Hockey different, It is not so much India’s failure to make it to the Olympics that is alarming but the fact that, barring a few exceptions, most people have lost serious interest in the fate of Indian hockey.
Indians overall just do not care.
“Whoa whoa” you say. “Hold on. Lack of passion for hockey? Speak for yourself. No-one has lost interest in hockey, everybody is behind the national team.” However this kind of “support” for hockey is frequently in the same vein as our support for “art cinema” or “classical literature” —we know it’s good for us and we know we should and we do claim we do but ultimately it’s not something that we would wake up at 3 am in the night for.
Advertisers know this. So do administrators. And yet the charade of “the national game” and the supposed emotional connect continues.
Here’s a test. Ask the man in the street if he cares for hockey. The odds are he will say “Chak De India, of course”. Ask him to name 5 players who played in 2007 Asian Cup (which we won) and you will see him stuttering. Ask him for all the cricketers who played in the 2007 cricket World Cup (where we were eliminated first round) and he will even spell their names backwards for you.
Cricket. The big evil python that has supposedly sucked out all the resources from hockey and other sports. Any discussion about the declining standards of Indian hockey inevitably brings up the issue of cricket and India’s obsession with it to the exclusion of everything else. Ask any hockey player or administrator and cricket somehow is always the villain — all those cricket stars get all the money and the attention and we get nothing.Ask any hockey player or administrator and cricket somehow is always the villain — all those cricket stars get all the money and the attention and we get nothing.
I personally do not see it that way. Cricket, just like hockey, started in the same state of abject penury.Except that hockey has remained that way whereas cricket has taken off, on its own strength. Not through government fiat, not through a 49.5% quota or a 15% subsidy but by its ability to create a market for itself.
Was cricket’s ascension largely a matter of luck? Blaming cricket for hockey is like saying “we failed because you succeeded”. Thats just lame.Again the analogy with NFL and NBA is spot on. Basically market rejected hockey because it did not perform. When cricket did nor perform, the same market asked it questions. It made cricket accountable.Even when market asked questions to hockey it did not respond. And soon market lost interest in hockey.
In fact hockey has got more Government support than any other sport. It milked the government cow for more than two decades.
Bottom line is – the market and the system will reject non-performace. Period.There was of course mismanagement, politics and corruption but even cricket has hardly been free from that. The only thing is that in recent years with cricket continuously being under media scrutiny, administrators have been forced to keep their misdemeanors under some amount of control whereas the powers that be in hockey have had a free run with arbitrary chops and changes, blatant politicking, heavy handedness and of course corruption.
The only long-term solution to India’s problems in hockey has to come from the market. In other words—us. Do we really, deep down, still care for hockey? Are a significant number of us going to tune in to a hockey game and watch it even if there is a Twenty20 IPL brouhaha on? Okay forget that. Are a significant number of us going to tune in to a hockey game even when there is nothing on in any of the channels?
If the honest answer to this is no, well then the spirit of Indian hockey may already have moved on from its body.
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Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Selfless LOVE - YES
But still I believe in true love and I do think that if you look hard enough, you'll find that it really does exist in the real world. What i believe is that what television and movies poject is a wrong image of what 'love' really is. It's not about eyelocks, patch ups and break ups. It's about the extent that you can go to for your partner. Giving up your life for him/her doesn't necessarily mean that you are a 'true lover,' but living on FOR that person is true love.
It isn't just about how happy you can make each other, but how much you both are there for one another when times get tough.
Love isn't just smiley faces, it's the closest thing to reality. It's hard, but if you're in love, those hard times are nothing because the person you love is there for you.
Again, true love is hard to find, but it is there. You just have to look hard and choose wisely. For me Love is just not a Feeling or emotion...Its Passion and Face of Life...Every one falls in love coz Love is in Nature of Humans..Love remains with us, either its our first day on earth or last...Love always remain in heart...
Well, I found people really cheap who become Devdas for lost love, who discover a new dark world of Sadness around them on being lonely and who simply kills themselves...(No Offense to Others)...But I feel if they do things like that, they are proving themselves a DUMBO LOVER...And they never respected their Love...
I think moving forward and living every second of ur life and keeping memories of ur lover will be the strongest thing...
I think moving forward and living every second of ur life and keeping memories of ur lover will be the strongest thing...
About "Tu Nahin to aur Sahi"...I think its surely not part of Love... they simply are big LOSERS....Lolz...
I also like DDLJ...but such things happens in Movies only!!!
But Ofcourse!!!!
Love exists.... Love is the only thing that keeps us all going...
I strongly believe "Someone is made for any person"... and its in our hands to find him/her.. If we open our heart n search we'll find that person..."Accepting the person who loves you, is the best way to be happy"... It gives a great feeling to know that some one cares for you.. Some one loves you... !! But i would not say that "Love happens only once in life".... Pyaar bohath baar ho saktha hai... Par woh pehla pyaar koi nahi bhoolega... Love is a feeling, which calms your heart, makes you feel secured.. Makes you feel there is some one out there who loves you crazily for what you are...
I would say, True love is hard to find... But once you find, grab it....
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