Scamsters ruled the roost, and their misdeeds grew more boldly outrageous, delighting crooks and disheartening the common Indian citizen. With TV, radio and cable channels a dime-a-dozen screaming for attention, the best way to grab wayward eyeballs (lacking grey matter to back them up?) was to highlight the heights of unscrupulousness. The Adarsh idealists, the conmen allegedly out to make fast mega crores from the CWG, every crook and their nearest and dearest grabbed centrestage until some media darlings stole the show by getting themselves entangled in dubious tapes. Days before the opening of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, the nation’s prestige tottered with the collapse of a vital footbridge. Accommodation for athletes from 71 countries was reportedly not ready, and UK inspectors turned up their noses saying the facilities were “unfit for human habitation”. The preparations for India's largest ever sporting event raised doubts of mismanagement of crores of rupees for years.
Cheering the hearts of every patriotic Indian, 2010 proved that the fine art and science of hera-pheri isn’t restricted to our countrymen. The world over, basic human nature oozed through superficial veneers of principles and honesty, and people everywhere cheated and lied just like us. In the world of sports, Tiger Woods’ alleged extra-marital shenanigans, cricket match fixing, use of banned performance-enhancing drugs and other unsporting concerns overshadowed the ideals of fair play and sportsmanship. The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks kicked up a ruckus by releasing a whopping avalanche of secret documents with details of incidents of corruption, friendly fire, civilian casualties and deaths relating to the war in Afghanistan. Among the biggest leaks in US military history, its aftershocks rocked even the White House.
Read my complete essay published in Sunday Herald
6 comments:
Hi Monideepa,
Read your article in Deccan today. A good wrapup. I wish they didn't have to turn your article to the fifth page. And since they don't have the style of giving the byline in the begnnning, someone looking for your name may tend to miss the story.
Improprities -- at various levels in various forms -- have been the highlights of 2010, like you said. I think corruption has been brought to centre stage after a long time. It's sort of nibbling away at our system with dangerous consequences.
As we always do at any turning, we have to pause and hope for the best. The big assurance is that in many fields there have been improvements, ablbeit in small proportions. But that should be our beacon.
Thanks for dropping by and sharing your thoughts, Pradeep. Followed your accounts of recent travels through the North East and learnt a great deal.
Improprieties is too mild a term though, for all the mess in the world. I feel the day is soon coming when not being corrupt and blatantly anti social will be considered an oddity.
As you say, there have been improvements. As long as we're still alive, there's hope. Besdies, there's always Facebook :P
Hi, Monideepa. Read the entire article in Deccan Herald. Great "review" of the year about to go by :)
Thanks for dropping by, HSS.Have a great 2011
am so glad i discovered this blog today
Thanks for dropping by, Nadi Ma'am. Look forward to your feedback. I will read your stories soon.
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