Let’s stop pretending that this is normal. A stampede in Bengaluru. People crushed in their attempt to “catch a glimpse” of cricketers. Children separated from parents. Young gasping for breath. Families shoved into panic… for what? A victory parade. A game. A spectacle.
We are India’s middle class. We are the backbone of this country, but we are also its most gullible. We queue up, cheer the loudest, lose our voices in stadiums, empty our pockets for overpriced merchandise, and call it passion. But let’s ask the real question today… at what cost?
RCB won a trophy. Congratulations. But did anyone win in Bengaluru that day?
Where were the cricketers when mothers were screaming in panic? Where were the management teams, the BCCI, the event coordinators, the civic authorities? Better yet… where were the voices that were supposed to protect us, the aam janta, when the crowd turned into a mob?
The middle class bleeds silently. We bear the brunt of poor planning and political gimmicks disguised as public celebrations. We make noise when told, and remain quiet when crushed… literally.
Stop raising celebrities higher than your own children. You clap for strangers in stadiums, on screens, while your own child stands hungry and frightened in a stampede. You spend hours waiting to scream the name of a man who’s never heard yours. You carry toddlers on your shoulders in dangerous crowds to wave at people who won’t even roll down their tinted windows.
Is this adoration or collective insanity?
Idolising celebrities is not culture. It’s a disease. A distraction fed to the masses to keep them thrilled enough not to ask why their neighbourhoods are crumbling, why their salaries are stagnant, why public safety is a joke.
The middle class must grow up. Now.
You are not cattle. You are not fanboys. You are taxpayers. You are parents. You are citizens.
Let Bengaluru serve as a dark mirror. Stop risking your dignity… and your children’s lives for the illusion of fame. Start demanding better. Refuse to be herded.
Let this be the last time a selfie with a celebrity becomes more important than a safe way home.
This is not an attack on cricket. This is an outcry for common sense. For perspective. For safety. For middle class lives that deserve to matter… off-screen too.
Wake up, India. No cricketer is worth a crushed rib cage. No trophy is worth your child’s terror. You showed up to cheer. They didn’t show up to care.
At Middle Class Hub, we speak the truth no one else dares to!
