Karlo duniya mutthi mein
Nothing can startle Iraq anymore. It must be quite immune
by now – to the explosions, to the hostilities, to the battles, to the
struggles and to the Bushes. But what I cannot fathom is the strange
imperviousness that the people (at least some of them), of our country have
developed against the latest war (if one can call it war), right from its
outset to the unfortunate catastrophe. And I cannot help but feel a little
queasy if a certain sport or a certain Cup had anything to do with it.
Not only do we Indians tend to over react to
everything, like Morarji Desai once said but we are also quite adept at
overlooking certain matters. When India and Pakistan clash on the cricket field
it is nothing short of a war. Even our media thinks this battle of hate
deserves more coverage than any demonstrations of peace. And the day an actual
war breaks out somewhere across the globe, the bat and the ball still continue
to mesmerize our Indian eyes, always holding preference, even above the bombs
and the missiles. ‘It was the Semi-finals yaar’, someone said, ‘and India was
playing Kenya’. Sure, our team being so unpredictable, you just cannot take
anything for granted and it is imperative that we keep in line with the scores
than switch channels to witness the horrendous realities of warfare. ‘Of
course’, the man was quick to add, justifying the sedentary remote in his
guilty hands, ‘I was watching the war too’. As if he was doing Iraq a great
favour with his occasional glimpses and glances.
A superpower is on the rampage ( No, I’m not talking about
our little Master blaster), grinding down the authority of the United Nations,
and we sit glued to our Idiot boxes, ‘awed’ and ‘shocked’ with a phenomenon,
whose brilliance sprinkles all over the fields of South Africa. A war against
humanity and not terrorism (as promised after nine eleven) is waged and our
pursuit to clinch the World Cup continues. The dictator of the world confronts
the dictator of the Gulf and we contemplate on whether the skills of the Lion
from Maharashtra are far superior to that of the Tiger from Bengal.
Reliance India has come up with a beautiful slogan- ‘Karlo
duniya muthi mein.’ Its haunting tune and roaring lyrics, which for some time
seemed to have had its effect on the Cricketing ears of India, will soon be
dimmed down to a faint echo, now that the Cup is lost. But if worldwide peace
continues to get quashed and international protests continue getting quelled,
it won’t be long before the self appointed global crusaders begin to act upon
it. And nobody can be blamed if the entire world finally gets compressed into
those strong and authoritative American fists. Saddam may be a Devil. But no one,
not even a ‘blairing’ Bush has the right to play God.