Quote

"Television is the hardware to introduce the software of Capitalism"
K V Akshara


K V Akshara, the present head of Ninasam, a theatre group in Heggodu, Karnataka, is a playwright/writer.

Sports as Art

Ever since our beloved cave man, decorated his caves with paintings, people started to have a debate as to what art was. They gave different definitions, artists tried to explain this abstract yet very real phenomenon called art in their own way. Centuries have passed but we still are not sure. We, humans are sure that we can go to the moon, but aren't sure of what art is!
Some of the common definitions include art being a form of expression. The piece of art actually takes second place while expression is primary. For some, art is about the form, the shape, colour, structure of the piece. I wont write much about these, because all the answers you need are just a tab(Ctrl T)
Taking all these definitions into consideration, Can sports( all included..even golf!!!) be considered art?
I believe it is, every sport is art and every sportsman an artist. Taking the view of an expressionist, sports is an expression of strength, agility,speed, flexibility of ones body.For a formalist, sports is poetry in motion. The body is the canvas and the game is the paint.
Like any other fine art, a good sports man has intrinsic talent and developed skill. It needs a lot of practice.
Art has no boundaries. It crosses the barriers of language, races, religions and age. So does sports. Put a football (To all the ignorant Americans, its a soccer ball)in middle of a group of strangers, and within seconds the game is on. it bring people together, just like art.
Our sports commentators already consider it an art( not commenting, but sports).The adjectives used to describe sport moves are the same one you would hear in an art gallery , a concert or a dance performance. Graceful, strokes, tempo, consistency etc etc
We have seen artists, musicians and poets turning to intoxicants to get their muse or create a magnum opus. Sports is no different Ben Jhonson and Marion Jones turned to intoxicants to "increase their expression".
Sports thus is an art form. it is a form which the public can involve easily. So i end, as i need to put my artist cap and go shoot some hoops.

About the other side..

A one handed shot on equality
Photo courtesy: Supreet J Bargi


There are the ones who speak, and then there are the one who actually experience. Most of the times the one who voices out is stronger. Or so it is believed. One requires immense strength to experience and still keep everything in. Living in oppression, for a eras together, women have always experienced, and not until recently, the men always spoke. But can the "stronger" sex actually help the "weaker" ones?
From time immemorial, crime, justice, conquests, money have always been spoken and documented. These documents were recorded by people who not necessarily experienced or had any direct relation to them. So we build our history on information not from the people who lived, but from people who saw.
And they say, history repeats, so has the second hand documentation. newspaper reports, TV exclusives, special debates on problems of women and the inequality among sexes, fills our media space. A space no different from our patriarchal society. So a man discusses problems of women, he sometimes voices out for them (thought the trend has changed a little, it is very minimal).
How useful is this effort by a person who is in his comfort zone, "understands" the problem of the second sex? Is it really an effort to strike a balance? Should the ladies take the helping hand meted out to them? from the oppressors themselves? Is it just a one handed effort? How near/far are we to equality?

Want directions??

India has been a place of spirituality for many westerners. They travel to this land to find peace and direction in their lives. Whether they find peace or not is secondary, but directions they will find many! For a traveller who has roamed around the sub continent would tell, you would seldom lose your way, as your never far away from a living, air breathing GPS.
We Indians have unlimited enthusiasm for giving directions. All we need is for a place name and a question to fall into our ears, and we will become cartographers the next instant. The beauty of our directions is that we do not tell the travellers just the route, but also the places he will see while taking that route, sign boards, buildings, circles and traffic signals. We overload the traveller already heavy backpack with so much info that he is almost hypnotised to take the orders. But do we stop there? No, we won’t. We might be Indians but we are Humans before that, so curiosity does take over us and in the myriad of directions we give, we manage to drop a question or two on where the traveller is coming from or where he is heading next. Sometimes when we our enthusiasm sky rockets we also tend to be city guides or travel agents, suggesting places for the wanderers next step.
Personally i feel a sense of pride in this quality. We don’t want people to lose ways and spend their travel in gyrating alleys and by lanes! From whatever little of India I have seen, language is never a barrier. The directions, though mostly vocal, are adorned with hand movements, gestures and sometimes even sounds. As I said before we are never far from a helping hand.
The thought does cross my mind, where I feel whether this quality is Indian or is it Human? Is it the same in the sign-board filled streets of the “developed” west? For now let it be Indian, once I travel the world I will tell you whether it is an intrinsic human quality or not!