Hi All,
Let’s be honest...we are primarily a one sport nation. We virtually eat, sleep and breathe cricket. [And many other un mentionable actions...:)] It seems that if you are born Indian then your default sport is cricket. Your sports icon is Tendulkar and sports entertainment means watching cricket in channels dedicated for cricket!
So where did all the other sports go? Just offhand any one of us can probably count 5 other sports which are so popular globally but are barely included even in small talk in India. So why is cricket so disproportionately popular? Who is to blame for this anomaly? And more importantly how can we rectify this lopsidedness?
As for apportioning blame, I guess it has to be shared among various sections. The administrators of various sports who haven’t really been aggressive in promoting their respective sports, the viewers who simply refuse to even temporarily shift loyalties to other sports and even to some extent history! The British Raj left a long lasting impact on us in the form of cricket.
Before proceeding further, I wish to reiterate that I am making a conscious effort to follow different sports. These days’ hockey and tennis are regulars in my sporting menu. I am also anxiously waiting for the world cup in SA later this year. [Now I won’t have hypocrite tags thrown at me...:)] Regarding the question of making other sports popular, I was thinking we must incentivise patronage. So prizes, money and possible fame will lead our masses to new sports. Government support for non cricketing sports will also help.
I am sure you must have heard about 2 new teams which are going to be added to IPL 4. What might(actually must) have shocked you more is the staggering amount of money the winning groups are willing to pay to own these teams. The IPL mopped up more than 3000 Crore Rupees for the 2 newly auctioned teams. [Wow...how many poor kids can that amount of money educate/feed/clothe....anyways let’s leave that discussion for another day...I wanted to focus primarily on sports in this post...]
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Rampant consumerism
Accumulated agony from my weekly visits to a mall located close to my residence led me to write this post. My roomy and I usually like to shop for our weekly necessities during the weekend at the mall. Every visit of ours just reiterates one point. Consumerism is increasing and this trend is here to stay.
Consumerism drives the economy, say the economists, as it’s the demand for goods and services which actually keeps the economy running. It creates jobs, generates wealth and provides robustness to the economy. All well and good. But it can get to your nerves when it becomes obscene or ostentatious. After all, too much of anything can never be a good thing.
It’s as if necessity has been sacked and greed has taken total control. Nowadays it doesn’t seem to matter it a certain commodity is actually required or not. Let’s just get it seems to be the attitude. As long as it’s affordable and within one’s reach, it’s deemed to be required. [What happened to our ability to discern between what is a necessity and what is not?]
This trend is especially discomforting in a nation like ours where millions go without a square meal a day. It’s just not fair that some have so much of everything while many don’t even have little of some thing. Nothing ticks me off these days like a rich (often FAT) kid spoilt for choice and deciding to get whatever falls within his eye range! I don’t wish to pursue further down this track as my original intention was to highlight the trend of consumerism and the rich poor divide in our country.
My roomy feels the same about this trend but sometimes dismisses these thoughts as ramblings from a poor bloke who just can’t afford to be part of the ‘consumerist gang’. I am confused though, am I reading too much into this trend or is it actually that bad.
Consumerism drives the economy, say the economists, as it’s the demand for goods and services which actually keeps the economy running. It creates jobs, generates wealth and provides robustness to the economy. All well and good. But it can get to your nerves when it becomes obscene or ostentatious. After all, too much of anything can never be a good thing.
It’s as if necessity has been sacked and greed has taken total control. Nowadays it doesn’t seem to matter it a certain commodity is actually required or not. Let’s just get it seems to be the attitude. As long as it’s affordable and within one’s reach, it’s deemed to be required. [What happened to our ability to discern between what is a necessity and what is not?]
This trend is especially discomforting in a nation like ours where millions go without a square meal a day. It’s just not fair that some have so much of everything while many don’t even have little of some thing. Nothing ticks me off these days like a rich (often FAT) kid spoilt for choice and deciding to get whatever falls within his eye range! I don’t wish to pursue further down this track as my original intention was to highlight the trend of consumerism and the rich poor divide in our country.
My roomy feels the same about this trend but sometimes dismisses these thoughts as ramblings from a poor bloke who just can’t afford to be part of the ‘consumerist gang’. I am confused though, am I reading too much into this trend or is it actually that bad.
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