Spineless Gods and the nightmare of billions

I revisited an old blog post of mine with some addendum.

“Sporting events are not only a mere medium of entertainment but also a great source of inspiration. The Liverpool FC manager Jurgen Klopp summed up the value of football (and sports) in life perfectly in The Players' Tribune article:

Football is the only thing more inspiring than the cinema. You wake up in the morning, and the magic was all real. You actually knocked down Drago. It really happened.

So, it is quite appropriate and obvious to worship those who make these dreams come true as 'Gods'. But there has been a striking difference between the so-called misappropriated Gods of India and that of other European and American countries.

The cult following of these sporting Gods is massive and often they have been more influential than many politicians or other leaders. Didier Drogba stopped a civil war from happening. Javier Zanetti went out of his way to support the Zapatistas of Mexico. There are many instances like these where a sporting hero rose to the occasion and became one true God.

But sadly, Indians in recent years have lacked many of them.

We all remember it took only one tweet of Rihanna for the whole Bollywood and Cricketing world to line up with their template 'amicable' tweets to show genuine concern for India's integrity. And right now, India is undergoing a massive humanitarian crisis with a shortage of hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, and medicines but those icons of billions have decided to seal their lips.

Now, I am not saying the sporting achievements of these so-called Gods shouldn't be celebrated. But, if one can't act from being at the vantage position of utter privilege, then what is the point? Many of these sporting Gods have been labelled as 'Sanghi', 'Fascist', and whatnot! I firmly believe that isn't the case either. They would have done the same if there was someone else in the government.

After everything is said and done, there is one burning question that is bugging me still.

Is our society a reflection of the sporting Gods or the sporting Gods are a reflection of the society?”

This was from my old blog post. Looking at the current comments from PT Usha on protesting wrestlers, my beliefs have been reinforced about the so-called Indian Cricketers and other sporting superheroes. (In case you had missed the story: Wrestlers’ protest against strongman leader Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh)

In general, human beings work well with incentives. We work hard at our jobs because there is this incentive of getting a raise or at least get paid. Different political parties cater to different strata of society to maximise their chances of winning an election. But there are certain works or areas in life when there is no incentive as such. Like taking care of the elderly, helping or standing with the unprivileged. The first type of work might be done by most we know. Most of us might be sympathetic to the elderly people that we may have at our houses. But the 2nd one is even more challenging.

These pursuits are noble and selfless. And often they will bring more scrutiny and harm than good, especially if you are famous and you’re challenging the state or the government. And for these cases, most of our icons just turn a blind eye. So far a few icons have extended their support and spoken about the issue. But they are not significant in number.

While growing up, I used to worship Sachin Tendulkar as ‘The God’. But now, I even like Gary Neville more than him.