Insensitive Premier League


Insensitive Premier League

 

The rich and the super-rich, the famous and the flamboyant flock together yet again to flaunt their wealth in what has now become an irreversible phenomenon called Indian Premier League.

With the spectators ‘charmed and charged’ by cheer-girls, it is neither Indian, nor premier, nor in a league of its own as its flood-lit extravaganza blinds the flood-hit, its excellent water management keeps the grass green leaving the villages high and dry, its Mexican waves mock the waves of frustration of the needy and the aspirations of the millions of jobless youth.

The precision with which it is organized, the attention it gets, the planning and the myriad strategies to make it a grand show of entertainment year after year, the ninth IPL is all set to go ‘hammer and tongs’.

With an army of anchors and the commentators teaming up to describe the event with  a maze of statistics, pre and post match analysis by a team which is  a heady mix of ex-cricketers shaking a leg or two with semi-clad beauties, repetitive replays, they manage to create a world that is surreal, leaving the young and the impressionable dazed and amazed.

What if the dates clash with the board exams? What if the students can’t take their eyes off the TV set? What if it is after all a mere 50 day affair? It guarantees maximum entertainment. Also guaranteed is the surrogate mother carrying all its ill-effects much to the disappointment of the discerning.

Much as you love to hate it, you are the lone ranger against a raging matador that is advancing with all its vigor and might backed by a cocktail of corporate, film stars and the superrich. For them it is just business. What if there are millions dying of starvation? What if there are millions of jobless youths? What if people have to walk miles in search of water? The list is endless. Yet they don’t bite their conscience because there is too much at stake to even give them a passing thought.

While the Funnys of this world fight these damning contradictions, trying to figure out a way,  the Punnys come up with a set of wish-list:

·         Each franchisee to adopt at least 5 most backward villages for overall development – school, healthcare, roads, electricity, drinking water and the like with a total commitment to improve their living standards in a time-bound manner

·         The spin-offs such a pro-active measure will create opportunities besides generating goodwill and social harmony

·         With the event being held every year and assuming that each franchisee would continue its philanthropy, imagine the cumulative effect of it all over a period of time!

 If staging IPL is their business (ir)responsibility, living up to the wish-list is their ‘social responsibility’. While one section of people gleefully goes under the hammer, the other cries out in agony as their aspirations are ‘nailed and hammered’. Biting contradictions! If this fails to bite our conscience, F&Ps wonder what else does?

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