Use and throw

I was a film aficionado. Not only I watched many movies, I would know about everything about the movies released week after week- their star cast, directors, music directors, lyricist and even the names of those handling technical aspects – director of photography, editor etc. It was same about sports. Cricket I would follow like a maniac, following 5 days test match ball by ball. I would not only know the names of all the players but also their statistics. And leave apart our players, I would even be familiar with the team members of all the official test playing teams. I knew about hockey teams – all the players of India and Pakistan and a few stars of other strong teams such as Holland and Germany. In tennis, I had full information on 20 top men seeds and 10 top women. I followed local football and Mohan Bagan was my favourite team. I kept a tab on the latest developments in almost all the sports as also athletics.

Today, every movie has 2 to 5 music directors , each composing one song. After my favourites Lata, Rafi, Kishore, Asha, Mukesh receded, I was still following first Shabbir Kumar, Mohammad Aziz, Alka, Anuradha, Kavita, Kumar Shanu, Abhijit and later Udit, and Sonu, but I haven’t really followed Arijit’s rise to stardom. And if you ask me, I will not be able to identify any male or female voice today, leave apart music director or lyricist. I don’t even remember when I last saw a Bollywood movie in theatre! In any case, most of the films survive based on the response during the first weekend, immediately going into oblivion thereafter!

As regards sports, though world championships or olympics may still hold my attention, but if you ask me about cricket test matches, I may not know much beyond the result! Hockey and other sports are only strictly on need to know basis on the eve of a major tournament. Tennis I will not be able to recall many names beyond big three and women probably none after Williams sisters!

We have always heard that change should be for the better and it has to be progressive, but in my case it’s becoming regressive! I think it’s probably due to an overdose of everything – number of cricket matches in all forms that we have today, number of players that get capped and dropped, short shelf life – that has led to quick mortality of the durability of these aspects!

It’s all akin to the use and throw culture of today. If your mobile phone or TV or Fridge or any appliance has conked off, it’s better to replace it then go for repairs. Similarly, longevity of any big event or achievement is short lived. Records get broken very fast and it’s difficult to keep abreast of all these fast changing realities. You just have to enjoy the moment – a cricketing victory, a new song, a new movie – and then throw it out of the system to ingest the next thing .