Kobe — Won over my hatred by insane work ethic!

Mr D had just selected me to play basketball 🏀. No idea why he did what he did; I was this plumpy short kid, standing among the first few in the queue of young adults made in the ascending order of heights. For the next few years, the ball and the sound that made were the only things I knew. Kobe had just started playing NBA and was already a rock star in the first few years of his NBA sojourn

My basketball days were at its peak. I had recently been selected to represent my district. Our school team had already won the District School meet. Naturally, the NBA was all I wanted. And Kobe was this young kid, playing like a dream for the LA Lakers.

The year 2000! I loved to bits one guy called Reggie Miller. He played for my favourite Indiana pacers (Yes, you guessed it right!  They were my favourites coz their name had 'India in it). The NBA finals had Kobe pitted against Reggie. Kobe went berserk. I remember clearly getting up early mornings to watch Kobe run amok over Reggie and his pacers. My team lost. I cried!  

College happened.  Reggie retired and new sporting heroes in Vince Carter and Allen Iverson came into our lives. Kobe was at his job, still winning most valuable player awards.  Life took different turns. Basketball was relegated to newspaper articles. Kobe was often seen there as well.  When the sport was turning younger and faster, Kobe was still keeping pace with the young.

Why does he still play? Can't he just retire?  I mean, he was still making LA Lakers win and I hated it. He was competing with LeBron and his ilk and I hated him more for that. But Kobe played on. Generations came and went. Never did Kobe go anywhere. 

Then I read this story.  As narrated by R, once the physical conditioning coach for the US Olympic basketball team. And I became a fanboy. For who cannot be a fan of the irrepressible Kobe? 

It was 4.15 am when Kobe had called R and asked him to come to the gym to help him with his conditioning. R, stepped out in twenty minutes to see Kobe drenched with sweat already. Then they worked out together for a good two and a half hours and R went back to his bed tired. He had to come back to the courts at 11.00am after all. When R managed to drag himself out to the courts at 11.00 am, Kobe was there practising some sharpshooting all by himself.  R asked Kobe when did he come back to the courts! I wanted to do 800 shots and so stayed on said Kobe nonchalantly. 

Kobe, the first superstar I hated for he defeated my hero, became the rock star I loved for that insane work ethic. To stay at the top for 20 years in an incredibly tough sport like the basketball is beyond imagination. 

RIP Kobe. Too young to go, kobe!  Too young. With you, a part of my childhood died as well.   

Ambedkar, titanic and discrimination

As I stood on that stairs and looked at his name written on that wall, I could feel goosebumps; For many years ago on those same stairs had stood the man who built the foundations of my country. Nearly 130 years after his birth he is politically and socially relevant than ever before. 

Dr B R Amedkar, the man who led the drafting committee of the constitution, was born into the Mahar(Dalit) community. A few days ago, a relative of mine made a comment, those are 'Dalits' they behave like that! Ambedkar was born nearly 130 years ago when casteism was rampant. He was made to sit outside the classroom since his sitting inside would have made the class impure. The teachers did not touch his books, for maintaining purity. Oh, he was never allowed to touch the glass of water! A peon would pour water from a height for him to drink; What if the peon is absent? Ambedkar would go without water that day. 

Ah, the greatness of our culture and society we often boast about. Just that it got impure by that young kid going to school. 

From being the outcast, to go on to study at Columbia University and then at the LSE, and finally to lead the drafting committee of our constitution, leading men from the very own community which ostracised him, that man is a genius.

"No, we don't discriminate on the basis of caste! We just marry within the same caste, just in case". "We are against the caste system. We just don't marry Dalits, we don't mind marrying anybody else". People from that community always fight! People from this community deserves being treated like that. "Ah, she belongs to my caste, It is easier for me to connect with her". We have all been there and done these. All of us! Every one of us.

The very same discrimination Ambedkar fought against!

From Ambedkar's memorial, I came to the Titanic Museum. The greatest ever construction mankind had ever made. The gorgeous Titanic. You all know the story, don't you? Titanic hit the iceberg and Titanic sank. Two hours and forty minutes are all it had after hitting the iceberg. Two hours and forty minutes of saving lives. At the end of it, more than 60% of first-class passengers were saved while less than 25% of third class passengers were saved. 

Mankind! Cruel Mankind! Can you never stop discriminating even when lives are at stake?

If not casteism then classism, we are discriminatory! Yet, when we were born, naked and crying, the personhood of mankind/womankind is the same across! Nobody was created to be inferior. Nobody is inferior.

As the Titanic sank, two men brought in their dogs to the lifeboats! While others around them sank to their afterlife hoping and praying that they are not discriminated at least there!

The privileged few!

I was angry! They never knew how difficult my life is, I told myself. "I have worked bloody hard and most of it all alone, to have come to this level", I patted myself on the back. It cannot have been easy, for nobody in my family understood what it meant to be a 'non-medico' in the family. Nobody studied engineering. None quit engineering to enter the social sector. Almost none went abroad to study. And surely nobody works with the government.

Classic sulking upper-class privilege! Ah, the privileged home-bred dog complaining about not getting food on time. That was me!

Suddenly I remembered that word, 'Privilege'! Google defines it as 'having special rights, advantages or immunities. So I stopped my filthy monologue and started to write my privileges down; simply put, certain advantages I have over others, which I have not done anything to deserve.

Born to doctor parents have to be a privilege, ain't it? And surely having both of them alive and well till my twenties was too. Going to a rich private school seethes of privilege for only 25% of my country could afford them. To study in a top engineering college and to do a masters in what is considered among the world's best institutes without a student loan was a privilege too! That meant someone else had to work hard so that I study.

Did I deserve the car we had? The bed where my head rested? the bicycle I drove to the school complaining that I do not have a motorbike? The food on the table, four times a day? Well, I ate four times a day, all through school and college! Of course, I did well in my first interview to have got through to my first job but wasn't my language skills a privilege? For far better experts in the subject could not get through the interview for want of better language skills.

I often boast of quitting the high profile job to work in a remote part of the country! But how can I boast of it as my achievement for my dad helped me get the job! I did clear the initial stages of the civil service exams, for I had a room in the heartland of the capital, somebody who could teach the subject, someone to cook and someone to wash my clothes. There were surely people who had to work and cook and wash and also prepare for the exams.

The privilege of the economy, society, religion, culture, family, and of course the locality!

I can go on and on and on, on this! I will stop here. Just realising I have had special rights, advantages and immunities all along with my life, for which I had to be thankful. And surely be cognizant of the privileges.

And if you are reading this, having the internet in your personal computer, recognize your privileges and be thankful for them!