Of Triumphs and Tribulations

(Left: The Democratic Convention where Barack Obama accepted his nomination. The opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics. Photos courtesy New York Times/Sports Illustrated)

By Sudhakar Jagdish

Bingo! The decade is coming to close and we are already in the last lap of completing the first decade of 21st century. Depending on from which number one begins counting.**
So we had three Olympics in this decade -- Sydney, Athens and Beijing -- and three US presidential elections -- Bush, Bush and Barack. And the parallels between the twos are indeed overwhelming.
Bush Jr revived conservatism in 2000 polls, Sydney rejuvenated the grand Olympics syndrome. The 2004 US polls chose continuity with Bush Jr getting elected for the second term (in spite of Fahrenheit 9/11), Olympics returned to Greece. But the spectacle was reserved for 2008 with both the Beijing Olympics and election of Barack Obama as the 44th US President on November 4. Grand and bewildering frenzy could be used as adjectives in both the events, global, of course. And ironically, there were many controversial and nail-biting preludes to both. If smog, Tibet and Human Rights plagued the Chinese, it was race, faith and faltering US economy that made Americans edgy. But at the end, hopes, dreams and “Yes We Can” spirit of millions won in both the places -- US and China.

This decade is a watershed. We began with the fear of Y2K (Remember that the world, oops the computers and the tentacles of its network, would come crashing down on 01-01-2000, but nothing of this happened), to wake up one morning to see the New York’s twin towers crashing down. Al-Qaeda became real and Osama an anathema of terror in the East and West but not in the Middle. Daisycutters ravaged Afghanistan, Taliban flew and took shelter in the mountains of Tora Bora bordering Pakistan. The war still continues, as Osama makes intermittent appearances with audio and video tapes and hundreds who get inspiration from him bomb London, Madrid and Istanbul.
(The picture of Woolworth Building in New York, pre and post 9/11 as the twin towers are missing in the colour picture. Photos courtesy: New York Times)




(The cover page of New York Times)










Meanwhile, Bush Jr digresses to Iraq, brings down statues of tyrant Saddam Hussein in Baghdad but his army has to fortify themselves in the Green Zone overlooking Tigris. The tyrant is caught from a “manhole”, fights his own case determinedly and is then hanged, the MMS clip of which is circulated on the Internet.

Talking about Internet, hey it has truly become WWW --- World Wide Web. We now do everything on NET, make friends, have date, some even have sex, speak to our near and dear ones, the terror bosses also uses www to hatch, execute and talk to their suicidal foot soldiers -- as highlighted in the November 26 Mumbai attack. In 2000 New Delhi, at an average the nearest cyber café would be 2 kms away, today one has laptop or at least a desktop connected with 128kbps Internet connection. Most of them have Facebook, Orkut accounts, tie knots through shaadi.com, gossip on messenger or g-talk or read and write, better key, blogs.


(The attack in Mumbai -- India's financial capital -- on November 26, 2008 when 10 terrorists from Pakistan killed nearly 200 people, including the top cops. Special elite commandoes had to be deployed to end the siege. Photo courtesy New York Times)


Like the world, India too has changed. Politically, coalitions have become stable complete with renunciation act. Democratically, voting is a beep away. Presidential-ly, a woman has become occupant of the bungalow that oversees Mughal Garden and is Commander-in-Chief of India. Diplomatically, New Delhi is de-facto nuclear power and a strategic ally of US after having shed the Nato burden. Economically, rise and fall of the 30-bench index at the Dalal Street mimics the Wall Street in New York. Financially, money can be withdrawn from the nearest ATM. Technologically, everyone in towns, cities and villages flaunt mobile. Scientifically, the tricolour has reached Moon. Militarily, Israel is India’s biggest defence supplier. Ghastly, terror has bruised the country and word communal still makes headlines. Invisibly, farmers kill self in Vidarbha and Sunderbans mangroves are sinking. Entertainingly, people watch movies at multiplexes, reality shows at homes on digital format. Sportingly, cricket remains the religion. Finally, India is shining for a few, is whining for another few, is stumbling for another lot and grasping for the rest.

Overall, dominance of Blair at 10, Downing Street and Mian Musharraf’s in Islamabad ended -- the latter’s after protests, emergency, bomb attacks and ultimately assassination of “Daughter of the East”.
In the meantime, record of Mark Spitz was drowned by compatriot Michael Phelps. Gentleman Sachin Tendulkar is still playing the gentlemen’s game and setting seemingly insurmountable records, tennis has a new legend in Roger Federer and so does golf in Wood.
Unimaginable though, a gay romance wins top Oscar honour, preceded by African Americans dominating the 2002 Academy Awards and followed by Martin Scorcesse’s breaking the golden statuette jinx. Uff! Really a lot has happened but sorry for not incorporating million others, including the shoe attack on Bush Jr and the onset of global recession.


** It depends on how one counts the beginning of the decade. While some count the decade from 2001. Others count from 2000 and it is imminent that this statement follows Rule 2.