That's Human Spirit....

The IPL magic in recent days has crossed the boundaries of countries/ geographies, creed, colour, age, wealth, gender and whatever else we can think of. Being supporters of RCB, I have seen the crowd cheer whole heartedly for the little master. Wanting MI to win, I have witnessed the crowd getting disappointed when Dhoni walks back to the dug-out. The way it is going, I strongly feel that the day will come when colour means nothing more than the skin tone, when birth places have less weight-age and when religion is seen just as a medium to speak one's soul. Cricket in India, has the potential to bring about this change.

The excitement it generates, the audience it attracts and the revenue it generates is on one side. On the other side is the spirit of kinship it brings, the unity amidst cultural diversities it develops and goodwill it promotes which are of utmost importance.

I had been to watch a fully loaded and extremely hyped match at Bangalore on Saturday 16th April. Stands filled up at the Chinnaswamy stadium for the most awaited RCB vs. MI IPL match. Match was to start at 4PM and 40,000 people packed in to the stadium much before the time giving a damn to the sweltering heat. As we entered the stadium at 12PM, it was already tough to find a good place to sit. Such is the enthusiasm Indians have for their favourite sport; Cricket.

When the match got delayed, we unlike all other 40000 audience at Chinnaswamy stadium had any clue that our lives was in trouble. As we were engrossed in watching our loved cricketers practicing at nets, 2 bombs went off near the gates seriously injuring 20 men. Later 2 more live bombs were found and defused. But none of us sitting there had any clue of whatever was happening behind. Had these bombs been placed inside the stands, it would have ripped thousands of us to death. Or had the news spread, panic would have resulted in stampede which could have killed many. Whether it was a terror plot or a political game to scuttle the matches away from Bangalore, it could have easily claimed thousands of lives.

The whole thing happened when people were having fun watching cricket. That was the moment when the world was united in joy. And this is what terrorists are waging war on. Theirs is a war against joy, a crusade against union, a war against humanity.

Now, let’s talk about the most important questions. Did they gain what they wanted? Was their plot successful? What did they gain out of all this?

People inside the stadium got to know about the blasts through SMS and phone calls. In spite of that, many didn’t leave the stadium. Not that we do not care for our lives. But the love for cricket, trust in the system that thorough sanitation would have been done in the stadium before the game, and sensibility to not to heed to such rumours and create havoc, refrained the crowd from rushing out of the stadium abandoning the match.

The message was loud and clear. Such elements can succeed in shattering sense of security, creating havoc, evoking panic and fear across the city. Several schools, offices, shopping malls and movie theatres can be closed down. They can even be successful in causing loss of lives and property. But, they cannot kill the human spirit.

Terrorist attacks can fail despite the number of dead, number of injured and also the amount of property lost. Terrorist attacks simply fail in spite of all this simply because of human spirit. And once terrorism ceases to be effective, terrorism will cease.

We have now learnt not to show unnecessary fear; we have learnt not to get provoked unnecessarily. Most importantly we now refuse to change our lifestyle and have developed an attitude of “Come what may, go the hell back to work next morning”.

Just after the match, when we rode back home the life in city was almost normal. Traffic jams were common. For the first time ever, I wasn’t miffed by these traffic jams. Oddly enough, I felt happy that there were traffic jams in Bangalore that day. They signalled the spirit of city. In general the human spirit: to stand up against an act of terror.

In almost every city in the world struck by terrorist attacks, be it Mumbai or New York, normalcy has been restored sooner than expected. This does not mean that those who survived don’t care for those who died. We definitely do....

Restoring normalcy just means standing up against terrorism. It speaks about the human spirit to go on.