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We Indians have had a terrible month of August. If someone could measure the general happiness of a general Indian, it would possibly break the wrong end of the scale. The Happiness Barometer of the mentioned general Indian is majorly governed by three key factors, the performance of the Indian Cricket Team, the performance of the stock markets and the performance of the Indian Government, in that particular order.
The Indian Cricket Team is currently on the tour of England and for the sake of being nice to them, let’s just say they are being humiliated. The first two tests of the four test series showed the glaring difference between a fitter, hungrier and better prepared side and India. Indian supporters typically were not prepared to throw in the towel. We believed this team could still level the series come August. But the bad news kept on coming. Players started getting injured and backups kept boarding flights to England every other day. The scheduled warm up match before the third test too ended in disappointment. We still believed we could pull it off, after all Sehwag and Gambhir were both again fit to play. Well, nothing of that sort has happened and it seems the number one test ranking will be unceremoniously snatched from us.
Let us move on to the more serious topic of global economy. Somehow, global economy seems to be doing worse than Indian Cricket. America has quite unceremoniously lost its AAA rating and stock markets the world over have obliged by replicating the domino effect. Investors the world over have lost Trillions of their hard earned dollars and it is no different in India. Oil prices are shooting up, dollar is getting stronger, gold prices are breaking new highs, every share is breaking their lows and ‘Double Dip’ no longer means an ice cream flavor. People are genuinely worried about how the economy will play out in the next few months and eventually in the next couple of years. For the first time in a very long time, America seems to be coming down to its knees and no one really knows how long they will take to stand back up. Everyone is getting ready to hang onto their jobs now and preparing to go on an austerity drive thanks to the lessons they got from 2008. If the bulls don’t show up anytime soon, panic will be the order of the day.
From the serious topic of economics we will now move to the much lighter topic of politics. Shambles is the word that springs to mind when one thinks of the state of the Indian Government right now. The ruling party does not know how many they need to fire to regain face, the party leader is ill (may God bless her) with a secret illness, the Prime Minister doesn't speak much and when he does come prepared with a speech, the opposition party boycotts proceedings and doesn’t let him speak at all! Apart from all this, there are people going on fasts, CMs refusing to resign and then resigning, inflation spiraling out of control and the economy is not being kind either. The only miraculous reason this government still exists is that there is no other possible alternative.
The irony of this entire situation is that this nation will be celebrating its 64th Independence Day on 15th. This date nicely and symbolically splits this month. Maybe the start of the 65th year will be brighter and happier for its people. But the cricket team might still lose.
