Insensitive Premier League

Life is full of ironies and we are a bundle of contradictions. Consider these: school children pooled in resources to the extent of Rs 15 lakhs for the drought hit villages. And we have franchisees, iconic players, politicians hell bent on ‘show-must-go-on’ policy. So it is IPL all the way. Can there be a greater irony?

Equally ironical is the fact that it takes a disaster to occur to wake us up to reality. Till second successive monsoon failure, we were not even willing to admit there was drought. The question then is, should we have waited this long? Does it not bite our conscience that we turned a nelson eye to such grave situation of farmers?

Just picture the drought-hit areas and the IPL extravaganza. If this is not an irony of immeasurable proportion, one wonders what else is!

Wrinkled skin, creased forehead, eyes staring fixedly at ‘nothing’ – sight and the plight of such a human body have now become so common in those drought-hit places. And we have a gang of intellectuals, big businessmen, politicians playing the blame game even as the hapless people wait for a drop of water! What an outlandish irony?

No longer do we see tears in the eyes of the drought-hit farmers for they have ‘dried’ up. The sight of people walking miles to fetch a pail of water is gut wrenching. Yet we hear the war cry: why pick IPL alone? Get to the root of the problem. Will shifting a few matches solve their problem? Ask the government and the civic administration. What about golf courses being watered? Questions plenty. But no easy answers.

There is no doubt that we should address the root cause of the problem. But then if it takes eternity to get to the root cause, find solutions, implement and hope that they produce the desired results, the short term measure of shifting a few matches is definitely a better option. ‘In the long run, we would all be dead’, so said J M Keynes!

IPL - a hugely popular commercial extravaganza – is an irreversible phenomenon. Ever since its launch in 2008, it has grabbed the headlines, caught the imagination of the young and old alike, and has become an instant success with ever increasing fan-following and media coverage. It has proved to be a god-send for the fringe cricketers who otherwise would never have made it to the top in the traditional set up.

Mired in controversies, backed by business magnates and celebrities, IPL is a bundle of ironies with its ‘in-your-face’ show of money power.

While media makes a spectacle of tears running down the faces of players and the spectators every time a match is won or lost, the tears of drought-hit farmers go unnoticed. The contrast is hard to miss even to the most Insensitive Privileged Lot!