Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Chak de (small town) India

I just did a Blog search for the phrase "Chak de India" and found there were 385 results in the last 24 hours. In other words, since India won the T20 World Cup. So here is the 386th, unless of course, others beat me to the post.

The big news is that India won. But what is interesting to me is how small town India is grabbing center stage. Opportunity is not knocking only on the doors of people in the metros, but also those in towns like Ranchi, Rae Bareilly and Rohtak. So the world is getting more flat.

Here is a list of home towns of the players in the Indian team. The conclusions are for you to draw.

MS Dhoni

Ranchi

Yuvraj Singh

Chandigarh

Ajit Agarkar

Bombay

Gautam Gambhir

Delhi

Harbhajan Singh

Jullundher

Joginder Sharma

Rohtak

Dinesh Karthik

Chennai

Irfan Pathan

Baroda

Yusuf Pathan

Baroda

Piyush Chawla

Aligarh

Virender Sehwag

Nazafgarh

Rohit Sharma

Bombay

Rudra Pratap Singh

Rae Bareilly

S Sreesanth

Kothamangalam

Robin Uthappa

Coorg


A question that has been asked of me is whether this small town person wants to be talked to in a different language. I think that is missing the point. I don't think it is about whether that person wants to be talked to differently. The point is that his world-view is very different and so you cannot connect with him unless you have the same view. Let me illustrate this.

The metro guy has more to lose and therefore plays safe. The small town guy has more to win and so is willing to take the bigger risk. I guess this is just one way in which Bunty's world is different.

At any rate, Bollywood and cricket continues to unite us and make us one country.

Chak de India.

2 comments:

Narendra shenoy said...

It is indeed amazing how this meaningless achievement (if one can call it that) can elevate the mood of the entire country.

I have surreptitiously held the view that India is not so much a nation as an association of warring satrapies but I think I stand corrected. Cricket unites. Bollywood too. Shahrukh khan waved to the crowds at the aforementioned tournament and the select, if slightly inebriated, gathering at our pub went nuts.

Your main point is most interesting, though of course I, to use that quaint American phrase, don't know Jack Shit about these things. I mean your point about small town India grabbing center stage and how their paradigms are a lot different from people in the metros.

I think your guess (that the response that a small town guy would give to a challenging situation would be significantly different from that of a metro person) is a valuable insight.

Spiritualmanager said...

Here another chak de(Small town)India Bunty looking for a break and getting desperate.
www.spiritualmanager.blogspot.com