On April 2, 2020, ESPNcricinfo marked the anniversary of India’s 2011 World Cup win with M.S. Dhoni’s winning six: “On this day in 2011, the shot that sent millions into jubilation.”
Gautam Gambhir, a member of that team, replied: “Just a reminder @ESPNcricinfo: #worldcup2011 was won by entire India, entire Indian team & all support staff. High time you hit your obsession for a SIX.”
In September 2018 India won the Asia Cup under its stand-in captain, Rohit Sharma. Khaleel Ahmed, the youngest member of the team and playing his debut series, later said: “Dhoni bhai asked Rohit Sharma to let me hold the trophy on the dais.”
Dhoni had explained the habit in October 2017: “At the end of the day, we have won the trophy. It doesn’t matter who holds it.”
On August 23, 2023, Chandrayaan-3 landed on the Moon. The chairman of ISRO, S. Somanath, spoke after the landing: “All the team that contributed to building Chandrayaan-1 and 2 should be remembered and thanked.”
In classic Hindi film music, Goan musicians worked as arrangers for the composers. The composer appeared “under the designation ‘music director’ in large type in the credits.” The arrangers were listed in small print. One of them, Frank Fernand, said: “We arrangers did all the real work.”
Sebastian D’Souza, for example, was a permanent assistant to the composers Shankar and Jaikishan from 1951 to 1975.
Article 75(3) of the Constitution of India: “The Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the House of the People.” The House of the People is the Lok Sabha.
In the Lanka Kand of Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas, the monkey army builds a bridge of stones across the sea. Shri Raghubir pratap te sindhu tare pashan. By the glory of Rama, the stones crossed the sea.
The next line denies the credit to everyone else: Mahima yah na jaladhi kai barni, pahan gun na kapinh kai karni. This glory is not the ocean’s, nor a quality of the stones, nor the work of the monkeys.
Nimitta-matram bhava savya-sachin. In chapter 11 of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna speaks to Arjuna before the battle. In the translation by Swami Mukundananda: “These warriors stand already slain by Me, and you will only be an instrument of My work, O expert archer.” The verse is 11.33.
On September 7, 2019, ISRO lost contact with the Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-2 during its descent to the Moon. A Failure Analysis Committee examined the loss. “Unlike ISRO’s previous record, the report of the Failure Analysis Committee has not been made public,” Wikipedia notes.
A request for the report under the Right to Information Act was refused: “this information cannot be divulged under Section 8(1) of the RTI Act.”
In 1979 the first flight of India’s satellite launch vehicle, SLV-3, failed. Satish Dhawan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, faced the press himself. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the project director, later recalled: “He took the whole blame on himself despite criticisms.” Dhawan told the press that “next year we would succeed because his team was a very good one.”