which is your club?

Its 3:30AM in the morning.. I just completed writing this blog entry & really tired.. Feeling a lot of relief once i completed this.. Its been 2 weeks since I started writing this one & wanted to make it perfect because this is what I wanted to shout out at this world for s long.. so read on...

I was watching the sports channel the other day when I saw a huge riot in a football stadium. I didn't understand what was the reason for the commotion but watched the policemen beat up the angry mob. People were throwing stones, empty bottles & attacking the policemen at first. The second scene showed some stalls being burnt & lot of fire in the stadium created by the crowd. The police didn't stand back either, they returned with water canons on the angry mob. The pretty newsreader lady at the end of the video explained that this was the riot which resulted at the end of a football somewhere in the west. The feature which followed explained how this was a common scene after each football match. Well, not used to seeing such happenings in our country, I decided to do some "googl-ing" and read about the football riots on the net. What I saw was really shocking, football fans burning, attacking & destroying property & seriously injuring supporters of their rival teams.

The news about the riot in Japan in the year 2005 which resulted in the death of 300, was the most nastiest incident in football history. All these news made me curious on finding out more about these “clubs”. I decided to research on the two biggest club football rivals itself, Manchester United & Liverpool. In spite of the numerous similarities between the clubs they have been arch rivals. Both the clubs are based out of two different places in England. But both teams have players from all over the world playing for it ( nothing to do with patriotism). Both have its team colors, team flags, team songs & team jerseys. Both have their respective heroes, who are considered a level above the normal human, which can be explained by the money they make every hour even when they are not playing. Even after going reading all this, I still didn't understand one basic thing... Y are the people killing each other just because they like a particular football team??? Y do the people of these rival groups look at each other with hatred & keep away from the other??? Y is the only interaction between the two clubs only violence??? It just didn't make sense !!! The people are from the same part of the country, they speak the same language, they are from same ethnicity, neither of them did anything wrong for which they should be punished. Then why???

I tried thinking about it in a different perspective. For doing that, we have to go a level higher. No, not to a higher sport, but to a higher level of grouping. Lets say region wise.. It was in the late 1940s that two similar “groups” were formed in the Asian sub-continent. These groups had much bigger members which makes us difficult to actually call them as clubs, but when we compare them with the previous analogy, they are quite similar to the English clubs. These two “groups” again formed two different areas of the Asian sub-continent. Though it was a single mass of land at first, formation of the “groups”/”clubs” forced it to be divided as separate regions having a common border. The two groups again had their respective colors, their flags and even the distinct song. But again members of both groups spoke the same languages, were from the same ethnicity, believed in similar religions even. But still, from its moment of creation till this day, it has only been hatred between the two groups. Even these two groups had their respective heroes, though heroes changed over time, never did the groups unite. The only difference between the football clubs & these groups is the fact that, in this case the leaders itself was the reason for the creation of these two groups. People who used to stand as one, was divided by barb wires & fences just because of the ego & difference of a few men. Yes, again the opinion of these few men were valued more than the others, hence their decision to form groups & separate people was put into practice. I am not talking about any fairy tale in any far off land, but the plight of two countries India & Pakistan after the separation in 1947. The stubbornness & ego of a few men resulting in decades of bloodshed. Do we ever stand up & ask each other why we fight. What is that we hate in our so much that we are even willing to die but wont let our neighbor set foot in our land? How is that we actually differ? Don't we share almost the similar gene pool even? On any given day can we actually spot the difference between an Indian & our neighbor.. Nobody knows... But yet we don't get up... we don't get up & try to see over the walls we have created around us...

But still I don't want to stop here.. Lets go 1 more level up.. In this level the “groups”/”clubs” are not divided by barb wires or fences. The members of these groups cannot be again distinguished based on their ethnicity, color of their skin nor the languages they speak. The members of these clubs were both & brought up in the same land. They cultivate the same soil, eat the same food, speak similar languages but yet they seem to treat the other differently. The members of these groups often fight & the clashes always lead to bloodshed & death. Every year millions of people die due to clashes between these rival “clubs”. The members are not isolated to a particular region or country, but in fact they are spread equally in the world. Though members of different clubs interact, it is often bound by limits. Relationships & marriage between members of different clubs are a big taboo & again leads to bloodshed. These clubs again have its own colors, its own songs, its own “constitution” or rule book which assigns the rights & duties of its members. It has its own heroes as well, both human & supernatural. While the supernatural remain only in the books & pictures, the human form often competes with its rivals to prove superiority. These “clubs” or “groups” had been created & followed for one reason alone, to separate, to distinguish & differentiate people on the basis of their beliefs.

Man always tried to explain the various phenomena which happened around him. For doing so he used either the help of science or help of the supernatural. Anything which man couldn't explain with science ended up as being the work of the supernatural. As years passed by and man evolved, many of the things which were once called supernatural became known as science. The Sun, Moon, rain, lightning were earlier considered as work of the supernatural, but as time passed by, man identified these as forces of nature & had explanation for each of these. But yet there were quiet a few which man was yet to discover.. He tried explaining these phenomena as work of the supernatural & as always different people explained these phenomena differently. This lead to different beliefs among the same human kind & finally man's ignorance slowly created religion... Man's creative mind helped him create characters which had superhuman strength & abilities. These heroes were the main characters in the “constitution” or rule books each religion had. Each hero had a special ability, if one could cure diseases, other could eradicate hunger. When one created the world, other destroyed the world. When one created wealth other blessed man with wisdom. In this way for each & every need man had a hero.. ( no I am not talking about the Justice League on Cartoon Network).

But here we stand in the 22^nd century, completely clueless on why we are fighting. We are fighting each other simply based on religious beliefs, the same beliefs which was created by man himself. As soon as a child is born the name of a religion is stamped on it & he bears it for the rest of his life. The human no more has a choice as to select his belief but is forced to believe what his forefathers believed. Though religious “groups” were formed based on people who think alike, now it is more of people who are bound & forced to think in a particular way. When will we stand up & realize that the wall we have around is, was created by us alone??? When will we realize that the people whom we hurt & kill, are no different from us.. What are we doing to each other.. When will we stand up & look above the wall...