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Killer Instinct ?

5th July 1999      S.R.Pandri Nath @giasbg01.vsnl.net.in

Hi fellow netizens,

I found the following article very interesting. Hope u guys like it too.

Pandrinath

>
>   What is the most important difference between India and Pakistan?
>   
>   Before you try and answer this question, let me tell you why I am
>   asking it. For the past few weeks I have been reading long, well
>   meaning columns in several newspapers and magazines telling us that it
>   is time to give up all our other interests and focus on the war in
>   Kargil. Journalist after journalist writes that it is time we grew up
>   as a nation and stopped worrying about cricket, silly Hindi movies and
>   infantile politics and focussed, instead, on the terrible things
>   happening on our borders and ensured that the intruders who have
>   crossed the LoC are swiftly kicked out.
>   
>   Good thought that. But how much sense does it make?
>   
>   To go back to my original question, most people (at least those who
>   watch cricket, which means almost 90 per cent of India) have been
>   repeatedly saying that the real difference between India and Pakistan
>   lies in the fact that Pakistan has the killer instinct, we do not. I
>   agree with them up to this point. But what I find so disgustingly
>   demeaning is the fact that this argument is drawn to the illogical
>   conclusion that if we are to beat Pakistan we too must acquire this
>   killer instinct. Nothing is further from the truth.
>   
>   India's greatest strength lies in its sagacity, its wisdom, its
>   ingenuity to think through a problem and resolve it. It is no dumb
>   nation that needs to emulate a half-wit army dictatorship next door
>   that masquerades as a democracy. That is why even when we play
>   cricket, we win some games, we lose some but we always play it our
>   way, on our terms. Even in the World Cup, where we failed to make it
>   to the semis, we played some rather good cricket and, what is
>   particularly amusing, we defeated the so-called killer instinct team,
>   whose big-mouthed captain had declared it as a mere practice match.
>   Yet even after hammering the Pakistani team out of shape, not once did
>   Azharuddin rub Akram's face in the dirt for that silly comment about a
>   practice match. Not once did any of our players even refer to it. That
>   is the grace with which India plays. That is the grace with which we
>   win and occasionally lose matches.
>   
>   Thank God, we do not have the killer instinct. We do not need it. We
>   do not want it. We want the winning edge. We want excellence on the
>   field. Style. Sportsmanship. We know the difference between a game and
>   real life. We do not see, we do not want to see every meeting as a
>   point of confrontation, every sport as war, every dispute as an
>   opportunity to be exploited for political gain. That is what makes
>   India, India. And, yes, that is what makes Pakistan what it is today.
>   An apology for a modern democracy. A pathetic example of a free
>   nation. An economy that would put Uganda to shame.
>   
>   Meanwhile, India has grown from strength to strength. Even as the
>   fight goes on in Kargil, our stock market has not just remained
>   stable, it has, in fact, improved. Our economy is in good health. We
>   may have lost the World Cup but our cricketers have come back safely.
>   No secret service is leaking to the press which discotheques they went
>   to in London, which casinos they visited. No one is burning down their
>   homes, threatening their families. No one is instituting an inquiry to
>   crucify them. It was just a game that we lost. No more; no less. Yes,
>   we could have done better but that does not mean we must lose sleep
>   over it. We have moved on to other things.
>   
>   That is what makes India different. We can cope with the occasional
>   failure. We can lose the odd match and yet win the ultimate war
>   because we have the capacity, the intelligence, the wisdom to know
>   what is important, what is not. We are not driven by some mad,
>   obsessive desire to win that will burn us to cinders when we fail. You
>   can call it fatalistic if you want. I call it wise. We do not play on
>   other people's terms. We play on our own. Sometimes we win; sometimes
>   we lose. Neither victory nor defeat can destroy our self image.
>   
>   The killer instinct is the instinct of the moron. It drives you to a
>   posture where you cannot face failure. It is either victory or vulgar
>   self-flagellation. If you lose a cricket match (even though you may
>   have played well enough to reach the finals) you must face the
>   lynching mob. If you cannot extract false confessions from the
>   prisoners you have captured during a skirmish, then you must torture
>   them, maim them, kill them by gouging out their eyes and chopping off
>   their testicles. That is the killer instinct that drives our
>   neighbours because they have nothing else to drive them. For they are
>   a stupid, barbaric nation posturing as if they are our equal.
>   
>   Pakistan can never be our equal simply because we are not a nation
>   that lives only for victory. We live for the sheer pleasure of living,
>   playing, winning and occasionally losing. We are a holistic
>   civilisation. We do not have to win at any cost. We are comfortable in
>   defeat as long as we know we have played well.
>   
>   We enjoy cricket. We like to win. But that is not the be all and end
>   all of our lives. We do not lynch our cricketers; we adore them. We do
>   not jail our editors; we respect them. We are not stupid enough to
>   believe that every game must be won and if it is not, we must say "off
>   with their heads" like the Red Queen did in Wonderland. We would like
>   to win the war in Kargil but that does not mean we will cross the LoC
>   and violate every understanding that has taken years to hammer out
>   between our nations. We are angry with Pakistan but that does not mean
>   we want to shut every door of negotiation, barricade every window and
>   eat, sleep, drink the hemlock of hate and speak, think, discuss only
>   war, war, war.
>   
>   Biwi No 1 is a hit right in the midst of all this. Our television
>   channels have launched a delightful range of new music, drama, chat
>   shows for the coming millennium. Our theatres are doing rip-roaring
>   business. In fact, better business than they did last year. The FIIs
>   are still investing in good Indian paper and the Sensex has defied all
>   the bad news from the border and keeps rising steadily. Pundits
>   predict that it could well touch 5000 before the millennium. Yes, we
>   talk about the war at the border, we worry about it but it does not
>   consume our lives, it does not take over our entire mindshare and
>   leave the nation quavering. That is, I believe, the best rejoinder we
>   can give a nation like Pakistan which is so consumed by its hate. Who
>   are so desperate to defeat us on the cricket field and in the
>   frontiers that they have no time left for anything else.
>   
>   We are not desperate. That is what makes us an infinitely stronger
>   nation, a richer culture, a wiser people. For we know how to deal with
>   both victory and defeat. We are no mindless Schwarzenegger swaggering
>   through the minefields of hate. We know the price of every conflict.
>   That is why, despite Kargil, we have carried on with our lives as we
>   have always done. We are not obsessed with war. Our lives are filled
>   with many other joys, many other pleasures, many other hopes and we
>   are not going to give them up just to please a few belligerent
>   generals in the Pakistani army.
>   
>   That is why even as Pakistan boasts of its Islamic roots, it is a
>   Muslim in India who has been just adjudged as the world's richest
>   Indian. He did not inherit his wealth like the Tatas or the Birlas. He
>   did not make it overseas like the Hindujas or the Mittals. Azim Premji
>   created Wipro sitting in Bangalore and working with a small team of
>   world class professionals. He did it not by any killer instinct but by
>   sheer hard work, an obsession for quality. He is an example for all of
>   us. He represents the magic of Indian enterprise, the ingenuity of our
>   people, the sheer diligence that builds nations. Nothing in the world
>   can destroy that spirit. Not war. Nor defeat at Lord's.
>   
>   That is why I protest every time someone complains that we lack the
>   killer instinct. That is why I protest when they say Azharuddin must
>   be booted out because he does not show the kind of aggressive
>   leadership Wasim Akram does. That is why it angers me when people say
>   that we must "learn" from the Pakistanis how to win. There is nothing
>   we need to learn from these idiots. A decrepit economy; a politics
>   based on hate; a sham democracy run by the military; a stupid,
>   belligerent nation hurtling towards its own destruction is no role
>   model for India. We are a nation way, way ahead.
>   
>   Pritish Nandy
>  
>
>--
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