Where are we heading?

The other day when with a friend, we were discussing how a day does not pass without the news being full of thefts, vandalisms, and violence. Is it that people have started noticing and reporting these incidences more recently or is it that there is an increase of such cases recently.

India has had a reasonably tough past with instances of violence strewn throughout history. Quite a lot has been between kingdoms, territories, regions and were more of a military nature. Then there has been religious violences, a remnant of the religious strife cultivated in India by the erstwhile tormentors - the Late British Empire. History does not in itself justify the present.

Though India have been growing at a healthy rate of around 9% per annum, around 50% of the population is still illiterate. Illiteracy alone does not result in degradation of value system. Illiteracy does not mean an inability to communicate - it only restricts the mediums of communications to personal and audio-visual. Illiteracy would mean an absence of formal education and thereby limit a persons analytical skills due to the lack of a proper knowledge foundation on which to build their skills upon. Even if illiterate a rational person should be able to think up and identify moral values and stick to them. India with its strong religious backgrounds has had a good value system but for a few stone-age traditions like sati, child marriage etc. So historic factors does not give us a valid reason for the present trend. Formal education as is being imparted today does not give proper importance to building the moral and ethical aspects of human personality. The major stress is to create job-worthy individuals.

It is important to have job-worthy individuals but it is equally important to have build strong value system in the individuals. Students who come out of the system are trained to work but are not trained to think. Most of the violent/criminal/anti-social incidences that have happened in our system could have been prevented if their perpetrators had
a) a good value system
b) a thinking mind and
c) thought about their actions and their implications.

Also most of the continuing social issues like poverty, hunger, unemployment can be tackled if more thinking individuals enter into the system to fight against these issues. The erosion of the value system is for a big part due to the want of importance given in imparting it to the next generation. India has a very young population and it is growing at a very fast pace. If we don't put in enough effort the coming generations would not have any clue about the legacy we have inherited but are failing to pass it on.

Cricket at times of Stress

A lot of words have been said and written about the ability of the English Cricket team reappearing in the Indian Soil for a 2 test series. Some of the words have been written by cynics who have questioned the motive of the ECB to let the tour go ahead and the power of the so called omnipotent BCCI. Other words have heaped praise on the courage of the English cricket team in going back to India at times of terrorist impact and uncertainities.

The fact is that any game of sport that is played more under the eyes of the security than fanatic crowds is always a stress. But, with the modern day coverage of the game and TV audiences running into millions across the world watching the game, what needs to be acknowledged is that the winner is Cricket. As Dhoni claimed, the least we could offer to India and the world at this time of great loss is a good game of cricket - win or loss be secondary.

I sincerely pray that the next 2 test matches provide wholesome and full 10 days of enthralling cricket to enable the world to come to grips with the fact that Sport and Sportsmen will overcome all that the terrorist will throw at us and prove that the game and spirit can never be broken.

Kudos to the organisers, Players and the spirit of survival and the ability to mke the world smile at such times of uncertainity.