On getting provoked

By

Randeep Wadehra

It was circa 1978…or was it 1979? A boxing match – a three round affair – was on at the Sector 32 SD College. The contest seemed unequal. In one corner of the ring was a powerfully built topdog and in the other a lanky diffident underdog.

The top-dog was scoring points quite nonchalantly. As the contest progressed his conceit crystallized into arrogance, much to the misery of the hapless underdog. When the third round began, the topdog made a rude gesture at his down-in-the-dumps opponent.

That did it. There was a complete transformation in the ring. It was the meek who was now wielding the fist of fury. Inside of two minutes he was standing arms akimbo over the knocked out once-cocky frame of the topdog. Hell hath no fury like an underdog scorned. (My apologies, Shelley).

History and mythology are replete with instances when the disdainfully dismissed Davids made cocksure Goliaths eat humble pies off terra firma. Napoleon’s imperious dismissal of the British as a nation of shopkeepers and Hitler’s treatment of the non-Aryans, especially the Semites, are still remembered… as are their respective ends. Closer to home, Draupadi’s mocking allusion to Dhritrashtra’s blindness sowed the seeds of a bloodbath on an epic scale. The disrobing of Draupadi in the Kuru court at the instance of Duryodhana provoked the Armageddon. And let us not forget that it was the humiliated Vishnugupt Chanakya’s ire that razed the mighty Nanda Empire to dust.

But provocation can evoke constructive and sometimes elevating reactions too. Eklavya, shunned for his ‘low’ birth, trained himself to become as good an archer as, if not better than, the best among the Kshatriya princes. Tulasidas became a great poet only after his wife spurned him. Sahir Ludhianvi is another example of what a jilted lover can achieve.

In sports too, one can recall several famed personalities with chips on their shoulders. Cassius Clay alias Mohammed Ali, for example.
In the Bangalore quarterfinals between archrivals India and Pakistan in the Wills World Cup, Indian pacemen were at the receiving end of the rampaging Pakistanis. After despatching Venkatesh Prasad’s delivery to the fence the acting Paki skipper did something that will haunt him to doomsday. The arrogance and contempt in Aamir Sohail’s gesture toward the placid Prasad metamorphosed the latter into a veritable nemesis. He sent Sohail cartwheeling to the pavilion with his very next ball. Every action has equal and opposite reaction? Thank you Mr. Newton.

You must be wondering as to why I am so taken up with these assorted provocations.

Actually I have been provoked into writing this piece