Idols sans Ideals....

"If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal; not to people or things."

Albert Einstein

Mahishasoor-Mardini Durga is believed to be a merger of all goddesses into a supreme deity designed to destroy evil. An embodiment of a mother, a daughter, a sister who stands against tyranny, injustice and evil.

Lord Ganesh got his elephant head as replacement from his own father Lord Shiva whom he had the audacity to prevent entering the residential chamber while Ganesh's mother Parvati was bathing. He has been the God of Wisdom and again symbolic to standing up against what one believes is wrong.

Brothers Raam-Laxaman were great examples of respect towards ones elders, parents, brothers, friends, colleagues, and soldiers.

Shri Krishna is believed to be the greatest warrior and king - the friend, guide, philosopher and mentor to the Pandavas and one of the strongest proponent of the ideology of 'dharma first' - Saam, Daam, Dand, Bhed !

Enough examples! Why have I all of a sudden went into sharing about our Gods after just above 4 months of not blogging? Well, because another of our 'God' is about to say good-bye!

To the world, it is a spectacle to watch a nation come to a halt as the Maestro Sachin Tendulkar performs his final act on the 22 yards he considers his life. They are awestruck of the adulation, of the fan-dom and of the demi-God status we render one of the greatest batsmen ever. Being an ardent cricket fan myself, I can understand what the world of cricket, especially us Indian Cricket Fans and especially those born in the late 80s and early 90s must be feeling; but at the same time, where the world sees a carnival worth admiring - a mad-man in love of his nation, having trained himself to try and guess where we can fall based on when and where we slipped, sees a grey zone - a few reasons why as an emotional lot, we are yet to stamp our authority on the world map. A Wankhede crowd that once boo-ed the Master, is today up in saluting his contribution and his stature. Why do our hearts swing like pendulums is a difficult question to answer but its roots might lie in the fact that we are Idol worshipers; and over decades and centuries of worshiping Idols, we have long forgotten what Ideals were idolized in those Idols!

There is mass-hysteria over SRT and there should be - the man deserves every ounce of success and respect that has come his way. From a squeaky 16 year old 'Main Khelega' after being hit on the nose by Waqar Younis in his debut series @ Sialkot, Pakistan with India reeling @ 38/4 to his legendary walk off the green turf raising that special tri-coloured streak Adidas Bat as a final bow - Tendlya has stood for amazing childlike passion, love for the game, perseverance and never-give-up-on-your-dreams attitude - 24 years is a long time - hell, I am 24 !

My point is, do we have to celebrate Sachin Tendulkar? Why can't we celebrate what Sachin Tendulkar stood for? Why do our games or our TVs stop at his wicket and why as a cricket-crazy nation we believe it is the end of cricket? Why are we making a mortal, greater than the game itself? Why are we asking for West Indies to cross that 313 runs deficit as they bat tomorrow? Why were there clamours for a declaration to see Sachin bat again? Why is a 2nd wicket in our innings in test matches met with loudest cheers even before the batsman dismissed walks off - it is grossly insulting to that player! Why have our scopes become so myopic, that we lose sight of the goal while rejoicing for its hero? 

We visit temples and worship our Gods; we share our joys and our sorrows by presenting our homes and our lives as a token of worship during poojas on the occasion of numerous festivals. Why are we failing to worship them in our hearts - through our actions and through our deeds? We worship Sachin but we fail to worship his honesty when we cheat in our exams, our offices and our schools; We worship Sachin but we fail to attempt that great perseverance as we quit on our dreams. We worship Sachin but we fail to acknowledge the importance of the greater objective - victory of our teams - in our lives and on the cricket pitch. We worship Sachin but we insult him again when we fail to demonstrate that dedication. Idols are meant to be symbolic of a cause, of an Idea, of a common dream - Prateek! Our kind of worship of the Master provides a peek as to why we repeatedly fail to build a nation - we are too busy worshiping only Idols rather than implementing the Ideals they have stood for and represented. We are too busy showcasing to the world how different we are when we make a grandiose spectacle of our Idol-worship not realizing that this is where our enemies catch us by our balls - this is our greatest weakness! In our obsession with heroes, we insult their legacies when we don't carry forth the baton they pass - because true heroes and champions live for a cause, fight for a cause and need be, die for that cause. We desert the cause, when we lose our heroes!

Ours as a nation of Idol worshipers, is impervious to insensitive rape comments from our politicians, our heads and our leaders - hell, we can't even help a woman raped stand back on her feet because of social stigma - we will hold placards and protests yet we will not make our daughters, our sisters evolve to fighters - who Durga Maata !

Here there is Lord Ganesh we dance to the tunes off during Ganpati festivals who stood against his own father in a perceived defence of his mother's dignity yet there is no stand against our own for wrong deeds and contrary so, we promote Nepotism and vote those very elements into power.

We want Raam Mandirs and burn effigies of Ravana as his greatest victory, but we fail to find time for our loved ones in the quest for money and power; we can't stand our own grandparents? 

We proudly threatened the Vajpayee Government to release terrorists in exchange for our passengers aboard the hijacked Kandahar flight; we will prefer short term gains in terms of the lives of our dears ones even if that means letting go murderers so they can return to kill ten-fold in Mumbai 26/11 episodes. Where was our idolizing of Shri Krishna?

My fellow countrymen, where are we heading? I don't think we are intellectually and emotionally redundant to hand our enemies the means of our destruction, are we? The last time our entire nation went crazy over an individual and accorded him a demi-God status, we paid in kind for a fractured sub-continent; a weak foreign policy of loving our enemies, a politics of appeasement and a broken man with a hyper-inflated ego which made him believe he was superior to the nation.

A Cause is never greater than an individual no matter who that individual is; because a cause is built on the tears, toil, sweat and blood of countless sacrifices from countless men and women. I for one, am really glad that Tendlya is leaving - he will be spared of this hypocrisy; hopefully, only cricket lovers will watch the game and 'just-SRT' lovers will cease to - I hope that this marks a time in our history when we as a nation, stop confining ourselves to Idols and start worshiping Ideals too along with our Idols.

Jai Hind!