Revsportz is family. I’m not just saying this because I work here but I genuinely believe in this. What does a family do? Back each other, laugh and cry together and be with each other in the toughest of times. I always believe that you don’t make friends at work. You are competing and competing hard. You are competing with yourself and of course, your colleagues are no exception.
As R.Madhavan’s character said in the movie ‘The Three Idiots’ – ‘dost fail ho jaaye bura lagta hai. Dost first aa jaaye, usse bhi zyada bura lagta hai.’ (If your friend fails in an exam, you feel bad. But if your friend tops that exam, you feel worse.) Yet somehow at Revsportz I have bonded with some people. The bonds are not only near and dear to me, but I feel these bonds need to be nurtured beyond work. And you, our viewers, readers, listeners, fans form the core of that bonding. You debate, engage, agree, disagree and make the platform what it is. Yesterday night, we lost one of us.
In 2024, when I had just joined this world of sports and stepped into this vast unknown horizon, few viewers and listeners told me that we are there for you. Keep on doing your work, you are doing good. That embrace, that shoulder of assurance went a long, long way in calming me down initially. During the 2024 T20 World Cup, we did regular Bangla shows with Debasis Sen reporting from on ground, and me and Boria Majumdar joining from our homes. The adda sessions went on for long with the viewers egging us on. Bitan Adhikary from Florida was one such viewer. He used to join us on every occasion and used to engage with us. We laughed and debated together.
Most importantly, we celebrated India’s historic triumph together. Somehow after that Bitan became a bit distant. Work pressure, we thought and we forgot him, while getting busy in our daily schedules. Today morning, Bitan Adhikary’s name was on the front page of almost every newspaper. He was one of those who was murdered brutally last night in the Pahalgam (Kashmir) terror attacks. Bitan is survived by his wife and a three-year-old kid.
I can’t say I am with his family because let’s face it, I cannot be with his family in any form right now. I can’t even say I will keep him in my prayers because if my prayers were heard by the Almighty, these attacks would never have happened. I am not an Indian Army personnel, nor a policy maker.
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Who am I? I have an Adhaar card, an Indian passport, I vote and I pay my taxes. That’s it. As Naseeruddin Shah said in ‘A Wednesday’ – ‘I am just a stupid common man.’ And the stupid common man feels helpless now and what’s worse I don’t know what to do with it. I have lost one of my family members and I cannot do anything about it. Anything. All I know is, yesterday it was Bitan. Today it can be my little niece, day-after-tomorrow it can be me.
Even after all this, we will continue with our lives. Because that’s the harsh reality. The show must go on. And it will. The brutal assassination of one of my family members doesn’t change anything. Can we atleast promise one thing to ourselves? That we will not forget? That we will remember? Because that’s what sports teaches us. It teaches us to remember.
To come back from the darkest depths. To step into the world of light. And I want to tell the terrorists – India is not afraid of you. The more you take my family members away, the greater my resolve will become to fight you. And I will not be shying away. I will fight because the Sachins and the Muhammad Alis have taught me the same.
I am a Bengali, so I will take solace in Rabindranath Tagore’s words as my heart keeps on bleeding for Bitan. Tagore wrote-
‘When illusion under the guise of religion takes over a soul
That blind wretch is forever doomed, to kill or be killed.
Even the atheist will receive the kingdom of God,
Though he may never have dressed himself in a show of faith
For he alone lights a torch of intelligent appraisal and respect,
He cares naught for dead scripture but for the good of living men.
But the one who pulls down another’s faith as false,
He only heaps insult at his own cursed altars,
He strikes at a child for its father’s imagined faults,
He does not know how to judge right from wrong,
He raises bloodied pennants in prayer halls across the land…’
Also Read: The IPL and Indian sport must stand in solidarity with Pahalgam Victims