I aint a big fan of reality TV, but one show that I was hooked onto was Indian Idol...I appreciate people who can sing well, considering I’m not very good at it myself :) < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

Some weeks ago, or well, months ago I think, wait…my time sense is skewed, heck...New Years Eve feels like a few days old to me!! I guess I’m moving too slow relative to time…yeah, whatever…so where was I? Alright, so I happened to see the grand finale of the show, the fight to stardom between NC Karunya and Sandeep Acharya, Karunya being the pre-event favorite & clearly the better singer of the two. No, I’m not saying it because he’s a Hyderabadi; I’m saying it because it’s the fact. Sandeep was the underdog all along.

 

The result startled me...Sandeep won, my heart broke. Why does the junta empathize with the underdog? Why doesn’t it support the strong and the deserving? Someone who deserves accolades should win, not someone who strives on sympathy...

 

Maybe this trait of sympathizing with the underdog has been ingrained in us for way too long.

 

David Vs Goliath.

 

Goliath was massive; everyone knew that. He was as mighty as he was massive.

The Israelites quaked before him and despaired that “He’s too big to hit”.

And David said: “If Goliath is that big, then he’s too big to miss”.

And then he hit him with his now legendary slingshot.

Pure arrogance...and maybe this is where the whole sympathizing with the underdog story began.

 

History gives us way too many examples of this phenomenon. The Battle of Salamis, the Great Siege of < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Malta...all classic illustrations of the underdog’s win over the favorite.

 

If Goliath had crushed David to death, would history have recorded the story with so much exuberance? I don’t think so...

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(Which should have actually happened, considering it was the natural course of action…a giant is supposed to crush someone who is 1/10th his size and might, it would be taken as a brains vs. brawns story, but it’ll forever be immortalized as the first and most important Underdog win in history.)

 

Picture this: A Wimbledon match --- A high seed is up against someone who’s received a wildcard entry, and who does the crowd cheer for??...Yeah, you guessed it right... “The Underdog”.

 

It’s been this way forever, in sports, in politics...almost every other field!!

Can someone please tell me why this happens?? I just don’t get it...



Current Mood: Angry
Current Music: Going Under