhere. Being Indian gives me an identity and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm not unpatriotic, I'm just not particularly patriotic.
So, when I see comments like, "Oh, Kashmiris don't want to be a part of India. So ungrateful. We've done so much for them. Let them go to Pakistan," I'm a little stumped.
I can understand it, to a certain extent, in sports. Sports is competitive. Someone has to win. And, if a person or team is representing a country, then yes, it makes sense.
While I understand it, I don't really care much for it.
When a big deal was made about the CommonWealth Games Opening ceremony, and consequently, India's success at the Games, I didn't care. I know that sounds harsh, but I've never been much of a sports watcher. And, the fact that it's the CWG and India performing well and all didn't make much of a difference.
Till I started watching Badminton and Table Tennis matches in my gym. For some reason, my cardio machine always ends up being in front of the screen that shows DD Sports. Since I don't know how to change the channels, I've watched these games. I must confess I quite enjoy them. I play a bit of badminton myself. The matches are all fast, short and pretty intense. I soon began looking forward to watching these matches at the gym and would actually wait to find out outcomes of matches. DD Sports mostly shows us games with Indians, so, I'm always rooting for the home team.
Today, I decided, since I work from home, why not keep my TV on at DD Sports and see if there's anything interesting. I saw Indian women win the 4X400 Relay in athletics. According to the really loud commentator, this is quite an achievement. I watched the medal ceremony for this as well. And, I don't know if it was because the Nigerian girl was crying or because of that commentator reaching fever pitch in his commentary, but, I started crying. Not an intense, OMG, crying. But, I shed a few tears. Just like that. Those girls looked so happy and...proud. Just so proud.
I'm beginning to reconsider this patriotism thing.
Don't get me wrong. I love living in this country, I can't imagine living elsewhere. Being Indian gives me an identity and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm not unpatriotic, I'm just not particularly patriotic.
So, when I see comments like, "Oh, Kashmiris don't want to be a part of India. So ungrateful. We've done so much for them. Let them go to Pakistan," I'm a little stumped.
I can understand it, to a certain extent, in sports. Sports is competitive. Someone has to win. And, if a person or team is representing a country, then yes, it makes sense.
While I understand it, I don't really care much for it.
When a big deal was made about the CommonWealth Games Opening ceremony, and consequently, India's success at the Games, I didn't care. I know that sounds harsh, but I've never been much of a sports watcher. And, the fact that it's the CWG and India performing well and all didn't make much of a difference.
Till I started watching Badminton and Table Tennis matches in my gym. For some reason, my cardio machine always ends up being in front of the screen that shows DD Sports. Since I don't know how to change the channels, I've watched these games. I must confess I quite enjoy them. I play a bit of badminton myself. The matches are all fast, short and pretty intense. I soon began looking forward to watching these matches at the gym and would actually wait to find out outcomes of matches. DD Sports mostly shows us games with Indians, so, I'm always rooting for the home team.
Today, I decided, since I work from home, why not keep my TV on at DD Sports and see if there's anything interesting. I saw Indian women win the 4X400 Relay in athletics. According to the really loud commentator, this is quite an achievement. I watched the medal ceremony for this as well. And, I don't know if it was because the Nigerian girl was crying or because of that commentator reaching fever pitch in his commentary, but, I started crying. Not an intense, OMG, crying. But, I shed a few tears. Just like that. Those girls looked so happy and...proud. Just so proud.
I'm beginning to reconsider this patriotism thing.
+1
ReplyDeleteGoosebumps, choked throat, tears, et al. I was really happy for those girls. I keep going back to YT to watch the race. ;)
But I hope the country doesn't get carried away with our 'all's well that ends well' attitude and forget all the corruption issues during the Games' preparation.