For the last 4 decades, I have visited India preoccupied with an agenda of some sort - usually, visits to relatives! That always means less time to simply look around. What little time was left, was spent at least partly on the tourist sites - one can't come to India and avoid seeing the Taj or visiting Kovalam Beach!
So, visiting India after retirement, and that for nearly six weeks, I have had a chance to re-connect with old friends and to explore and ask questions.
One interesting thing I notice is: how completely stupified the country is by the game of cricket. One cannot go anywhere without news of the score being thrust in your eye or ear. One can't even have a decent meal in the house of someone you haven't seen in 40 years without the TV being turned on simply to see what happened during the daytime!
Cricket too is a type of Bollywood.
Encouraging an obsession with cricket seems to me one of multiple ways in which the country's elite distracts the people of the country from engaging with the real issues of the country.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment