A CRICKETING CASE IN POINT

A CRICKETING CASE IN POINT

To my mind Dravid's declaration at Multan, 2004 with Tendulkar stranded on 194* was a seminal moment in Indian cricket when cricket was underscored once and for all as a team game in which individuals in conjunction performed and not an individual's game that contributed to the team's output. This was a departure from the way we in India generally view things with personality ruling polity. That Tendulkar fumed at being denied the double hundred after plodding on for ages to near his failed double ton is a pointer to the fact that all this hoopla about he being essentially a team man was not fully true. Personal interests do come in in a team sport, given the fundamental selfish nature of the surface man, although it must never be so as a matter of team policy. That Tendulkar questioned his skipper about the veracity of his decision to declare is an affront to the unquestionable status of the skipper in so far as decision-making is concerned. To argue about the point later in his autobiography to prove his point that Dravid was wrong to declare when he did has shown Tendulkar in rather poor light. Just like his decision to get a waiver on custom's duty for his Ferrari car, a waiver that celebrities like him are legitimately eligible for, showed him as much less magnanimous than is made out to be in the eulogising media. Finally, to carry on for a couple more years and struggle to get 100 international hundreds even when advancing age and poor form deserved a timely retirement to allow fresher flowers to bloom will raise perennial questions in the minds of the intelligent and the analytical as to how far Indian cricket deserves to be reduced to individual cricket. When ex-cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar, our foremost cricket analyst of the day, praised Dravid's timely declaration as a seminal point in Indian cricket, Tendulkar fell foul of it and snapped back at him that he didn't appreciate his unwarranted comment, especially when he was not even in the know-how of dressing room discussions regarding the prospective declaration. Another pointer to the real Sachin, the selfish gene working alright.

In 1975 in the inaugural Prudential World Cup in the opening match versus hosts England India were set to chase 335 to win in 60 overs. Reckoning it an impossible task legendary opener Sunil Gavaskar chose to plod his way to a despicable 36* in 60 overs, repeatedly flouting messages sent by skipper Venkatraghavan to accelerate. Gavaskar has ever since forwarded the lame excuse that somehow he could not manage to score despite earnest efforts to do so which is hardly believable. He could simply have hit his way out to escape the ordeal in that case where his batting destroyed the team's hopes of a worthy chase of the set target. But no, he went for batting practice instead in a World Cup match which to this day remains reasonably inexplicable otherwise. Sheer disgrace despite his stupendous status as India's greatest ever batsman to my reckoning!

Now compare these episodes with the selfless batting of Sandeep Patil, Gundappa Vishwanath, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and the unforgettable Virender Sehwag who have always placed team above self even as they naturally achieved personal laurels.

One of the prime reasons for this selfish assertion of great players from time to time is the unnecessary hyper-adulation they receive from an idolatrous fan-base spanning the entire country that make demigods out of mere performing mortals. That Tendulkar should have been adorned earliest in our history with the Bharat Ratna even before many great freedom fighters have been recognised thus is the seal on my argument that we are a nation of blind worshippers of personalities and are as yet far from appreciating the worth of principles that make a people great. This sort of adulation of the individual to the exclusion of understanding as to what is rationally the right course to adopt in driving human affairs has been the bane of our nation-building. Even nationalism raised to demigod status invariably proves counterproductive for the welfare of the nation. Let us learn to think instead of blindly following the few. Democracy deems it to the imperative. 

Written by Sugata Bose

P.S. A disclaimer. This essay is not meant to run down the seminal career contributions of two legendary players, Tendulkar and Gavaskar, but to highlight certain deficiencies in our mental make-up towards approaching what is essentially a team game. The collective above the individual must be the motto not only in cricket but in life as well. That is the effective way forward for the nation and for the world.  Unselfishness is divine. Man-made demigods must remember this and the masses must stop slavishly eulogising their supposed heroes whatever stature they may be of. This is the Vedantic way of human redemption which sadly is lacking in our polity.

CONGRATULATIONS KOHLI BUT WE COULD HAVE BEEN DONE IN TODAY BY PLACING PERSON ABOVE TEAM

CONGRATULATIONS KOHLI BUT WE COULD HAVE BEEN DONE IN TODAY BY PLACING PERSON ABOVE TEAM

India wasted 4-5 overs to accommodate cramped Kohli's WR 50th ODI century. At least 30 runs more could have been scored. Lucky we won through Shami's stellar performance. Could have proved costly. It's a team game. Individual records shouldn't come in the way of team's performance. Shreyas Aiyer's blistering century and Rahul's cameo added valuable runs but we missed 30 more easily. If Shami had not removed Williamson, who knows whether it would have been curtains here itself or not? Like Gill's retiring hurt on 79, Kohli should have been brought into the pavillion at 85 when he got his attack of cramps and Shreyas, Rahul, Surya and Jadeja should have been allowed to rip apart the New Zealand attack and pile up an unreachable score. Destiny deemed otherwise but it was a tactical mistake brought about by crowd expectation, team spirit calling for special allowance for the great man on the verge of world record and the tradition of allowing the performing individual to supercede the immediate requirement of the team. But it was a dangerous mistake and could have cost us the Cup. Not to be repeated.

P.S. Remember the ruffled feathers of Tendulkar when Dravid declared with the master stranded on 194* after he had crawled long towards a failed double hundred in Pakistan. The skipper Dravid had to make up for his apparent lapse with the maestro. That much for team spirit and the hankering for individual records!

Written by Sugata Bose

Photo: courtesy, Wikipedia 

REVOLUTIONARIES

Rash Behari Bose, master revolutionary, master of disguise, the man who dared the British throughout but eluded their grasp ever to bring down their citadel of colonial power eventually. Spanning five decades and two World Wars, Bose operated from within and without India like none other to destabilise the Raj and bring about its downfall by setting up a Pan-Asia revolutionary structure in the India Independence League and later the Indian National Army. A forgotten hero in India now like so many others, Rash Behari Bose remains in historical terms one of the few effective architects of India's freedom. Honoured in Japan and remembered reverentially in the decades following the Second World War, Bose has not been recognised in his motherland for his seminal services to her freedom as India continues to vainly push the false narrative of Gandhian non-violent achievement of the same.

P.S. The master of disguise, Rash Behari Bose, who staged a dramatic escape to Japan in the guise of P.N. Tagore after engineering the bombing of Viceroy Lord Hardinge.

The dangerous duo---Rash Behari Bose and Subhas Chandra Bose---whose armed struggle across decades eventually helped free India.

The fire behind the revolutionary activity of early Bengal, the inspiration of the 'Agni Yug'.

The mantradrashta Rishi of Indian nationalism, author of 'Ananda Math' and giver of the svadesh mantra 'Vande Mataram'.

The redoubtable revolutionary Jatindranath Mukherjee, alias Bagha Jatin, who had received his initial inspiration into brahmacharya from Swami Vivekananda as also the first impetus to revolutionary activity.

Hemchandra Ghosh who had found fire in his form by touching the feet of the 'cyclonic monk' Swami Vivekananda and had been blessed and baptised into fire by the latter in Dhaka, 1901.

The founder of the revolutionary movement for freedom whose fiery pamphlets struck fear into the hearts of the British. His revolutionary activity, though, suddenly changed course post a spiritual illumination in incarceration at Alipore Jail in 1908. Thereafter, he blossomed into the prophet of the Sanatan Dharma with his ascetic activities and authorship having future consequences of inestimable value.

What can be said of him but that he was 'Condensed India', India incarnate in flesh and form to rescue her from her depraved condition and set her up as the future spiritual preceptor of the world? He was the power behind the freedom fighters. Swamiji is truly the maker of modern India.

The father of the Indian Renaissance. His manifold creative genius ushered the Modern Age in India. Rammohan Roy was the first modern Indian who synthesised in his being all that was best in Oriental and Occidental culture to emerge as the universal man. His seminal contributions in diverse fields laid the foundation for the emergence of modern India. Other than Swami Vivekananda none else would stand in favourable comparison with the Rajah who was literally a titan at a time when suppressed India had been dwarfed in comparison with sovereign Europe.

Bhupendranath Datta, revolutionary-scholar, communist leader, youngest brother of Swami Vivekananda, a man of erudition and character who has largely been forgotten by a sleeping polity. He met Lenin in Soviet Russia in 1921 who exhorted him to organise the peasants for prospective mass movement for the coming revolution.

Mother Jagadishwari, popularly known as Bhavatarini, who spearheaded the renaissance of India by incarnating in person as Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, apparent Her spiritual son but in effect Herself incarnated in flesh and form. The revolution of ideas began at Dakshineshwar and spread, permeating the consciousness of the Bengal revolutionaries. Vivekananda in especial carried forth the flame of revolution from the fiery feet of Kali and ignited the mind of sleeping India, then prostrate at the feet of the coloniser.

The fire and the force of revolution that Kali the Mother generated in the hearts and minds of revolutionary Bengal.

Written by Sugata Bose 

MESSIAH OF THE MASSES, SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD

MESSIAH OF THE MASSES, SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD

Gandhiji was the saviour of India. No wonder Netaji called him 'Father of the nation'. 'M' (Mahendranath Gupta, the chroncler of 'Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita') had said that Thakur's (Sri Ramakrishna's) spirit was working through Mahatmaji. Rabindranath was highly reverent towards Mahatmaji and wrote a lengthy essay on him in his collection of essays called 'Chaaritra Puja'. So were reverent Romain Rolland, Albert Einstein and Bernard Shaw, not to mention the Indian greats such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, Chakravarty Rajagopalachari, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and the whole galaxy of Congress leaders. Even communist leaders like Hiren Mukerjee were in awe of him. So did Rash Behari Bose hold Gandhiji in high regard as a saintly figure in the political world, although one who had lost relevance as a politician by the end of the fourth decade of the twentieth century. And what to speak of Netaji? He respected Gandhiji for his abiding love of India and for his discipline and dedication to the cause of India's political resurrection. But Netaji was highly critical of Gandhiji's utopian idealism and passive politics which to his mind would never bring India freedom. Personally, though, Netaji had the highest regard for Gandhiji who he considered to be the greatest living Indian at the time.

Now, what do I mean by 'saviour'? Was Gandhi a Christ-like figure who came as messiah to the masses? In some respects he indeed was so and delivered sleeping India unto the awakened state of mass movement against British imperialism. In some aspects he failed. In other aspects he succeeded. And that is bound to happen in the incongruous political world with all its cross-currents and contradictions, all its conflicting forces trying to resolve out things. Order out of chaos is not easily come by but to attempt it and set in motion a civilised movement for a nation's resurrection from its benighted state, and that too by non-injurious means in a world that had sunk into frenzied violence, is no mean achievement. That this was the achievement of Gandhiji itself places him on a peerless pedestal historically in world politics and duly accords him such epithets as 'Mahatma', 'Father of the nation', 'Messiah of the masses' and 'Saviour of India and the world'. When Arnold Toynbee mentioned Ashoka, Ramakrishna and Gandhi as being the potential saviours of our sinking world if we heeded their message and rectified our ways and means, he was stating nothing but the truth, for we are indeed headed towards destruction, the catastrophic annihilation of our species if we are to tread the reverse way.

This write-up is in response to the endless rant one encounters online that vilifies Gandhiji as British stooge and a betrayer of India's cause for freedom. It is not a serious work of scholarship for sure but is a reminder to all such ill-informed vilifiers of the Mahatma's status in contemporary minds, some of them belonging to the seers and savants of the Age.

Written by Sugata Bose

THE RITUAL REALITY

THE RITUAL REALITY

Arrogance is not possible to root out by routine ritualism. Introspection necessary to realise that self-righteousness at all costs is hardly justifiable. Spirituality is not repetition of rituals but a conscious effort to check those tendencies of the mind that spring from the limitations of body-consciousness. Identification with the limited ego-centric personality and persistence in it can hardly be deemed spiritual. From it stems all divisive functions which cause humanity pain and impede individual and collective progress. Meditation and the humble practice of purity are better than vain self-indulgence consequent on the repetition of ritualistic acts of worship that merely go to intensify one's vital energy without sublimating the lower impulses animating man. The crust holds the surface man, the depth eluding his grasp as he travels from error to error causing himself hurt and pain to others. Would it were otherwise!

Written by Sugata Bose

THE GREAT COMPROMISE

THE GREAT COMPROMISE

There have been many great men born in our country in modern times dating the last two centuries but just a handful or even less that dared to speak the bare truth about proselytising Islam and Christianity without watering down their content for the purpose of political expediency. Even greatness has its limits it seems. Or can such selectively compromising ones be deemed truly great? In that case the casket of greatness will be largely emptied and this adored oligarchy will have given way to a deeper democracy where ideas will be examined and evaluated on their merit, and personalities venerated as superhuman reduced to their due human stature albeit of an exalted state wherever achievement having duly passed critical scrutiny merits such accolade. But to return to the initial observation, few, alas, few among the greats have dared to speak the whole truth about Islam and Christianity. 

Written by Sugata Bose

ভাববার বিষয় ... ২

ভাববার বিষয় ... ২

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একটা ঢেউ এখানে উঠেছে | আর একটা যাতে না ওঠে তারই সাধনা | অথচ, অনন্ত চিৎসমুদ্রে ঢেউ উঠেই চলেছে নিরন্তর, অবিশ্রাম | তায় আবার বাগাড়ম্বর, ঊর্মীসম অহংস্ফীতি, কর্মের নিদারুণ উন্মত্ততা ! অন্ধ মনের অন্তিম প্রয়াস হতে জাতঃ ভাবের নিত্য বিগ্রহ---এই মূর্তিপূজার হাত থেকে কে বাঁচাবে ? কোথা কৈবল্য ? জন্ম হতে জন্মান্তরে, কর্ম হতে কর্মান্তরে, ভাব হতে ভাবান্তরে চলেছে ছুটে প্রকাশের প্রহসন | নিস্তার নেই কোনোখানে | ঢেউ উঠছে, নামছে, উঠছে, নামছে নিরন্তর | অজ্ঞানের অন্ধকারে, আলোকের আবরণে, মায়ার মিথ্যাচারে আন্দোলিত বিশ্বচরাচর | মুক্তি কোথায় ?

রচয়িতা: সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)