According to Wikipedia, "Jai Hind" is an Indian patriotic salutation that roughly translates, "Victory to India" or "Long live India."
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India won the world cup! (Cricket.) For the record, I am an American egomaniac who doesn't know the first thing about the game of cricket. When I heard they won the world cup, I assumed that it was talking about soccer or futbol. And most of my knowledge of THAT sport comes from my son's soccer club..
Anyhoo, I was thinking about India and soccer, and it made me smile, because my son is blessed to know several people of Indian descent through church and through soccer. This picture shows a pregame goal kick with two of our soccer pals. The defender with his back to us is a very skillful player whom I have nicknamed "Superfoot." The gent in the white jersey is their coach. They bring their whole family to the games, including Mrs. Coach, the baby and Grandpa..
When I was a their age, I did not know ANY people from India. For much of my younger years, we only knew two cultures, caucasian and hispanic. Chicago may have all the nations of the world represented in the city, but it is still quite segregated..
That's why I love the town where I live now. You pass a Bolingbrook church parking lot or walk through a supermarket, and you will find many cross-cultural friendships..
This reminds me, a bigot once warned me not to let my oldest daughter date black (African) people. "What if they have children?" was supposed to be the convincing factor. But whether a child has an homogeneous or mixed lineage, are not ALL children beautiful?! Besides, mixed backgrounds produce some of the most amazing skin tones and features!.
Am I talking too much? Okay, I'll wrap it up now..
What I meant to say was that I am grateful to be able to enjoy my friends with Indian roots. God bless you, and congratulations on that cricket thing. Jai Hind!
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19 comments:
You have a good heart Craver.
I would guess India picked up Cricket from the Brits, way back when. That's just a guess mind you.
Cricket is such a weird sport with the "brooms" and all. We watched a clip on tv and I was like "why are they sweeping during the middle of a game?" LOL
A couple of my closest friends in high school were black. Both I still talk to and sometimes I wonder how my life in high school (and now today) would have been different without those influential friendships in my life. I'm glad I won't ever have to find out. Racism infuriates me enough as it is, but it tends to really get my blood boiling when people begin to criticize interracial relationships. Many people (who don't know me) don't realize that I'm in an interracial marriage right now, with me being Hispanic and all. But apparently it's ok because I "look white." It's pure ignorance and it drives me up the wall.
Ok I better step off my soapbox now before I really get going...especially since I'm preaching to the choir here! :)
Mary - I think you are thinking of curling, which is big in Canada and Northern Europe. Cricket is sort of like baseball (but not really), uses a long flat bat, a hard ball and these little things called wickets....the ball gets hit and a lot of running back and forth ensues. The scores are in the hundreds and a match lasts a few days. Beyond that, I don't understand the game at all - even though I begged my friends in England to explain it to me. They all said, "oh it's too complicated....just drink your pint and watch the game."
:)
Ah yes you're right, thank you for the clarification...Wes says I have a tendency to mix the names of those two sports up all the time, it's not unusual that I did it yet again. :)
Oh thank you very much Craver for this so warm and nicely written post. Thanks a million. The moment I read the title, I smiled. :-)
I know Cricket is NOT at all popular in your country. It has come to us from Britons as donsands has rightly said. And I was amazed to see your comment on my post on Cricket. Yes, we defeated every strong contender (England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand etc.) on our way to grab the World Cup.
I am afraid many of your countrymen and Europeans still think India as an extremely poor, dirty and third world. Come on !! I think India is being compared with Africa, Vietnaam, Combodia or even with some middle East countries like Iran, Iraq etc. which is quite wrong. Believe me, there is much more rich culture & heritage, intellectuals and warmth than in any other country.
Well, I’ll blame media for that. All that you see on TV or anywhere else is just one side of the coin .. the way it is there in USA or any other country. Each country has its two sides. I have been to many countries including yours & have seen / experienced it.
Just one thing. Is it a correction? Indians are NOT called blacks. It is Africans who are called blacks. In western world Indians are called browns and I so love their skin colour. I mean I love MY skin colour though I am very fair compared to any normal Indian. And I love those features & skin tones. ;)
The most basic thing is we all need each other at some time or the other. It is just that we have to admit it.
Oh I think I should write on this sometime and right now push off before my comment becomes lengthier than your post. :-)
Thanks once again Craver for this lovely post.
@Friendly visitor:You have done a decent job of explaining the game of Cricket. The teams have 11 players each. The Test match is of 5 days & other shorter versions finish off in a day's time.
And Jai Hind !!
And the food is a wonder (I know... I married into the culture.)
Thanks, Don. You too.
I appreciate your perspective and experiences, Mrrr, but not that you made me more aware of my ignorance ;-) ...Curling? Sheesh! Ah, well... I was never really big on sports anyway.
A Friendly Visitor. Well, that's my favorite kind!! Thanks for the comments and clarification.
Speaking of clarification, when I read your comment, Cuckoo, I immediately went back to clarify the post.
I really like globes and whole-world maps. And I like to look at them from different angles, to remind myself that Chicago, Illinois is not the center of the universe.
Misconceptions abound, when it comes to other lands and peoples. Just this week, I read from a book called Gracism, a story about how many refer to all kinds of Africans, simply as "African." We don't refer to Europeans as "Europeans," we acknowledge their specific country. There are several African families at my church, and except for one family (Ghanans), I never remember where the others are from, and I don't know ANYTHING about their respective countries. Shame on me! These are from my local church family, and I should know them better.
But I'm not going to beat myself up about it right now. Instead, I could use some comfort food. Maybe sumosa, eh LL?
:-))))))
Thanks Craver.
Craver, I have read it many times that a common American knows very little about outside his country. Is it true? And that was one of the reasons why I wrote only Africa, the continent (not Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria etc, the countries). :-)
LOL@Sumosa
First, let me say this: I love America. There are many layers of blessings I have enjoyed because of my land and my people. And though I wish I could visit lots of places, I am quite content calling America my home.
Now, to answer your question Cuckoo. You're probably right. I wish more of my countrymen would cross over from total independence to INTERdependence. I wish more Americans spoke more than one language. But speaking for myself, as a native Chicagoan, I honestly don't know much about the rest of my state, and there is much to learn still about my country. The move 5 years ago to this suburb (Bolingbrook) has been helpful to open my eyes a bit.
And you know what else? A couple of years ago, I was part of a short-term missions trip to the Philippines and Japan. I learned a lot about myself when immersed (albeit briefly) in another culture. I came back very conscious of how much I waste, and felt a certain animosity especially against television commercials that say you must own every single latest gadget in order to be happy. But not digital cameras... I still want one of those. :-)
I really enjoyed that post - and the wonderful post title.
As you know, I grew up in India. And I used to be a cricket writer, too!
Craver-
Is cricket where you take a bunch of living crickets and take a straw and poke them with it and the first person to here them make a cricket sound wins a point. I think you have to play up to ten points.
Randy
P.S. "Ha Ha Ha I made a funny". Quote from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the movie.
Craver, I think having more people from the world in our country, from India, Mexico, etc., is a blessing for us.
And about mixed marriages, isn't that true of all of us, anyhow? Not too many places where ethnic lines are supposed to be still pure. Though you find Hollanders here that say that. Like: "If you ain't Dutch, you ain't much." (tongue in cheek most all the time, of course)
Donsands sent me the link to this article.
India was of course under British Rule and we taught them this facinating game called cricket.
I have a work colleague who is Indian and England have played India over a series this summer in England and also in this short form Twenty20 cricket game. It's great to meet and work around people of different cultures and faiths because it challenges what you believe and how to communicate those things to people - especially the gospel. Sport has been a medium of reaching people for the gospel all my life. I have recently started a sports blog. Hey I've even posted about baseball today!
Check it out at http://jumpersforgoalpost.blogspot.com/
God Bless
AMS
Craver!! Next step. . . playing cricket!!:) It's actually quite a fun game to watch (the one-day ones, I mean, not the test matches that go on for days. . . those are like watching the grass grow!) And this world cup (the Twenty20) wasn't the REAL World Cup. . . that happened earlier this year and Australia won.
Speaking of India, I went to a festival celebrating India in Tokyo yesterday. It was really fun, but in a strange way, also felt very different from Indian events I've been to in the States and London. I can't really figure out why!
And, I agree with you about the interracial thing. But the paranoia isn't only on the Western side. . . if anything, it's even worse in my part of the world. I've seen many South Asian families oppose mixed marriages for no reason but the race of the other person.
And you're right. . . some of the best-looking people I've known have been of mixed race!!:)
This is a nice post, Enjoyed reading. I will keep coming And "Jai Hind"
That was pretty bad, Randy. But if you ever need players for such a game, I have lots of the little bugs in my front lawn. I could probably spare a few for you, Buddy.
Yeah, Ted. It is a neat thing to look up in the middle of a task and notice that racism is not a factor in a certain community. (Although not all ethnic problems stem from racism.)
Hello, AMS. Nice of you to pop in. I'm not much of a sports fan, but I love the gospel, and I love people. Wow, five posts so far... you're really, really new. Best wishes, Friend.
(lol) Ini, I just realized what you wrote, and I don't know if it was on purpose, but it cracked me up, because I love my lawn, and I happen to be one of those freaks who honestly DOES enjoy watching the grass grow.
Welcome, Pijush! Are those Mediterranean waters in the background of your portrait?
Ethnic diversity in glorifying God - that's what heaven will look like.
We might as well get used to it here and now. ;-)
I think Cuckoo was laughing about sumosa because it must have evoked a strange imagining about spicy sumo wrestlers. Whereas the Indian appetizer is a samosa. But who has time to learn how to spell all the wonderful foods in the world?
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