Tissue Papers Wrapped In Designer-Packets, Only To Be Used-And-Thrown
We used our wrestlers to feed into our nationalistic pride; now we are on the verge of throwing away the good memories.
Whether ‘Premier’, ‘Kleenex’, or other brands of tissue papers, it is one of the most easy-to-discard, ‘use-and-throw’ materials in our lives. At a restaurant table, the cleaning staff barely touches a used one, but pushes it into the waste bin or basin. Even if it is used just to wipe our tears, a used ‘tissue’ is untouchable.
However, when we ask for one - “Can I have a tissue, please” - in the midst of a drawing room conversation or at a restaurant we do so in an almost sophisticated manner, as if it is most desirable.
In India, a nation obsessed with cricket (of late also with tennis and badminton; but we’ve forgotten hockey(!)), we quickly acknowledge sporting achievements of non-cricket disciplines. An Abhinav Bindra, a Saina Nehwal or a Sania Mirza (despite other lenses through which many see her) is shown much love when they win on the world platform.
When a Bajrang Punia, a Sakshi Malik or the Phogats aid the playing of our National Anthem in Tokyo, Rio or London, we drape them with love and affection.
India shows much love for its celebrities wielding the cricket bat, the ‘red cherry’, or white ball, or those with racquets that cost more than most can afford. They are the darlings of international and national brands, that are mostly unnecessary for our lives, at times even dangerous in the long term (aerated beverages, energy drinks etc.).
Governments want them to ‘work with them’ to project causes and popularise public participation in schemes. The media wants them to give ‘bites’ or interviews to shore up viewership. The local library, club, jewellery shop or even a restaurant crave their presence for the opening or a special program - that will bring them eyeballs, footfalls and windfall gains.
When a few internationally acclaimed wrestlers wrestle with the state seeking justice for the worst of crimes they’ve had to face, we have chosen to treat them as “used tissue papers”!
We find it acceptable to have them removed from our collective sight - it was painful that NDTV, a name I grew up watching and learning from, decided to cut to an IPL program celebrating CSK’s victory just as the wrestlers descended at Haridwar on the evening of May 30th.
We have no qualms in allowing people to paint their pain as “political” and “part of politics”.
(Some question the timing of their protest that coincided with the inauguration of the new parliament building. If every protest is about using the best possible optics to highlight a grievance, then if these hapless “stars” choose an opportune moment to highlight their unheard-unseen pain, can we call them “political”?).
The saddest moments however in all this is when our wealthy and well acclaimed international “stars” from other sports refuse to lend their apparently “strong and influential” voices for the cause of their less privileged wrestlers. And we do not seem to mind their silence too.
The manager who takes the order on his/her tablet, or the well-dressed waiter who serves us the delicious food, nor the chef who passionately prepared the dish don’t pick up a used tissue paper.
We used our wrestlers to feed into our nationalistic pride (like that fresh tissue paper from the packet, when we wiped our tears of joy). We are now on the verge of throwing the good memories around them, into the Ganga! And we have no problem with that.