The Monkey Business

I do not follow cricket at all now a days. But I was all ears as soon as I started seeing the reports about this ongoing controversy. Though wanted to always know what Bhajji might have said which insulted the Australian "racially"...as so far we "Indians" were the ones at receiving end....but none of the Indian websites I visit were talking about the exact "verbal exchanges" that took place between Bhajji and Symonds.

So this morning doing a Google check satisfies my query. It also seemed now it has snowballed into a bigger story where the team is thinking of calling off the trip. That will indeed be a big story! and bigger stories are going to follow....I foresee my interest in cricket suddenly coming back..though for an unfortunate event!

Coming back to this "Monkey" thing...I was not aware till today that it is considered a racial slur (thanks this episode for enhancing my IQ). Next question whats the origin of this and how it is related..another google...and find calling a person of color by its primate name....OK. A quick photo search of Symond confirms my curious mind..after all not all AU players are white.. else would have taken few more googling to justify the monkey thing..or would it be "snow leopard/Albino instead of Monkey....I dont know)

I understand now...and can immdeiately relate to that Macaca (another version of Monkey!) incident causing the ultimate defeat of that Virginian Senator...so it is serious enough....but isnt that ironic that Harbhajan himself is not a white guy....so I fail to see how even the case becomes stronger against Bhajji. I agree he should not have used that word (if he has ..at all) Will it be big deal if one afro-american calls another the word "N..." (have seen that in movies/dramas...looks like it is well accepted ..with a touch of humor of course) but for certainly, things are different when a White calls the same to an AfroAmerican. Going by the same logic I am not able to understand why it is a big issue.... if two persons of similar skin color call each other by name..err Monkey I mean! To me calling "kutta" or "shuar" would have been more insulting..Maybe the other team doesnt know that. After all have we ever heard DharamPraJee saying "Bandar kay aulad.." or "Bandar..Kameeno mai tumhey Zinda nahee chhorunga". In contrary our Monkey is a Hero in our mythology. Symond and company need some cultural background info of ours for sure !!!

To me (who is not following intricacies and cricket politics since past few years) it is nothing but a distraction by AU team to get Harbhajan banned probably..or tactics by Aussies to simply save their faces and their accusing team mates..to stand up for what they claimed at the beginning. Unfortunately Indians could not as there were only two players in ground at that time. The whole thing went out of control..even what AU team might have thought of initially. This whole issue also becomes more severe as the entire second testmatch was marred by bad and critical umpiring decisions against Indians which cost them dearly (Had India won...I think it would not have been this serious).

Harbhajan's act (once again..if he said so)indeed was against the spirit and should be punishable but only after a decent , fair and unbiased hearing....but the way the entire episode was handled as well as biased opinion right from day 1....is NOT digestible. BCCI (already being called spineless in many forums) and Mr Pawar now have to go by the mood of "Powerful Janta" back home....who are already burning effigies etc. Never forget many elections are looming...and national prestige ...no political party can downplay at this time. Moreover BCCI has the power (the money power..as ICC salary slips come from BCCI pockets) and they should PROTEST vehemently about this whole affair and the way it was handled.

Unfortunately it is going to set a wrong trend...but then again other than "Lage Raho Munnabhai"
Gandhigiri does not work anymore ! Does it?


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Disclaimer: The above post does not anyway show my views/ideas on Racism or Indian/Australian cricket team. I am extremely against it whoever be the victim or aggressor. The above post is just my quick thought on the events going on in cricket arena currently. I feel bad that the final outcome of it will be the IND: 1, AUS:1, CRICKET: 0