Friday, May 30, 2008

Resurrecting the Champ

Champ Champion Champions. The words so commonly used in the sporting arena. So widely used in many a movies and documentaries about them. Sometimes looking from outside may become overwhelming. In the absence of extra ordinariness within, most of us can only dream or look up to these super human being. Highly glorified and decorated they become good bedtime stories. Stories of human character and valor to vouch for. Stories in which people dared to push the boundaries of human limitation. Although they might have just be doing one more thing than any other normal human being but that extra inch is what makes them different.

Another character inherent in human being is the concept of hero worship. From time immemorial there has been Gods, leaders, super human beings in reality and in fantasy. What drives our love for them? I guess it originates from the realization of limited capabilities as a human being and our desire to be perfect. A desire to be something more than what we are and a desire to have effect on the blue prints of the world. They not only form a source of inspiration but also form a source of comfort driven from our imagination. Be there a believer, an agnostic, an atheist all of them in some form or the other look up to someone or something. In the process of getting trained as an adult we may have convinced ourselves to deny this reality but the fact remains that hero worshiping has been engraved in our genes.

There are God's and demi-Gods and there are people who worship them and there are fallen angels. The irony of putting someone or something so high in the pedestal is that the day they are found short in any of our perceived aspects they are brought down to a level and made to look more human. Human being has contradictory evaluation of such super humans. We are confused. We want them to be super human but at the same we love it when they are found out to be more human. An example is why spider man is the most successful comic superhero. Its because he is constantly fighting his demons. I think in the end we prefer the reflection of the battle within us via these imaginative characters and we like it when in the end they come out all gun's blazing and end up on top. But does that happen to all. In dictionary.com one of the meaning of "angels" was A guardian spirit or guiding influence. The epitome of all admiration has a history to fall sometimes. Is it the pressure of being under constant evaluation kills the champ within them. Or is it the dousing off the fire which makes them go into oblivion. How many sports person with promise do we remember. Not many, not at least in India. The song I'm just out to find probably captures the battle within these superheroes and the notion which makes them more human and more glorifiable by us. Do we ever feel the need to dig out their present after their hay days. I don't think so as we tend to easily shift our loyalties a newer promise. So is their any light at the end of the tunnel for them?

Another question which haunts me is that do the champions need to be always glorified. In other words is the one without publicity and hidden amidst many is not a champion. Do we really require to find out the extra ordinary amidst the sea of humanity to praise and worship. What about looking at one self. What about stirring one's own soul and finding out the champ within us. As a child all of us were full of energy. Without the care of the world living each day as it should be lived i.e. with freedom. Each of us promised ourselves the whole world. Although not visible to many. Not visible in ways which would be news worthy. But of the billions of people on this earth 99.9% or even more would be like that. Living a life which can be classified as an ordinary life. Still their was light which shone above, within us invisible to all but visible to us. We might not have realized the significance of the possibility but it was always there. The champ was always there. The eagerness to fight the battle and win was always there, of course differently in different people.

If such a champ was always there within us then why today most of us are unhappy, distressed, depressed. I guess in due course of time we got adulterated. In the process of learning the ways of the world we battled, we agitated, we accepted, we defied, we denied and then succumbed to its gruelling training. Where is the fire within us or was there any fire at all. Looking back, if we ponder, we did have that edge which defined us. But today because of the disappointments or because of the lack of goals we might have reached a stage where being a champion does not matter any more. We might feel that not being extra ordinary have made us too ordinary. But in my view point it is the ordinary who lives each day fighting is a true champion. With so much negativity around us what can we do. Every body I guess deserves a second chance rightly resonated in the song "Hey Bhagwaan Mujhko tu zindagi dobara de" by Raghu Dixit. So do we not as a person deserve a second chance to live moreover feel alive. I guess we do, everybody does, the only thing which remains to achieve that is to Resurrect the champ within us. Within us we are always, consciously or sub consciously, trying to be super human. Be it a father making super humanly effort for his son or daughter or vice versa, be it a person trying to reach invincibility in his work, be it a woman making an effort to be free in this oppressive society. Everybody is trying just a little bit more to achieve just a little to be ultimately loved by his/her loved ones unconditionally. In the end all I could say we try to be heroes for others or oneself . But there is a possibility that we may falter in the process. But I guess its all right to fell short of the ultimate aim but what is important we do deserve a chance to try. In the process of doing that, we may choose a path which is wrong but the choice is ours to make. Ultimately one day we may realize that we are not the heroes we or others thought us to be but I guess its all right for we have the limitations of being human. Just a chance is what we require, deserve for Resurrecting the champ within us and that I guess is all we need.

Well all that I have written in this post although may sound incoherent and random rambling but I just wrote what I wanted to write. Actually my writing is inspired from the movie Resurrecting the Champ which had a simplicity so moving that I had to write something howsoever unrelated the whole content may sound with the movie.

2 comments:

Atish said...

yes, the everyday grind of life Does take some super human efforts at times...
nice... very nice...

Rohan Rai said...

ya it does....it does...