Monday 21 July 2014

Avoidable Exhuberance



For the German football team it was time for euphoria, a long drawn trophy drought finally got over and their years of planning, after many frustrating hiccups, had borne fruit. For the clinically efficient Mannschaft it was time to loosen up and unwind a bit. But it ended up taking a wrong step.

The gauchos dance ridiculing Argentina during their victory parade in Berlin brought out a rare glimpse of cockiness, which the team did not display throughout the tournament. It does not behove a football team of its stature to get carried away in such a manner. The more troubling aspect was that senior players like Miroslav Klose too took part in that gig.

Germany has a troublesome history of aggressive nationalism which led the world to second world war. The Nazi swastika and the portrait of tooth brush moustached Hitler are still seen as ultimate symbols of intolerance and tyranny. However, since the world war it has been trying to cultivate an image of a tolerant country trying to live down its horrific anti-Semitic past. Hence even a minute display of intolerance makes the world nervous. If the same gig were done by soccer players of a country like say Australia nobody would have raised an eyebrow. Remember how Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn shooed off the then BCCI chief, Sharad Pawar, from the stage in 2006 after the Champions Trophy presentation.

This was indeed a temporary blip in the otherwise sterling performance for which the team had won its goodwill for being a multi-cultured, well-knit unit with deep bench strength. Even while it massacred Brazil in the semi finals, there was no chest thumping exuberance. In fact the players and the coach had stopped any display of jubilation after the third goal was scored.

Hence this was indeed a misstep they could have avoided.

Monday 7 July 2014

In God's Name: Decoding Sachin Tendulkar Troller's Mind



Myopia. For Ophthalmologists it may be a disease or ailment, but for us it is wired into our DNA, as ingrained as paan stains on our country's walls or potholes on roads. Better get used to it.

Detractors say cricket is played in few countries, but aren't they one of the most populous ones. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh ... all eternal baby boomers and look at the way we fill up stadiums and stay put for the whole day (and leave them filthy), we have the numbers on our side and the world better take note of it. We care two hoots for who is the best baseball or rugby player (memory cells are in short supply as we refused to grow up), but they better know our God.

Don't know which yeda (fool) termed cricket a gentleman's game. For us trollers any form of propriety is alien and any form of decorum are meant to trampled at the altar of message boards. Woe betide if anyone tries to insult our god. Period.

If provoked (it could happen for just about anything) we replicate the nuisance pattern of locusts or crows on cyber space, don't even dare to test our prowess. For the victims the spam messages and memes we leave behind has the same effect as the sardine smell - the stink refuses to go away.

PS: Sorry Alia Bhatt, didn't mean to insult you. But then you happen to be the dumbest bimbo in contemporary Bollywood so we had to invoke your reference to run down a dumber sportswoman who didn't know our God's name.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat