There has been a storm on some blogs about how much importance should Indians give to Bharat-Pakistan matches. People who live in an alternate dimension where all economic assumptions are actually true and the value of anything is the tangible utility that can be extracted from it fail to understand the feelings that rise in the collective Indian bosom when Tendlya hits a four, and the difference when Tendlya hits a Paki bowler for a four. If we were playing Australia, which is a far better team and beating who would make us more respected in the world cricket arena, most people would care less.

It's interesting, how the human mind works. Mike Tyson might enjoy beating the crap out of people in the ring [i mean, he does that for a living, doesn't he?], but if Lennox Lewis's brother called his mama names and slapped his younger brother a couple of times and Lennox stood by and laughed, he is going to enjoy beating the crap out of him more. It's that simple.

It's like The Godfather. It's not personal, it's business. Or in this case, dispensation of justice. We had to beat Pakistan sometime on our way to collecting the World Cup, so it might as well be annihilation. Let Tendlya be the messenger of the nuclear innuendo. People cheer when Anwar whacks Zaheer and when Tendlya whacks Akhtar because they are doing what Musharraf and Atal cannot do. People look at it as vengeance wreaked for every Pakistani or Indian life lost at the border. If the relatives of the people who have lost their lives in Kargil feel avenged by Tendulkar thrashing Akhtar like a rag doll, so be it. What's your problem? You haven't lost anyone to a terrorist car bomb, have you? So it might be hard for you to comprehend.

People who have lost dear ones in Kashmir, they see in every Pakistani the person who contributed to that bullet that took the life of their son, father or brother, and they are right in thinking so. I mulled over why educated wealthy individuals decided to crash planes into the WTC, and I can't say I blame Palestinians for treating suicide bombers like heroes. I don't see any reason why Pakistanis should hate India, but for helping out Bangladeshis when Pakistan used the "All Muslims are equal, but some are more equal than others" on them. I mean, a good Muslim would be all for upholding the equality in Islam, even if an army of mostly kafirs was doing the upholding. In opposition to that, as citizens of a democratic country, Pakistanis are personally responsible for every Indian soldier that is killed by a terrorist sponsored by Pakistan.

And this includes the 11 men who could do nothing to stop Tendulkar yesterday.

In summation, a Bharat-Pakistan match is not a match, it's more. And this is not just cricket, you will see this rush of pleasure when India beats Pakistan in any contest. And I am sure the same holds true for Pakis when Pakistan beats India.

I love imitating Atal, so here goes:

Aur kisi ke liye yuddha bhumi ho na ho, parantu samasta bharatiya janagano ke liye yah ek aisi vijay ka pratik hai, jisase vah antarrashtriya dabav ke karan vanchit hain. ham naitik rup se aise bhavo ka samarthan nahi karte, aur hamari kamana hai ki yah sangh akhil bharatiyon ka shir abhiman se uncha karega.

Afterthought
If people can move from irrational outrage to civilised hatred, why can't people move from this panzoid emotion of irrational tolerance to the same? It's not like tolerance is the best solution we have here, is it? At least I was brought up thinking that as long as dharma is being upheld, establishment of peace and brotherhood is a foregone conclusion. But then, there are miscreants disturbing the peace, and there is an entire nation behind them, and this cannot stand. There are some things that just cannot be tolerated, the abortion of babies for example, but that makes for another interesting discussion.