It was one of those horrible weekday mornings @ office. There I was.. all bugged up, in my cubicle, cursing the computer for not compiling a Goddamn code that I'd cooked up somehow. My mobile beamed suddenly. Expecting a mindless forward, I just browsed through. "Bindhra wins Gold @ Olympics" read the message. I glanced towards my calender, Thank Heavens it wasn't April 1!!. And doubly reassuring was the fact that the Olympics were really happening! Stupified with amazement I wished to scream out load "Look World !!! ..... We 've won Gold !!!!"
Hard to contemplate if that gives us a reason to rejoice or ponder. Perhaps the most coveted moment of Indian Sporting History, the INDIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM being played, for an individual acheivement, for the first time since 112 years of the Games' inception. Never argue it came so late. Just celebrate.. After all it has come.
Candidly put, that was perhaps the best result we could have expected, pessimistic though it may seem. But even the hardcore optimist would agree, I bet. There is always a readymade answer for people who debate the crust of the problem - Blame the System. They do forget the fact that, we the people are very much part of the System, let alone part of the problem.
It's impossible to sideline the fact that our mindsets are so deeply entrenched in traditional studious endeavours that we term it utmost devilish to pursue sport in the right earnest, beyond a certain limit. It wouldn't take a poll pundit to predict the fact that this is not gonna change in the near future atleast.
The Govt on its part can't escape the blamegame though. Athletes, nurtured on alarmingly poor facilities, stand testimony to not even handful reaching the medals table rounds. Picture this - We've won 9 Golds in the Games' history (Thanks to our erstwhile elite Hockey team that provided 8 of it). It pales in comparison to a single individual.... Micheal Phelps - winning 14!. Pathetic to say the least and horrendous, that it comes from a nation of 1 billion. It might be an oft repeated filmy dialog, but why not even 10 Bindhras from such a crowd. Hard to digest, but the bitter pill is when the chinese have risen to epic proportions, we've fallen flat, celebrating a single Gold satisfying a billion dreams.
Never awake a sleeping tiger for it may pounce anytime. Here the Tiger is extinct, at best we may be termed a domesticated Cat, rejoicing momentuos glories. The million dollar question. Where lies the solution?
The answer doesn't lie in the lack of ability, it lies in the lack of resolve.
