Kevin
Durant talked about how India was “a country 20 years behind in knowledge and
experience, cows and monkeys everywhere, and just a bunch of underprivileged
people, wanting to learn basketball”.
He
did apologise later on, saying that what he meant was “basketball knowledge”
and that he had a great time in India. But the damage has been done:-
Following
is the full text of his remarks on India:-
Q: First of all, India. You just got back. What was that like?
DURANT: Um, it was a unique experience. I went with no
expectation, no view on what it’s supposed to be like. I usually go to places
where I at least have a view in my head. India, I’m thinking I’m going to be
around palaces and royalty and gold — basically thought I was going to Dubai.
Then when I landed there, I saw the culture and how they live and it was rough.
It’s a country that’s 20 years behind in terms of knowledge and experience. You
see cows in the street, monkeys running around everywhere, hundreds of people
on the side of the road, a million cars and no traffic violations. Just a bunch
of underprivileged people there and they want to learn how to play basketball.
That s— was really, really dope to me.
Q: Was there a particular situation or person or thing that was
eye-opening on the trip?
DURANT: Yeah.
As I was driving up to the Taj Mahal, like I said, I thought that this would be
holy ground, super protected, very very clean. And as I’m driving up, it’s
like, s—, this used to remind me of some neighborhoods I would ride through as
a kid. Mud in the middle of the street, houses were not finished but there were
people living in them. No doors. No windows. The cows in the street, stray dogs
and then, boom, Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world. It’s like
holy s—, this was built 500 years ago and everyone comes here. It’s just an
eye-opener.
Durant’s remarks were ofcourse, very ignorant and devoid of any
kind of research. But then, a sportsperson is the last person one will seek for
any kind of research. And basketball players are anyway, overgrown kids,
outdone in tantrums only by NFL players.
No, Im not going to start a rant of whataboutery:- what about your gun
violence, black ghettos, drug culture, rust belt, poor neighbourhoods, general
ignorance of the local public, teen pregnancies etc etc. Neither am I going to
do any personal remarks about the background he grew up in ie how black
neighbourhoods are hell, where mamma’s kids are by different fathers, and she
comes home with a different man every month or week, where its tough for her
kids to stay out of jail or not become a drug pusher, how mamma’s gotta choose
between whether to spend the welfare check on food or giving it to her latest
abusive boyfriend. This really makes the crappy lanes of Agra look like heaven
in comparison, isn’t it?
These are but obvious facts. No need repeating them. What needs to be
said here is the fact that he’s done an absolutely disastrous job of marketing
the NBA. One doesn’t deride the target population to whom one wants to sell
something. Its not good salesmanship at all. Instead of being remembered for
making a world record for holding the biggest basketball workshop for kids, his
trip will be remembered for this statement of his. Its also horrible manners to
spit on someone’s hospitality.
But then, was he really off the mark in describing how most cities in
India look like?
Cows in the street, sometimes monkeys running around, mud in the middle
of the street, hundreds of people on the street, zero traffic sense, horrible
driving. This is how most tier two cities in India look like. Agra is just an
example of how most of north India looks like, a mostly unfit place for human
habitation. The other parts of India aren’t too far behind, but they are
atleast somewhat safer. Do we expect someone from better developed part of the world
to come here and not be disgusted by it?
And Kevin Durant also thought that Taj Mahal would be clean. Ignorant
fellow doesn’t know that we Indians have a birth right of keeping our country
dirty and scribbling on the walls of heritage monuments.
And most importantly, is there nothing else in India other than the
overrated Taj Mahal? I Is Is there nothing beautiful in hundreds of watchable
monuments/places in India that Indian tourism promotes nothing else
internationally other than Taj Mahal and any dignitary or celebrity from abroad
is compulsorily sent there? When compared to beautiful temples/mouments for
example, in Khajuraho, Tanjore or Hampi, Taj Mahal looks ugly in comparison. An ugly
monument built by an ugly debaucher of an ugly dynasty. And we expect the world
to respect us for showing off proudly a monument built by invaders, a symbol of
wastage and megalomania. We are a damaged people, really.
Seventy years after independence, have we asked ourselves that why do
most of our towns look like ghettos? Why do our streets look like garbage dumps
? Why do we drive like animals? Or why we can never follow any rules or
regulations until and unless the law chases us with sticks? Or why countries
which were poorer than us four decades ago are today developed and we still rot
in our third rate socialist hellhole, lagging behind in every human development
criterion? Or why we have to spend crores of rupees in public ads telling
people not to defecate in the fields or the roads? Is living like humans that
difficult? And why do we get angry when someone points this out?
Our reply to any foreigner who makes such remarks: Do you know ancient
India was so advanced and we invented this and we built this and blah blah blah…
Yes, ancient India was advanced. And beautiful. But we cant live in past
glories. Comparing today’s Hindus with ancient Hindus is like comparing a crow
with an eagle. We have failed our ancestors and make no effort to regain their
glory other than naming roads and institutes after them.
There is no Delhi or Deccan sultanate now, nor any Mughals. We have
completed seven decades of being free from the British Raj. There is no one
else to blame now, but ourselves. If we cant even get basics of civilized human
society right, ie , habitable cities, clean surroundings, good life for
citizens, good childhood for our children, respecting our heritage, integrity
and honesty in public & private life etc, then we have no right to be
respected by anyone. We will merely be a spittoon for any tom, dick and harry
from abroad to spit in with impunity. Well, let me correct myself, we are
already being spat and pissed on by our leaders (who we so proudly elected for
being from our caste and for the money they paid us to vote for them) and our
overpaid civil servants, and we think its raining. And we are spitting and
pissing on each other as well whenever we can. This is the modern meaning of
sujalam, sufalam, malayajaa sheetalam. This is better than any imagination of
Ram Rajya that we ever had.
On our so called seventieth independence day, we are still, a third rate
soviet socialist license permit quota raj republic which refuses to abandon
inefficiency, corruption and look beyond the same old fashioned nonsense of
trying to tax the country to prosperity. We refuse to set a higher benchmark
than Pakistan, whom we look towards all the time and pat ourselves on the back
that we are doing better than them. Never mind that a small country like South
Korea sets its sights on becoming the most advanced country in Asia, by aiming
to be better at everything that Japan does (Samsung has long overtaken Sony,
eg). We are so full of inferiority complex that even in our dreams we refuse to
make ourselves worthy of competing with USA or China. We elect votebank managers
as our leaders. Inefficient overpaid civil servants run this country. Both of
these aforementioned species don’t have the competence to build even public
toilets or public schools or make some area suitable for a small business to
run, but they behave as if they have done us a favour by coming into this world.
And we , the common people ofcourse,
refuse to move a muscle to do our part , elect leaders who are as
corrupt as us and who speak the lies that we all want to hear. We are a people
who don’t let a good man survive, and after he dies, make a statue of him and
celebrate his birth and death anniversaries with Bollywood songs and stupid
speeches. And then we cry that we deserve better because we are so nice.
We
will have to take a lot of disrespect before we can finally build a
nation worthy of respect. Its difficult, but not impossible.It's time we realise that nationalism is not a suit that’s to be worn twice a
year.
