The Cup's ours... and the Saucer??

Wow!!! What a Week!!! Rather what a fabulous month and a half. And there couldn't have been a better finish to this festival for a country which is united by one religion despite different beliefs. Yes it is the cricket World Cup 2011 that I am talking about. And yours truly is one of those lunatics who fast (read forget everything except one) even on Baisakhi, this one was like an extra extended Navaratri, so one can easily imagine the extent of my excitement during this month and a half, and the magnitude of joy when India won!!! Yes, India finally did manage to get the cup home after a wait of 28 long years.

Here are snippets from a few News items I read recently.

Surprisingly these are related to the World Cup but don't talk about Cricket.

"Just before the Feb 19-April 2 tournament reached the halfway mark, the government issued an alert on Wednesday over a possible attack on the tournament being played in 13 venues across India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, attracting hundreds of thousands of fans"

"Pakistan demands ‘fool-proof’ security at Indian venues" "terrorist attacks planned on cricket World Cup venues" "A suspected terrorist who planned to target a cricket World Cup venue in Sri Lanka has been arrested" "An iron-tight security blanket enveloped the Wankhede Stadium" "Around 100 commandos belonging to Punjab's Special Security Group, trained by Israeli counter-terrorism experts, will also be on duty during the semi-final"

"A 5,000-strong force of officers of specialised security agencies and the Maharashtra police will be stationed at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai for the final of ICC cricket World Cup on Saturday"

So, the entire world understands that had it not been for some of these off the field heroes, or should I say, the always on-field heroes, there might not have been any play, leave aside victory. And then, I read this too. I am sure everyone did including the heroes we worship, and the ones that I just talked about above. "It's raining money for the World Cup-winning Indian cricket team who also have been gifted residential plots, as state governments today vyed with each other to reward the victorius players. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced a Rs 1 crore award for each member of the Indian team."

Well, personally like I mentioned above, I follow cricket like a religion like many others in the country do. I am as big a fan of Sachin and all the others as any body else in the country. In fact I am even happy that the government, and the board and a lot of people with some disposable cash are rewarding these Men in Blue, men who the entire nation looks up to. Or do they? The entire nation, without realising so, looks up to some other heroes too. The matches that did happen were because there were men to avoid all Blues. And yet the effort of these army and police men will soon be forgotten. What will be remembered is that picture with 15 men holding a cup and a banner before them saying Champions. I believe a tag of champions should be given even to those who made it all possible. Don't all of them deserve a medal and some incentives too? Doesn't each one of us expect a pat on our back even when we finish an assignment at work? We are the first ones to point out the slightest of security glitches that happen. Well, we do that for the Men in blue as well. But look how they are being rewarded for having done an almost flawless job on the day that mattered. Was there ever a scope of "almost" for the country's soldiers? One slip and we wouldn't want to imagine the possibilities.

This might sound like a cliched expression coming from someone who doesn't understand how the country works. Well, I do. Though the expression is cliched, Irealise, but I hope all of us realise that we Indians aren't the same anymore. We've come of age. We now possess the ability to question both, the judiciary aand the legislature. Our media can enable us to challenge them. They have done so on rare occasions when the stakes have been high and the reach greater. The stakes couldn't get higher than the World Cup. The reach couldn't get bigger than the entire country from the biggest Who's Who to the aam aadmi. So cricket was all that they were worried about. All other Breaking News did get some mention like advertisements on Doordarshan.

Yes, the stakes can't get higher. Than the country's security itself. And terror strikes irrespectice of where one lies on that scale of the Who's who to the aam junta. It's time the rewards start getting more even. It's time the unsung heroes get appreciation. It's time they realise we value them too. Because they do many more, much more important things way too often.

After all a cup is a cup. But if the table is shaky, well, I wouldn't want to say more.

The title was to seek your attention. I hope what I wrote retains it. And reaches the right people.