Any which way but lose!

An old but wonderful article by Sandipan Deb regarding India's (or Indians) obsession with Cricket. I cannot say I totally agree to his premise that all this is because of our "hunger for recognition from the world leads us to trumpet our supposed superiority to everyone else at the drop of a hat" but all in all a fun read.

A quote from the article:

Only 36 per cent of our population has access to sanitary means of excreta disposal. There are lakhs of Indians who subsist on our streets without even the most basic rights to a human life or a dignified death. Thousands of our citizens live as refugees in their own country, having lost their homes and means of livelihood. Last month, in a poll conducted by The Hindustan Times on the attitudes of Indian youth, more than 50 per cent of the respondents said that given a chance, they would live in some other country.

But even when they do go away to some other country, they have the rediff live cricket scorecard open surreptitiously on their computer monitors throughout their working day. They stay up nights in the US to watch India play in England. They participate in detailed analyses of the Indian team's strengths and weaknesses in countless Internet chat rooms. And they turn out in daunting numbers at the stadium whenever India's playing in their adopted country.

(h/t: sightscreen)