The Beat of Passion

      "Kal stage hoga, lights hongi, audience hogi, music hoga aur music ke har beat pe zindagi hogi”, these were the lines said by Rob (Luke Kenny) in the movie “Rock On!!” when on his death bed. Just imagine, a person on his death bed, advised to take complete rest is planning for a rock show the next day. Why?? Because he wants to live life to the fullest, for one last time.

      Living life doesn’t just mean breathing, getting up in the morning, going to work/college, having lunch/dinner, watching TV and then going off to sleep at night. Living life means to live your dreams, to live your passion, to do what you always wanted to do, to do what makes you happy, to do what takes you to sleep late at night and what makes you wake up early in the morning.

      But there are only few, among us, who live such a life. Because this life is not a gift….it’s earned. Some are a bit lucky and earn it with less effort whereas few have to dig it out and work out of their skin to live this life. But most of us don’t do this because we are not that gutsy and think too pragmatically in such cases. More often than not we are unsure about a career in sport/literature/dramatics/photography/music…..we tend to think how long will we have to struggle…..whether life would be stable financially or not…..we come under the influence of society/elders/relatives who play a special role from distancing us from living our dreams. In the process we become part of the society who lives life like a machine and are always concerned with the annual earning, savings, children’s education, family health, insurance, etc. At the end of the day, they are tired/stressed/depressed with several day to day issues and go off to sleep just to wake up and get to back to work the next day.

      On the contrary, the person who’s living his passion may be earning less but is still happy because he’s earning from what he always wanted to earn. Salary is just a part of his life, not his priority. He is living his dream and that’s what providing him joy. Farhan (Madhvan) in 3 Idiots said to his dad “Papa, main 4 paise kam kamaunga…..mere ghar chota hoga….gaadi choti hogi….par Papa main khush rahunga. Aapke liye jo bhi karunga dil se karunga.”

      Sachin Tendulkar once said “I am lucky that I have been able to make my passion my profession.”  Just try and make your passion your profession because only then one can feel the true Beat of Passion.

…. @ Debashish

Rusted

              The journey from nadir to zenith/from being a novice to being a perfectionist/from being a stranger to a celebrity is tough but also pleasing and ends up giving you joy and fame. On the other hand, the journey from apex to bottom is even tougher and ends up giving you endless pain and dejection. Now that’s how life has panned out for so many talented sportsperson from Indian sports fraternity, not because they lost their talent somewhere in the middle but because the limelight was shifted from them as and when they grew old and with commercialization/advent of other sports.

      Indian hockey, which today is down in the pits, was once sabotaging the best of hockey teams all around the globe. After bagging 8 Olympic gold medals and 1 World Cup gold medal Indian hockey was hit by “the law of averages” and hence lost its way since 1982 Asian Games. Fine, we don’t want to give too much importance to our current hockey players/coaches because they are not performing well but what about those men who once travelled in trains, trained with low quality equipments/accessories but played out of their skins to take Indian Hockey to pinnacle of success. Today one would find them spending time with their family in an unfurnished hut in some village….running around to get their sons educated/employed….borrowing money to get their daughters’ married. Isn’t it shame on our sport ministry’s part that someone like Dhyan Chand, the hockey wizard, died of liver cancer in the general ward of AIIMS before a media story helped to have him shifted to a special room.

      Cricket had made its mark on its own merit and deserves all the accolades. But just like cricket, don’t we need to honour and remember the sportsperson who made us proud or are making us proud. Most of us would remember a Sourav Ganguly 183 in Taunton in 1999 world cup but do we still remember Karnam Malleswrari who won a bronze medal in 2000 Olympics for India in weight lifting. No one cares to talk of Makhan Singh, the sprinter who won gold at 1962 Asian Games. Today he has lost his legs in an accident and has received no financial aid from Indian Govt. We remember the Test match India lost to Pakistan in chennai in 1999 when the master scored a brave 136 with back spasms but we don’t talk of P.T.Usha who missed out on an Olympics medal by 1/1000^th of second.

            With due respect to Yuvraj Singh, who along with Zaheer Khan was the premier architect of India’s epochal World Cup win in 2011, has received help and good wishes from all expected & unexpected corners of the world for his cancer treatment but what of Jaspreet Kaur, the Kabaddi player, who hurt her spine during a tackle in 2001. 10 years later she got Rs. 1 lakh cheque from Punjab CM & now gets a pension of Rs. 10,000 per month.

      We must remember Vishwanathan Anand/Gagan Narang/Abhinav Bindra are as much a contributor to Indian Sports as is Sachin Tendulkar. They are all champions in their own fields. It’s just that their sporting arena are different. Cricket is the richest Indian sport today and hence is a household name and has commercialized itself brilliantly.

      Before I wrap it up, I would like to summarize the article with a dialogue from the movie Paan Singh Tomar…. “Jab tak desh ke liye daude….kisi ne nahi poocha. Aaj Baghi(dakait) ban gaye to sab pooch rahe hain...”. This statement highlights the fact that how the medals, fame, name…all get rusted with a passage of time.

Note: This article is inspired from a Tigmanshu Dhulia film “Paan Singh Tomar” and is dedicated to the unsung heroes of Indian Sports Fraternity. 

....@ Debashish