Last week Petrol and Diesel scored centuries in India, even as the Indian Cricket team barely managed one together at their opening T20 World Cup fixture in Dubai against state actors from across the border! It was a loss without loss! Have to find someone to blame – Maybe the late Ranjitsinjhi?
The pre-match hype was true to type but turned out to be tripe. The team management wanted a finisher who could not finish an over instead of a bowler who could play carroms on a cricket field – Cricket aficionados will understand this subtlety. But the Mentor, Coach, and the Captain were unfazed by the comprehensive defeat, and went about meeting and greeting their opponents, much to the consternation of nationals watching the desert extravaganza! A contrast that was highlighted by a disappointed media…. It was something they could write about without pain. Or was there pain there too?
The Mainstream media simply rewrote their copies late in the night and put it on page 11 instead of page 1. Digital News Media had no choice – their sports section was on the home page, and they did what they could to confine the news to it.
The leaders who are quick to praise and draw praise to themselves for every hard-earned win by an Indian achiever had no words of consolation, either by tweet or meet, or an arm around the shoulders. But that is to be expected. Success has many fathers, Failure finds only its mother by its side.
One could do little else but swipe and swipe hard across the phone in dismay and move on to other things. But everywhere, every chat, every social media platform carried the weight of the massive defeat through memes and mimes! One Meme had it that this is how employees work during notice periods, given that for both the coach and the captain are their final T20 assignment! But according to Media, and former cricketers et al, India is still the favorites to win the World Cup. This is in contrast to the way they played in their first match…
The media silence seemed imposed like it would have been had India lost a war with its neighbour, one they were trying to win in India’s northernmost state which is no longer a state! But it is in a good state, because of the state of play since august 5th 2019 according to claims by those in charge as reported widely in the Media. We must go by those claims. Counterclaims are unheard of! Except at the Bar… counter. It’s just ice that can provide justice! And it’s available over the counter! But the counter is not of granite and can crumble anytime.
At the academy, anti-narcotics agents are taught (besides seizures on tip-offs) to follow the money trail (basically, study supply-side economics) to find the ultimate beneficiaries of any narcotic delivery stack. That is easier said than done. But somebody did. And now there is another contrast from the previous media-generated one of 6 gms vs 3000 kg: 6 gms vs how many gms does Rs: 38 lakhs in cash weigh? No idea, never seen so much let alone weigh it! One conspiracy theory leads to another. There are marks for the process not for the answer. That is the correct method of paper evaluation, yes? no matter how long it is. But QED? When will that be? much after the exam and re-exam are over I guess…
Even as a political party is trying to galvanize and empower women to legislate by providing them a chance to contest the election and do some justice to their numbers in the census, news came of the abominable rape of a 6-year-old in Delhi. Can one prevent the other? Or will men feel threatened more than they already are, but not show it in ways that can be addressed? Here Reframing may help, not Renaming!
It was a week of contrasts that made for good reading and entertainment and of course, as always, food for thought. News stories such as the ones I’ve quoted above have several sources. Each source will provide the same news from a different angle, and provide a different meaning to each sub-event. Each time he reads, the reader will alter his perspective or have it altered for him – without his conscious effort. That is the power of the Media, Social, asocial or just the plain old-fashioned newspaper. That’s good because then he can’t make up his mind one way or another! Its called an open mind! It’s the ones who make up their mind and then close it that is more of a concern. Are they the tragedy? Or will they be the cause of a tragedy?
That these contrasts are like the waves of the sea, and will never cease, is expected, and yet we try to prevent them, don’t we? What is life without death? Or light without darkness? Or salt without sugar? Or Police without Robbers, or Leaders without followers? Or Yin without Yang? Yin, Chinese for “female” or “moon,” represents darkness, femininity, passivity, and the earth. Yang (“sun” or “male”) represents light, masculinity, activity, and the heavens… The balance of yin and yang was seen to influence health and order within an individual, society, and the entire universe.
It’s the way the universe was built. It’s always hanging in the balance, unlike the T20 match the other day. And all we do is try to alter this balance the way we see fit! We put all our efforts into making it a good place in our book, by ‘”helping” / “ensuring” people think as we do, behave as we expect them to, homogenize them in a way that suits us? It’s called the power of one – oneness, sorry. That’s why we have laws and jails and norms and democracy (you know the principle on which it functions) so on and so forth. They say it prevents anarchy. What do you say?
But no matter our best efforts in this direction, the opposite tends to happen, even if just a wee bit, just to balance it. Order is restored when those laws are broken, and the like. There is no way that the sea will not kiss the shore, no matter how many times it rebuffs it. It never gives up. One is solid, the other liquid – they meet, they drift apart, and return to the kiss they started earlier. One cannot do without the other. Yin and Yang!
It’s the balance in the way the universe functions that gives us our roles here on earth else what would we do? We couldn’t have played cops and robbers or a world cup. Contrast often gets our attention, because it is dramatic; like a black dot on a spotless white floor.
Drama can cause a variety of experiences such as awe, fear, and sometimes shock and awe as the former American President said! That’s what we all thrive on. If there are no contrasts, how do you distinguish good from evil, win from loss? How will gamblers make money? Coping with contrasts in your life or others’ lives as reported by the media ends up in either engaging in the experience, avoiding it, or overcompensating for it. For eg.: Let’s say it’s raining heavily continuously – You may play in the rain, avoid it altogether or blame others for the flooding, if not the rain!
But all drama or a complete void is something to be avoided – again the balance is important! You need to have an allrounder in the team – one that can bat and bowl else you may be in for a heavy defeat! A Win Without Loss!
Until next week!
Disclaimer
This Article is written in a lighter vein. It hopes to bring a smile to your face, and you must not ascribe motives to its contents. There is no connection to events and characters in real life and if perchance you find a connect with any such real-life event or character, rest assured it’s purely coincidental.
Images by Parveender Lamba & OpenClipart-Vectors
