The Underdog rises!

“My strength was my weakness” says Advani

“My weakness was my strength” says Manmohan

This was one of the comic strips featured in a leading newspaper recently. It sums up the story of the season – the resurgence of the underdog; the victory of the person considered to be the weakest. All through the election campaign, the BJP claimed that it was the strong force in this elections and its prime ministerial candidate was the best in business. They even started attacking Manmohan Singh directly by calling him a “weak” prime minister. Manmohan did nothing but wait for the election results. When they finally came, the party which considered itself the strongest had fallen flat on their face and the weak prime minister had returned for a historic second term at office.

This year the electorate has chosen a very stable government. The belief in people that this government will save them from the economic crisis showed when the sensex soared more than 2000 points in a day when the government came back to power. The people have made a good decision in choosing one of the national parties with wholesome majority, but being an avid supporter of the other national party, all I can say is that this decision was not the best. After all the years of service to the nation, the strong candidate did not deserve such a humiliating defeat. But I feel that the BJP has got itself to blame by being over-confident and indulging in negative campaigns.

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When I wrote about them in an article two weeks back, little did I hope that the royal challengers from Bangalore would be qualifying for the finals of the Indian Premier League. But as in politics, this season of cricket has been just about that – “the rise of the underdogs”. Who would have imagined that the teams placed at the bottom of the table last year would be playing in the finals? All through this tournament, the teams that looked the strongest on paper have fumbled when it mattered the most. And in contrast, the teams considered to be weak have had the last laugh in tough situations.

It is still an irony that an Indian captain has never been able to lift the IPL after 2 spectacular editions. Out of the four semi-finalists, three of the teams were led by Indian captains. The Delhi Daredevils were the strongest in the tournament. And yet, when the big match came, they were sent packing by the explosive Deccan Chargers captain Adam Gilchrist. Even the final game had Royal Challengers’ name written all over it but the team gave in to the pressure and ended up on the losing side. For all the efforts the legend jumbo had put to take his team to the finals and even restricting the opposition on the big day, he did not deserve to be on the losing side. It is such a nice irony – all through the league, Bangalore managed to win the tough games and beat the strongest sides in the tournament when they were considered the underdogs. But on final day, they looked the stronger side and still managed to lose the game. The underdog had to win!

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This is perhaps the best of the three underdog stories. While all the above stories were being written on a national or international level and had the entire media attention, the script of this story was being written silently in a remote village of Karnataka. And that’s what makes this story extra special. A young girl from a poor agricultural family in one of the most backward districts of Karnataka scored the highest marks in the recently concluded Pre university examinations. The girl, Shruthi S K belongs to a poor family of Jyothirlingapura, a village that is 15 km from Harapanahalli taluk headquarters in Davanagere. Her father is a farmer and her mother works as a domestic help. They did not have electricity in the house till middle of the year when they got a light-bulb under the government’s “Bhagya-Jyothi” scheme. The girl used to travel in either private or state government buses everyday to her college and then come back home and study. Her success story is really an inspiration for all students. When so many students in the city who go to the expensive coaching classes and still complain about the lack of proper study facilities, this girl has proven that when you have the will power to succeed, no one can stop you from achieving your goal. The achievement of the girl is truly commendable. I wish her story inspires many more students like here to achieve success.

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I leave you with these three stories to ponder upon. If you have been constantly labeled as an underdog or a weak person, please don’t lose heart. Every person is unique in his/her own way and will definitely come good in their respective fields. History has proved it time and again. If you have the will to succeed, nothing can stop you in your endeavors and you will definitely win.