Did you know, the word ‘religion’ is derived from the Latin verb ‘religare,’ which means ‘to bind’? Sadly though, religion today is being used to drive a rift between people, stir up controversies and feed fear.
In fact, religion is like that extra masala that is sprinkled as a garnish on issues that would do just perfectly fine without it, thank you very much.
Take cricket, for example. Team India is at the top of their game, winning titles and accolades and reigning over the world cricket scoreboard. But then someone had to sour the taste in our mouths by adding that unnecessary religion masala. Yet again.
IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt shared a rather peculiar observation about the Indian cricket team on his social media accounts about the lack of ‘Muslim’ players.
क्या इस समय भारतीय क्रिकेट टीम में कोई मुस्लिम खिलाड़ी है ?
आज़ादी से आज तक ऐसा कितनी बार हुआ कि भारत की क्रिकेट… https://t.co/Nb6ufi71qX
— Sanjiv Bhatt (IPS) (@sanjivbhatt) October 22, 2017
The post, in Hindi, was originally shared on Bhatt’s Facebook profile, and talks about how he number of Muslim players in the Indian team has been on the down-low for a while. He even went on to question whether this decline was because the selectors were serving a different criteria altogether.
Here’s the full post:
आज़ादी से आज तक ऐसा कितनी बार हुआ कि भारत की क्रिकेट टीम में कोई मुसलमान खिलाड़ी ना हो ?
क्या मुसलमानों ने क्रिकेट खेलना बन्द कर दिया है ?
या खिलाड़ियों का चुनाव करने वाले किसी और खेल के नियम मान रहे हैं?
Now wasn’t that a completely unwarranted comment? Doesn’t it make you go all WTF? It’s called Team ‘India’ for crying out loud, isn’t it?
Thankfully, there was someone who had a worthy reply to this unfounded allegation—our very own Bhajji!
Harbhajan Singh, or Harbhajan Turbanator as he calls himself on Twitter, had a perfectly fitting reply for Bhatt. He didn’t go below the belt like Bhatt or get enraged, but handles it with a simple saying that we’re all too familiar with.
हिंदू मुस्लिम सिख ईसाई आपस में है भाई। क्रिकेट टीम में खेलने वाला हर खिलाड़ी हिंदुस्तानी है उसकी जात या रंग की बात नहीं होनी चाहिए (जय भारत) https://t.co/UVvSHaLJdY
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) October 23, 2017
Bhajji’s reply has forced us to shout ‘Howzzat!’ because we are definitely clean bowled by his simple yet brilliant argument.
When you’re playing a game on a national level the terms are very clear: the game is the religion, your country is your pride and the only colours that matter are those of your country’s flag.
We must say, Bhajji is giving us absolute Coach Kabir Khan vibes, isn’t he?
Chak De, Bhajji and Chak De Team India!