The End of Beijing Olympics : The Awakening of INDIAN Sports !!!

How often you would have thought that events unfurling in distance gives you that the chance to put things in perspective. A medal or two or perhaps three and yeah .... that included one solitary gold in the Olympics puts the entire nation into that discursive mode. How often does a sport other than Cricket evoke debates? How many times in not so distant past did you remember of keenly following a sport over the net, the newspapers and with Sports Gal in the 24*7 news channels? I am sure you must have done but guess it would not be that frequent. Thrice in the last couple of days young Indians have brought me to my feet and caused emotions to leap up in joy. Indian sport rarely does that and so this was an awakening.

Abhinav Bindra fulfilled the sports lover’s ultimate fantasy. The tricolor went up and the national anthem played and if your eyes weren’t moist at what he had achieved you weren’t Indian and you didn’t know what heartbreak meant. A young man with still chubby cheeks and a distant look has joined the ranks of India’s greatest. And how can I ever forget Sushil Kumar and Vijender the two unknown yet so magical guys who brought the world to their feat by their splendid achievements.

There is, however, a bigger cause for celebration, a good news story not entirely told by this medal tally. It’s the story of a phenomenal, across-the-board improvement in India’s sporting standards. It’s a story to be found way below the stratospheric level of the Olympic podium. It’s one that we can appreciate only when we free ourselves from the tyranny of expectations of an Olympic medal.

Let’s look at the Olympics first. Besides the three medal winners, when was the last time you saw so many Indians break into the quarter-finals, even to the last 16? Paes and Bhupathi in the quarters along with three boxers and a wrestler. India’s shooters have begun charting the path that India’s chess players did ten years ago. But the chess players were luckier for all they needed was a cardboard box, some chess pieces and a handy laptop. Even that was beyond India at times. But the shooters have overcome more and now we must give them, Rajyavardhan Rathore and Anjali Bhagwat and Gagan Narang and Avneet Kaur and everyone else, a standing ovation for they have won at different places on the world stage. As we must for young Saina Nehwal. Just 18 and looking it, which is rare in many sports, she showed the kind of determination that tugged at the heart and made you want to reach out to her. She has gone where no Indian girl has gone before in her sport.

Today, two shooters are in the top 10 and at least six in the top 20. Saina entered world badminton’s top 15 at the age of 18 and should at some point enter the top 10. Anup Sridhar and Chetan Anand are already in the men’s top 50. Wrestling, weight lifting, boxing, all have, between themselves, several Indians who are leading contenders in their own respective categories. Our golfers have made a phenomenal improvement and now three are at least prominent regulars on the international circuit. Chess today boasts 18 grandmasters, many more than ever, underlining the fact that Anand wasn’t just an odd-ball prodigy, but an inspiration for so much hidden talent waiting for opportunity and a role model. And how can we ever forget Narain Kartikeyan ... a man who has single handedly changed the way 1 Billion People look at Formula 1.

Even in cricket, with our ongoing trouble with Mendis and Murali, our international rankings have never been higher. Our Test team has stacked out the Number Two spot in the ICC rankings as its own for a couple of years now (though slipping narrowly to No. 3 right now). Never in our history, not in the days of Gavaskar, Kapil and the great spin trio, have we been ranked at No. 2. Playing overseas in the past decade, we have won Tests and sometimes even the series. And surprise of surprises, our one-day performance entered the 50% zone for the first time in our history in recent weeks. What this means is that now we have won as many matches as we have lost, a Rubicon never crossed in the game’s four- decade history, not even in 1983, the year of the World Cup win.

And then I saw men full of spirit play their heart out for India on a football field. Rugged Manipuris played alongside a Kashmiri and a Sikkimese. Goans stood tall alongside Bengalis. This was Indian Foot Ball finding its feet and only just becoming aware of what it could do.

This is perhaps one of the very best phases of Indian Sports for quite some time...

Let's Enjoy.

Miracles

I believe in Miracles. In Science. In Fiction. In Angels. In Fairies. In Magic. In Misty Mornings. In Pleasant Evenings.In Dense Forests. In Deep Sea. In Mystical Chanting. In Ghostly Silence. In almost everything.....I do believe in Miracles.

As a child, I would fall a asleep hoping that when I wake up I would be lucky enough to watch the fairies polishing the leaves and watering buds with dew every morning. After all this exactly what my mommy use to say night after night every night. Of course I have never been a morning person and thus never did catch a sight of them doing that stuff but that did not make me believe any less in them.

I would also imagine as I lay in my bed that the angels whispered to me about sweet dreams and more often that not I would sleep safe in the knowledge that they watched me as I slept.

I have grown up quite some time since then but I still believe in impossible about things that lies beyond our ken and things that are beyond the realm of our imaginations.

The Importance of Being Mr. Pragmatic

( Guess this had to happen after the extremes of Dreamzz and Great Expectations... I had to take a middle path )

Ask any person on the street that whether he is optimist or pessimist, chances are pretty high that he will come with a reply which would suggest to us that he would be liked to be known as optimist rather than pessimist. Better to say glass half empty rather than half full. Even better to be known as a positive rather than not so... And now it is a ell established fact that an optimist has a better chance of succeeding than the person who is not so.

Life becomes very easy when we choose to live in fake world. We put new paint on dead walls, we walk with no clothes on body and still feel as if we are draped in silk, we cover rubbish on the floor and convince ourselves there is marble beneath. So very easy to make people imagine the golden dreams of future... that so very difficult to to make them see the hard vagaries of present.

So you see it is not the question of being optimist. The question also is not of being pessimist. The question is of being realistic. The question is of being PRAGMATIC. The question is of being able to face realism away from fake world. So should we still ignore the bricks and only concentrate on the paint or rather the color of our carpet or should we look inward within our self, be honest and realistic and build our future away from foolish fake imagery world. The choice is entirely yours.

Great Expectations

( This piece is written essentially as a sequel to my earlier article called Dreamzz )

How many times did you feel that people close to you have made you feel touch low even when you thought that you had given your best ? What happens to you when you come running back to share a good news only to find the usual sigh ? When was the last time you felt something great ... but alas still you were made to look just that equal ?

We live in the world of expectations. We breath in a world bubbling with expectations and trust me more often than not this bubble bursts without meeting it's ultimate realisations. From the scrawny street urchins playing near the mosquito infested drains of Chowk in Old Lucknow to the celebrated superstar walking out to play a Test Match in Lord's, almost everybody expects greatness and glory in the cricket field.

The scientist working in a isolated laboratory away from motley group of onlookers day in and day out expects to achieve a breakthrough in the dreaded A- Word AIDS, the ever so successful broker expects to hits the bulls eye every time he deals in the Bombay Stock Exchange. Every child entering the portals of Shivaji Stadium in Mumbai or Maidaan in Kolkatta wants to become the ultimate in the game of cricket : Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar or Shane Warne and every student of Science at some point of time in his academic career must have been asked by his folks aside that " When will you become an engineer?"

So many of us expect greatness and go for glory little realising that nature has placed limitations on us. We try to be what we cannot and I tell you what that path lead to frustration only. Instead we should look inwards and try to do what we are meant to do and then get down to do that job better than anybody else and stamp our authority over it. It is not easy for it requires hard work, energy and motivation but also two of the most important things often taken for granted when it comes to achieve success. That of being Realistic and that of being Honest all the times. But is quite possible that you end up conquering the entire world with that extra effort and be the best in that field.