The other day I was thinking about what are so common in India and Indians. And I found most of the things have this ‘C’ factor. So I will juxtapose all these strikingly unrelated yet the most commonly accepted C factors here.
1. Cricket, 2. Corruption, 3. Cinema
CRICKET :
Cricket is a house hold name here in India from the poorest to the richest are love in it.
Its arguably the only performing game in India. The early morning you wake up and go for a walk its not normal scene that you find people of all age group ranging from 8 to 35 dressed in white are up on the wheel with there kit bags or at least a bat dangling on the back, ride to the stadiums, fields and clubs. These are the upper class and some times middle class ‘cricketism’ in India. Now the lower middle class version of the same spirit is a different scene. It would be in the evening that all these guys would assemble at an public ground, the first few minutes are spared to find a place to start, its India one man can be a place holder for hundreds the only thing you need to do is to shout, its booked they are coming or just put your wickets are stand by it. Then one by one the whole gang arrives none in white, some come directly in school uniform so only those would flaunt their white shirts. They dream more about Ranji matches and local cricket heroes, then the Indian team. One padded bats man with more cycle tubes as the handle grip for their bat with worn gloves is quite a common scene. With the approaching darkness they rush directly to the Coaching classes or to join other house hold work no time to discuss or learn, what they call practice is more of a pass time and a struggle to learn.
Now the slum version is again strikingly different. Their boys mostly below 12 year play it and keep the tempo high. Their people play it with naked body and bare foot, just a half pant or even a towel does the trick. They don’t care about bats, pads, kit, gloves in that case the white track suit seems a remote possibility. They don’t mind even the roads, called ‘guly cricket’ and some times the drain side cemented space. And yeah they don’t have nay specific time like morning or evening as most of they have no routine.
In India Cricket seems to be the only high status game with a true Indian touch and flexibility. It has many forms, versions and space to accommodate people from any class and social standard. In a country like India with such a diversified society where the standard of living varies from BPL to Millionaires and each group claims a good chunk of the whole mass its true that we need at least on game like cricket which is like democracy, for all. By the people, of the people and for the people. May be that’s why cricket continues to be the most popular game.
Corruption:
‘Corruption’ is an integral part of India and Indian. Every layer defines a new corrupt system of its own. From the government to public sector, even private sectors. But if we take a closer look and try to define corruption then, we can find the true reason. Corruption is a way of self centered thing to betray the moral code to get some materialistic possessions. Now by materialistic I mean the power too. It’s a corrupt system from top to bottom. You go to a ‘Thsil’office and you know the whole blue print. The peon who is paid to set appointment timings take 20-50 rupees to give you a time before afternoon, as if you end up with a after noon timing the process will surely be prolonged to next day and possible the next next day too. The clerk then takes 50-100 rupees to give you the stamped paper. Then the Tahsil dar would take anything depends on who you are. But not directly after all he is tahsildar. So his share the lion share comes from an indirect route. Here people are not corrupt because the system is corrupt and they are a small element of whole system and being honest would possibly disintegrate them from this main stream, as they give the excuse. But its because Corruption is a part of the attitude of Indian mass. We the Indians search for easy routes, we are too lazy to up hold our dreams and work for it rather again we expect some miracle to happen which will increase our standard of living automatically. We run away from responsibility and are very good at blame game. But the principal reason is dissatisfaction and intolerance of Indians. We live in a society where the standard of living of people residing in a community varies from hell to heaven. So this induces an envy and dissatisfaction in the intolerant ones. Hence as a habit they search for a easy way and find solace in the corrupt system.
The corruption is so high now that you need to bribe cremation of you grand parents. This is another Indian C factor.
Cinema:
The grand Indian cinema. Always the Indian cinemas go over acted or get over reacted by the crowd. With cinemas produced in 14 different languages in one country targeted at people from virtually all community and social standard, Indian cinema has its own space and hype. The actors are Gods here. The music is a soul mate and the celeb news magazine are a highly circulated material. The cinema has created many categories of consumers and a different marketing field. Few cinemas which are worth watching and are well directed don’t do much business here. The movies are somuch hyped that the internation movies don’t come in line with the bollywood movies. The great success of cinema in India may be due to the linguistic clash. The south Indian denounce all Hindi movies nehce they have to excel in their own cadre and match up to the standard and the Hindi movies are a largely consumed commodity so have to be good. In this race the beneficiary is the consumer. And movies have always been a great means of mass education and moral learning In India.
Truly
Abinash
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