Wise, strong and gentle
Somebody once said that only SRK and sex sell in Bollywood. The person was obviously off target as Hindi cinema has always had the stomach for good scripts. It was only a matter of time before the audience developed one too. If anything, this decade has proved that everything sells everywhere provided it’s sold properly. And not just commodities; even ideas sell — far and wide. Take Colin Kaepernick’s association with Nike for instance. Here is a man who quite literally put his entire career on line for his principles. You don’t get to see that often, at least not in the present scenario where money is everything.
Enter Nike.
True to their marketing acumen, they struck a deal with Kaepernick not only celebrating his brave ideals but also highlighting the brand’s continued association with sports activism. It’s been barely a month since that deal and Nike has already added $6 billion to its market value. Speak of returns on emotional investment.
Such episodes are rare occurrences today not just because sportspeople have changed but also because our collective idea of a society has changed. We don’t have a Muhammad Ali amongst us anymore and the reason for this absence is quite telling: we’ve convinced ourselves that we don’t need one anymore. Of course, this doesn’t mean that Kaepernick matches Ali’s legacy. But the thing is, he doesn’t have to. Unlike in sports, there is no competition over doing the right thing. When he knelt, he knew he was going to get a backlash but he listened to his conscience and did what he had to. And that’s what sets some of us apart from most of us. We want to make the correct choice but more often than not, we choose not to for sheer convenience.
Nowadays, sports personalities wait for retirement to say how they truly feel about something. Ali didn’t have time to wait. He had to do what he had to do. He had to speak up for what he had to speak up for. The colour of his skin and the tone of his voice became recognizable for what he did inside the ring as much as how he behaved outside of it. Rivals respected him because he didn’t hate him. He flew nasty jibes at them, yes, but he did so to manipulate media. At no point can anybody claim — no, not even Joe Frazier — that he had disdain for his opponents. You don’t weep for somebody who hated you once.
When Ali was around, he stood up for his beliefs and his poetic persona added a touch of superman-ness to his memory. While reading some of his more popular quotes from his youth — almost all his interviews are lit with wit and rationale — one can locate a faint scent of premature wisdom in his words. There are all kinds of champions out there; some strive for glory, some strive for wealth, some strive for respect. Very few strive for what they know they are capable of achieving but will never achieve. And very, very few strive for what they know they are capable of achieving and end up achieving. I think Ali belonged to this minority of a category. Through his words, as through his actions, he appeared to be seeking a meaning.
So, when we’re done drooling over the super-rich athletes of our times, it’s worth wondering whether we can handle sportspeople who truly listen to the greater calling.
