Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Love Thy Neighbour ?

Me : Can someone tell me why we are playing cricket with Pakistan ?

You : Why not ? What's cricket got to do with it ?

Me : Sportsman spirit is when your opponent plays brilliantly and you have the character to walk up to him and congratulate his performance. And sport between countries is essentially a celebration of the spirit of friendship and brotherhood. I don't think this is a time for India to be celebrating with Pakistan.

You : Look, you are probably protesting against the 26/11 Mumbai attacks by Pakistanis and the clean-chit given to Pakistani terrorist leader Saeed Hafiz yesterday......

Me : Yup.

You : Duuude, why punish the Pakistani cricket fans for that ? - most of them had nothing to do with it.

Me : Neither did the 170+ Indian people who were massacred in cold-blood. Why were they targeted ? They were just going about their normal lives. What did they die for ?

You : That is the nature of terrorism. The exact targets don't matter to the terrorist. You should look at the big picture. It is about making a statement - sending a message.

Me : Ah, now you understand. So, I am not against the cricket match per se, it is about *refusing to play* and making a statement - sending a message.

You : Duuude, there are diplomatic channels available to register protests. Haven't you heard of the UN ?

Me : LOL. What have we achieved so far by merely "registering" protests ? Let me see, first we said we were "unhappy" and then there was the attack on the Parliament, then we said we were "disappointed" and then there was 26/11 - not to mention the regular loss of Kashmiri lives for which we are officially "unhappy" and "disappointed"....

You : Okay, you have a point.....But still, cricket man ! Pick something else dude.

Me : Givvve-uppp.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kandy
bittaku maga , indian sense of history has been historically weak :(

Raghu said...

I think messages ranging from "No cricket","No buses" to "No talk", "No trade" don't work for Pakistan which is in such a deep mess..I mean you might send a message, but there is no recipient!

We have been sending these messages for decades and far from things getting better, our relations are at a new low and the situation in Pakistan is much more dangerous for India!

I think we have a huge stake in this and we should play the big brother in the region and to our own benefit, should help Pakistan get out of this shit. I think its high time the message gets positive from both the sides!

csv said...

i tend to agree with both 'you' & 'Me', because it is to do with pakistan.Generally, we separate Cricket,Trade ,people,politics from terrorism. But ,our experience with Pakistan does not echo our belief.