Talk about being fanatics and Indians beat the entire world. Fanatic about what becomes a matter of secondary importance. Indians have always believed in displaying their affections for the public heroes. Be it cricketers, or movie stars, or some festivals our fanaticism knows no boundaries, and often becomes comparable to a mass hysteria.
The recent shows like Indian Idol and ongoing T20 cricket world cup to name a few have been driving the entire nation to a state of frenzy. Gluing to the television sets becomes a paradigm, ubiquitous across the length and breadth of the country. And mind you, gender and age permit no bars here. The Indian idol grand finale was showered with around seven crores of votes via sms over a fortnight. If this was less, people also thronged the websites to get glimpses of their favorites. Newspapers, TVs and hoardings were abundant with the posters and news about these young lots raring to make a mark on the nation of one billion and above. It takes no time for us to idolize "the rising star".
Running parallel to this is the cricket match. One match is sufficient to rush the adrenaline high in our mind and body. We have all the reasons to completely charge ourselves. As though some high voltage thriller plot would be getting unveiled. To get a taste of it just look around your self. People have rushed office a li'l early in the hope that they cud leave early as well and experience the ecstasy of watching their pets play and cheer our country to victory.
Here's a small excerpt from some e-mails in circulation in an IT firm as on 24th September 2007.
(C Savvy is a the Functional Manager for the project
Rahul is the functional lead
Starry is the functional lead
Jazzy is a team member)
All these mails were sent, by keeping the other three people in CC. So practically everyone knew who is penning down which excuse to escape from the boredom of office to the much exciting world of cricket.
Rahul,
I am out to attend a meeting from 5 PM onwards. I expect you people to stay back and put long hours of committed effort today..
No excuses please!
Warm Regards,
C. Savvy
Dear C. Savvy,
I'm expecting a sudden relapse of my food poisoning at around 5 today. Kindly grant me permission to go home early before you leave for "THE MEETING"
Thank You
Regards,
Jazzy
Hi All,
Since all you guys would be in meeting or at hospital (food poisoning or something else), I would stay back in office to work.
Please don't try and contact me as I would be busy. In order to have undisturbed work I would be in invisible mode.
Regards,
Starry
And this is the final one, breaking all levels of courtesy and patience…
Dear C Savvy,
I have to watch India Pakistan T20 Final today…
Will you allow me to go home early today or not???
Regards,
Rahul
The last one was in much bigger fonts; however it has been toned down for this blog purpose.
This is definitely a drop in the ocean. We Indians can go miles to follow such fanaticisms. One might wonder, what happens to millions to people who don't have access to media channels for following the suit of hysteria? Well, well my friend our fanaticism is not benign. It's malignant!
It's as contagious as common cold. It spread like a sneeze. When you get plagued with fanaticism, some visible symptoms would be laziness@work and hyper activity@home.
To prevent this hysteria from seeping deep in to the culture of the organizations, many IT companies also installed some TV sets in its office to allow its "fanatics" employees to enjoy their fever and also contribute to the company's bottom-line.
Such is our zest and fervor, that it becomes only too easy for these "heroes" to assume the status of god, at least demigods!! While these demigods get to bask in such ephemeral glory and mint money, we go gaga over their charm and adeptness. Time changes at the flip of the coin and these demigods are reduced to the stars of yore times. This however does not dilute our admiration, because a new star gets born and our madness follows that star incessantly…till it has fire!!
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