06-11-2004, 10:21 AM
havnt heard from Harsha in a while. He has something to say too.
Olympic medals? We donât even want to win with the torch...
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> I canât wait for the Commonwealth Games of 2010 to begin. I donât know if Bipasha Basu, Rani Mukherjee or Aishwarya Rai will be the flavour of the season then but I am sure their successors will proudly lead the Indian team, maybe even step forward and receive medals on behalf of the winners. Modern-day Aamir Khans and Vivek Oberois will be the flag-bearers and will take the oath on behalf of the athletes.
The new PT Usha will win the 400 metres and be whisked away through the tunnels and straight to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium â which, in utter disrespect to the leader it is named after, will continue to leak from various corners and from under various doors.
The hands that bore the Olympic torch on Thursday belonged to people who were accomplished but whose faces sold dreams. The strength of their arms and the fleetness of their foot mattered little. This is not to belittle their achievements but they were in the wrong place; just as a weightlifter might be on Karan Joharâs sets or an athlete might in a staged romance. We got it wrong, dreadfully wrong. We blew our chance to celebrate sport.
True, Anjali Bhagwat and Karnam Malleswari were there. But couldnât we have checked if Norman Pritchard has a survivor? Doesnât Khashba Jadhav? Wasnât this the moment to applaud Milkha Singh and Gurbachan Singh Randhawa? Sriram Singh and PT Usha? And all those hockey Olympians who won medals for us?
Couldnât we have announced to India when Ashok Kumar took the torch that this was the legacy of the great Dhyan Chand, the memory of that 1936 team that did more than just win an Olympic medal? And how many did we have there from the last Indian team to win gold? Shouldnât we have relived the 1980 Olympics with Vasudevan Bhaskaran?
We donât have a great sporting history and we donât have too many world-beaters. And so we must celebrate what we have, remember those that went beyond the ordinary, whose hearts still beat with the intensity of competition and the desire to achieve. Unless we remind ourselves of their story, how can another Olympian emerge?
What a pity that in our obsession with glamour we forgot some of our own sportsmen. So can we get Mallika Sherawat to recite Tagore? Ishaa Koppikar to remind us of our Param Vir Chakra awardees? Bipasha Basu to stand up for CV Raman? Shahid Kapoor to administer the oath of office to Manmohan Singh? Why not? <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What a shame and what a sham.
Olympic medals? We donât even want to win with the torch...
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> I canât wait for the Commonwealth Games of 2010 to begin. I donât know if Bipasha Basu, Rani Mukherjee or Aishwarya Rai will be the flavour of the season then but I am sure their successors will proudly lead the Indian team, maybe even step forward and receive medals on behalf of the winners. Modern-day Aamir Khans and Vivek Oberois will be the flag-bearers and will take the oath on behalf of the athletes.
The new PT Usha will win the 400 metres and be whisked away through the tunnels and straight to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium â which, in utter disrespect to the leader it is named after, will continue to leak from various corners and from under various doors.
The hands that bore the Olympic torch on Thursday belonged to people who were accomplished but whose faces sold dreams. The strength of their arms and the fleetness of their foot mattered little. This is not to belittle their achievements but they were in the wrong place; just as a weightlifter might be on Karan Joharâs sets or an athlete might in a staged romance. We got it wrong, dreadfully wrong. We blew our chance to celebrate sport.
True, Anjali Bhagwat and Karnam Malleswari were there. But couldnât we have checked if Norman Pritchard has a survivor? Doesnât Khashba Jadhav? Wasnât this the moment to applaud Milkha Singh and Gurbachan Singh Randhawa? Sriram Singh and PT Usha? And all those hockey Olympians who won medals for us?
Couldnât we have announced to India when Ashok Kumar took the torch that this was the legacy of the great Dhyan Chand, the memory of that 1936 team that did more than just win an Olympic medal? And how many did we have there from the last Indian team to win gold? Shouldnât we have relived the 1980 Olympics with Vasudevan Bhaskaran?
We donât have a great sporting history and we donât have too many world-beaters. And so we must celebrate what we have, remember those that went beyond the ordinary, whose hearts still beat with the intensity of competition and the desire to achieve. Unless we remind ourselves of their story, how can another Olympian emerge?
What a pity that in our obsession with glamour we forgot some of our own sportsmen. So can we get Mallika Sherawat to recite Tagore? Ishaa Koppikar to remind us of our Param Vir Chakra awardees? Bipasha Basu to stand up for CV Raman? Shahid Kapoor to administer the oath of office to Manmohan Singh? Why not? <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What a shame and what a sham.