Playing for Pride....

Remember Kabir Khan scratching at his Silver Medal in Chak de India, what does that symbolize?
Well, I am in front of my TV and watching Chak de India and suddenly few things struck me which I feel I should share on this blog.
After a few minutes into the movie, we see how Kabir Khan is shunted from the society, from life itself. People labelled him “Gaddar”, a traitor who has no pride in representing and winning for his country. Now let us revisit the statement “Playing for Pride”..
Our Sportsmen lose, we say they have no pride while playing for the country. Do we really believe what we say to be true? Do we realize what it means? Do we realize that this statement is an example of hypocrisy to an extent?
What does it mean “Playing for Pride”?
Is pride only to be demonstrated on the cricket field or for that matter in any sport? Or is pride also relevant in our day to day life?
Do all of us play for pride?
Do all of us play the game of Life?
There are just a few differences between us and those sportsmen.
One, for us, they play the game of cricket, hockey etc and we play the game of life.
Two, their game is telecast worldwide while our game, its just something insignificant to the world.
Now, observing both the above points one by one. Isn’t life a game? Isn’t it a game to be played everyday, carefully and wisely. We wake up at a particular time, isn’t that a game - time? We go to our schools, colleges, work etc and learn something. We face the challenges involved in these activities and keep moving. Now isn’t this a game? You overcome the challenge you win that round, you score and you move on. If you lose, there might be another opportunity, another chance i.e. in popular gaming terms, another “Life” and thus we carry on the cycle of learning, winning, losing and so on. So, I believe we can conclude that life is a game, similar to the ones played on fields.
Secondly, about the game being telecast, the public is all eyes to what is happening in their games while only select few are really interested in your game of life but remember it is no less important at all, because this game determines your destiny and God willing the destiny of this great Nation itself.
The result in the former case is amplified greatly till it reaches us and thus all the disappointment comes out through words and actions which can hurt a lot. Is it good to berate, humiliate and insult the spirit of those who played?
I agree there are cases of the opposite nature, but that’s the part of the tails of the Bell Curve. Do you play your game of life to lose? No. Hence we should remember that no game is ever played to lose. It is in human nature, nobody loves to lose. Nobody loves the shame & disappointment associated with loss.
Now as I strike a similarity between the 2 games, I am arriving at the conclusion of the preface of this blog and would like to journey to its focus.
Now, looking at the pride part of these 2 games, let us mull over some self introspective and educating questions...

Do we disobey traffic rules?
Do we pay that extra money to the peons to get us our forms out of turn in any queue?
Do we pay at the ration office, passport office or any other to get our works done a “little” fast?
Do we litter on the streets or play basketball with our trash when we are just a few meters away from the trash can?
Do we keep our fans, tube lights and AC’s powered on even when we are not present at the place?
Do we flush/clean the public toilets after use?
Do we avoid the TC purposely on any Public Transport to catch a free ride?

There are many such questions which we can ask ourselves. The important thing here is, if the answers to any of the above questions is yes, then I think, we don’t play for pride....
Wondering why?
When we say our sportsmen don’t play for pride in their game then do we play for pride in our respective game of life? Before criticizing them, we need to ask ourself whether we are clean in that aspect?
Don’t we compromise with our pride when we do any of the above? Don’t we disregard the honour of the nation, honour of the self? Don’t we betray the trust of our culture here? Don’t we insult the sacrifice of those countless freedom fighters? When the answer to any of the "do we" questions is yes, in some small way or other we are contributing to our nation's degradation.
Remember, a positive for us, it took only 5 Pandavas to defeat the 100 Kauravas, the numbers 5 and 100 being significant.
This is the power of truth, power of good. Even when less in number, truth and goodness always triumph, they have the last laugh.
Our War, our fight is not against the people or any nation. It is against that pathetic ideology, that feeling that "Bhaarat won't change".
We, my countrymen have a war to win, an ideology to implement, a nation to build.
Let us reform ourselves and let go of our past mistakes to construct a future, a future of Bhaarat being a superpower!

"No price is too high to pay for owning yourself"
Friedrich Neitzsche

Let us play for pride....

Jai Hind!