Of Sports

and Politics

Ranganayakamma

Today it is Karanam Malleswari! Yesterday it was PT Usha! Tomorrow, someone else!

These people run, lift weights, throw balls, play chess, swim, crawl, jump upward and jump downward!

They keep on doing various strange acts and bring ‘prestige’ to the country!

Today, it is Karanam Malleswari who protected the ‘honour’ of the 100-crore population of India. So many crores of people are lingering on the shoulders of a single individual for the sake of their ‘honour’! As this sportswoman saved these entire unknown and inefficient people of India from ‘disrepute’, all the governments are dumping lakhs and lakhs of rupees. They are handing over several acres of land! The ministers, governors and presidents are showering eulogies! All the capitalists are competing with each other in giving away many prizes including cars from big companies. There is a flood of titles (like ‘vira naari’, ‘vira vanita’ etc.,), processions and felicitations!

Well, what has she done? She participated in ‘some’ competition, lifted some weight for few seconds and won the third prize! This is the ‘valorous deed’ that she did!

How does anyone attain such valour? It is the valour which sports persons attain by stopping all their studies and jobs which human beings ought to do naturally; by practicsing weightlifting throughout the day without doing anything which human beings ought to do; by investing unlimited food as capital and enlarging the body to the largest possible size beyond the limits of human body; by dreaming of the future prizes, heaps of money and felicitations and by lifting the ‘iron wheels’ for many years. This is how any sports person attains this valour. It is such a valour, which is impossible to attain unless there are many things like special coaches, special instruments, special sports dress that tightens the body, special gymnasiums and special techniques! Despite all this, the valour of a person evaporates even if there is one-day break in practice. It disappears if there is no bellyful of ‘fodder’ daily. It is such a valour, which remains only if the practice goes on daily for many hours. Is such artificially acquired capacity an example for human capacity?

The differences in the capacity among human beings reveal only when these sports persons exhibit their capacity by doing other duties as other persons do; by eating average food which all people eat and by making attempts just as student-players in schools do, only then will the differences in the abilities among human beings reveal themselves. Such differences will be the ‘natural’ differences.

Even if all people practise for many years and exhibit such exclusively practice-based ability, it cannot be a proof for the natural ability of human beings.

A person may lift more weight than the other for few seconds while lifting iron wheels made of equal weight on both the sides of the rod. So what? What is the ‘use’ of lifting any number of kilograms? Except the damage of the body due to heart pain or headache? Can that person lift the same weight if it is in the form of a far drum or a heap of bricks instead of in the form of wheels of equal weight on

both sides of the lifting rod? Can she carry a bag of 100-kilo grain from the field and put it on a cart? Can she carry a bag of rice from the shop and deliver it at her house with ease of effort? Does her capacity of weightlifting help either her or others on any occasion in daily life? It is not at all useful. Then why such a capacity? Is it only to lift iron wheels?

Look at the frail bodied coolies who carry heavy weights of hundreds of kilos with ease in the fields, mills and market yards! Even the woman coolies engaged in house building activities carry cement bags with ease. The poor women in the villages walk many furlongs with three water carriers over their heads and with kids to their waists. They do all these things with their frail bodies that lack sufficient food daily. All those activities, which these people do whatever and wherever they carry weights are essential for human life. What is the relevance of this weight lifting to the lives of these valorous women and men?

If we consider ‘ability to run’, how is it useful to the real life of the person who wins the running race? Will he go running when he wants to go to any other place? He won’t. Like all others who could not win the race, this hero who won the race too will take a bus or train. Well then, how did his ability to run better than others help him in his daily life?

What is the need to adore such useless abilities, dump lots of money and arrange such grand felicitations? Aren’t there ways to utilise money fruitfully? The government statistics itself shows that there are about 40 thousand orphan children in Hyderabad City alone.

There are hundreds of poor children who are physically handicapped and more particularly the visually handicapped. This is about one place. If we take the whole state? The entire country? What sort of facilities are the governments making for these people? Even if there are a couple of hostels in a city, what sort of arrangements do we find there? There won’t be proper food. No proper supply of water.

No proper lavatories. No medicines. No books. What do we find? Nothing. The governments ignore even the life and death needs of these people. They are deaf to any number of appeals. The governments use police force to chase even the blind students who come to the government offices for representing their demands. The governments do not respond to the problems of people however genuine they may be. They don’t utter any other word except ‘No money! No money! No money!’

But, all governments are flooded with money in the case of Karanam Malleswari. The government of Andhra Pradesh gifted her a house site, a car and some money in 1995. Now it has initially declared a gift of 10 lakhs. Subsequently it handed over 25-lakhs for building a house in the site; an acre of land at another place for the school of weight lifting which she proposes to establish and yet another 9-lakh fund to construct a building for the school. The Maharashtra government gave 51 lakhs on its own and 26 lakhs, which it collected from capitalists. Haryana government gave 25 lakhs and some acres of land. The Bihar government gave 11 lakhs. The Tamil Nadu government gave 5 lakhs! The Kerala government gave a lakh! One lakh, eleven thousand, one hundred and sixteen at Vijayawada felicitation! A real estate company gifted a plot measuring 500 sq. yards near Shamshabad. Still the other governments.

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