Guts...what's that?

“World cup collapso” - “The dream is over” - “A billion hopes sink” - “The big three fail” - “Port of Pain” – few of the several witty headlines to declare the fact that India was virtually out of the World Cup . Saturday morning was not a good morning for you if you were an Indian fan. Emotional reactions, mock funerals, all the drama unfolded as the day progressed. Every possible news channel had some Tom, Dick or Harry yapping about how India should have got it right, how Dravid did not deserve to be on the hot seat any longer, how Chappell was a devil in disguise for Indian cricket. The theories were weird – the reactions were extreme – the media was excited – people were frustrated – the captain was sad – the coach was agitated. Well, the weekend is over and humour has taken the place of frustration and pure, unadulterated anger and frustration. SMS jokes about the Indian team's abysmal performance are the toast of the day.

Among all the opinions hurled all over the place against the players, I heard a common phrase time and again – “killer instinct”. They called it attitude – they called it guts – they called it body language - they called it strength – but they all were hinting at one thing : Indians just aint that strong enough mentally to take on big challenges. "Oh come on", they said, "history is the witness. Look at 2003 world cup. Look at any major final of a cricket tournament. Indians give up on the fight long before the game is over".

My first reaction – that could not be true. I mean come on – how can one explain a Ambani, a Tata, a Birla, a Nooyi. Surely, Indians weren’t weak mentally. But sadly, I could come up with quite a few “glittering” examples of an average Indian’s love for mediocrity.

Take a look at cricket - we have a Dravid – we have a Tendulkar – we have a Dhoni – but do we have a team which performs? Indians perform more for personal records, than to win. Personal records mean more adulation, which implies more endorsements, which means big moolah. Sehwag was hell-bent to be on the team to feed his ego, rather than to make India win. Ganguly had more of a point to prove than anything else when he got back to the world cup squad. We just were not a team – we lost – surprised? Well, don’t be.

We are asking for the removal of the captain, but do we have a replacement? " Nope – we are no Aussies man". That’s what we have to say. Its true but isn’t it? Aussies had no Shane Warne – no Brett Lee – but any difference in their aggression? An Australian player announces retirement and they have an able, competent player to take his place. We, a nation of a billion people, in a world with a population close to 6 billion, cannot come up with 11 men to go and win us matches? The “killer instinct” – Aussies made 377 against South Africa and the Proteas put up a strong defence for the first wicket, making nearly 165 runs. Did the Aussies flinch? Was there any change in their body language – their aggression? I could very well imagine the nervous totter of a Harbhajan Singh and the frantic pacing of a Dravid if the Proteas did the same thing in a match between India and South Africa. Do Indians lack that killer instinct?

Take a walk down Dalal Street - we don’t invest as much in the stock markets – our risk appetite is surprisingly low – the smallest piece of news can send our Sensex levels on a tailspin. The NYSE has been bullish for the past fifteen years – it has seen it’s share of falls and rises. Sensex has just started seeing that trend. The average joe is more than eager to get on the high wave, when the Sensex touches unprecedented highs – but when the sensex falls, he is the first one to remove his money from the market.

Any economist will tell you that you need to understand the markets and invest when people are running out of the markets. I mean you go to a discount sale and buy maximum things. Have you ever heard of people waiting for a time when the price of products is exceptionally high, to make their purchases? But, an average Indian does not really get that approach. He makes little or no effort to understand the markets and just throws in his money into the markets like a gambler. The risk appetite is there – it is more foolish than calculated move. Some people still believe that investing ins tock markets is equivalent to gambling and frown up it. We are taught from the beginning that ambitions are good as long as they are limited. We make movies, wherein a person who wants the best things in the world, ends up losing everything towards the end. Are we taught to lack that killer instinct?

Some call it the colonial hangover, still extant amongst us Indians – some called it self-contentment. Call it what you want, but our culture does not teach us to dream big. It teaches us to be satisfied with what we have – some one dreaming to be a Roger Federer is more often than not, laughed at. We are asked to be practical – not dreamers. There is a reason the film fare awards in India go to the most romantic movies and the Oscars always has had a soft corner for the underdogs who make it big in life . We emphasize way too much on heart and less on mental strength.

Well, things are moving ahead, India is shining, but the thing is almost all developed countries are 10 years ahead of us in terms of development. We take pride in the fact that the Mittals, Tatas, Ambanis and Birlas have an Indian passport, but from whatever I could come up with after thinking about this for a while, the Nooyis and Kidwais and Murthys and Permjis are more of exceptions than trends.

For now, Indian team will soon be on a flight home and we will still be discussing what went wrong and people will still be dying of hunger, poverty and diseases daily in India. Well, all that can wait, what we really need to know is how can Sachin ever get out for a duck and how much are the sponsors losing? Dhoni is playing with my emotions for God sakes!!! Sad but ttrue, when will we display such a passion for a better life? Only time will tell.