Beijing Olympics mela - Phelps....you're a gun.

An incredible story hit Beijing Olympics mela in the form of Michael Phelps. An athlete who in his young age was diagnosed with Attention – Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) took up swimming to deal with his restless energy and got tremendous support from his sisters. Cut to 2008 – he has entered into the record books with a bang. He has won 8 medals at Beijing and smashed few world records of his own on the way. In total his tally is already at 14 gold medals discounting the two bronze medals he won at the Athens Olympics. Now, this is seriously incredible.

The above-mentioned incredible story is not just about an incredible athlete but also about an incredible sporting nation and that is USA. It is not surprising to note that the US of A leads the all time medals tally by bagging more than 2200 medals compared to the next best of Soviet Union trailing behind at 1000 odd medals.

I’ve been having numerous arguments over the last few weeks with my mates about why our nation (India) has won only a total of 18 medals in the history of Olympics and only 9 gold medals, here’s what they have in defence of our sportsmen:

1. India is a developing nation and doesn’t have too much money to spend on sports. Additionally, the average spend on sports spread across the population is miniscule.

2. Let’s face it that India doesn’t have the sporting talent and we should continually focus on what we do best, IT and the likes.

3. There is too much politics in the sports governing bodies.

4. Corporate houses like Cricket and no other support, which means more money for Tendulkar than say for Saina Nehwal (well you probably only know her because she came close to winning a medal in Badminton).

5. We can’t win medals unless we have foreign coaches.

My theory for all the arguments………….the above mentioned are nonsensical excuses. The following is my response to each one of them above:

1. China is a developing nation as well and leads this Olympic’s medals tally by already bagging 40 odd medals including 25 odd gold. It is not a matter of developing vs. developed but a matter of intent. China as a country wants to prove its prowess in every field and made its intent clear early that they will work every bit harder and put in any resource possible to take the top spot at the Olympic stage. To put few numbers in perspective, China spent approximately INR 84000 crores for organizing the Beijing Olympics in comparison to India which will approximately foot a bill of about INR 65000 crores to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010. So, clearly there is no lack of funds in the government coffers. Additionally, we as a nation are definitely in a better financial condition than some of the African, East European and South American countries who lead in front of us in the all time medals tally.

2. India has great sporting talent and as much as we should focus on our core competencies like IT, Engineering grads, etc, we shouldn’t ignore the formation of a sporting culture in our society. Sports are a career and as a parent one should see or explore the sporting talent in their kids and back them. Sports bring as much or more glory than being a high profile corporate at any organization. And mums…….let your kids play in the sun or in the rain, it makes them tough. And schools…..please provide some basic infrastructure for sports and not the likes of barren sand filled football fields (seriously, they were preparing us for some futuristic sport in our school).

3. Yes, there is too much politics in the sports governing bodies. I fail to understand that if BCCI, being a trust, and not being governed by any government body, can represent India as a nation, why does the Indian Olympic Committee or the Indian Hockey Federation need to be under government control. I am not suggesting BCCI as a perfect model as it is plagued by politics but it has certainly worked well for the players.

4. Corporate houses like to associate with success and it is as basic as that. They will associate with the T20 Indian cricket team who won the world cup but won’t associate with hockey or hockey players who didn’t qualify for the Olympics. Abhinav Bindra will get the sponsorship deals but not Samresh Jung.

5. We can win medals without foreign coaches and we have in the past. Only if our coaches were trained and equipped with modern techniques we would have more success than what we currently have. Indian coaches, majority of them get the job of a coach based on their experience and past accomplishments. Abhinav Bindra is already being asked for becoming a coach, now how stupid is that, he did won a gold but has a long way to go before he can “coach” people or rather I would assume so.

State Loyalties

Raj Thackeray recently vowed to kick North Indians out of Mumai/Maharashtra, HD Devegowda is supporting the thought of 30% reservation for the native Kannadigas in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu already has reservation for local Tamil population. The main reason behind all this madness……well no one is happy about the influx of people from various other Indian states into the more prosperous, urbane, opportunity struck cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai etc.

I’ve been reading about this and the most sad fact about the whole saga is that the youth of the nation has some very insane/childish thoughts on this topic. A bloke in Bangalore is just angry because North Indian people don’t want to learn Kannada but will insist on speaking in Hindi, and in another case, a person in Kolkatta is angry because it seems local customs and traditions are not valued by the non-bengali inter state immigrants.

I believe there are come contrasting points to look at the above mentioned situation:

a) The politicians are playing low-grade regional politics. The idea is to incite the frustration stored in the not so successful youth and use their pent up anger and frustration to stall the growth that is currently undertaking in urban India. The politicians have just one agenda and that is to sustain or regain power. Nonsensical politicians who are starved of ideas to keep their party alive plague Indian politics and igniting regional/communal politics is their last resort.

b) The unplanned growth in India has started to show its own problems. The state/central government are offenders of equal level as they have failed to provide basic infrastructure in smaller cities to enable industrial growth to happen there. Population moves where jobs move. A great example is Gurgaon which has turned into a haven for the service industry and now a big residential and commercial centre. It’s no more a case of a state being rich in natural resources or having favourable climatic conditions that will lead itself to prosperity. It’s about providing enough incentives and good infrastructure to lure global corporate to move next door. And, that is one of the more favourable solution for a equitable growth across the nation.

c) Infrastructure is shocking in some of the big Indian cities. Taking an example of Bangalore, it is a massacre on road during peak hours as the traffic barely moves and the public transport system is in shambles. It’s a fact that the big cities in India are facing a big influx but rather than creating a fuss about it, the government should be prepared to sustain this influx by all means. Remember, more the people: more collection for the state in taxes, more disposable income: more spending by people.

d) The last time I checked we in India were living in a democratic environment. We as Indians are proud of the Taj Mahal as much as we are proud of the Charminar or for that matter of the Khajuraho temples. Where does this thing about not respecting each others culture came about? India is known for its diversity and it seems it is at a larger risk than it ever was. So what if a North Indian doesn’t want to speak Kannada or doesn’t show up for the Durga Puja? Is your celebration going to be any smaller or is your life going to be altered in any sense? The culture carries on when it is imbibed by the young kids in the house, so go ahead and teach the kids the best of the religion and culture, and all the insecurities of the culture fading away will be gone.It is understandable that with the influx of people in certain cities, the cost of living including real estate prices have become astronomical. This again comes to the point of the unplanned growth that we as a nation are moving towards. A city like Hyderabad never loses power on any given day but the farmers in regional AP are committing suicide because of less power and water for their farms. Ask a young kid and he’ll have to thing twice to come up with the second largest city in Tamil Nadu or Karnataka. The government needs to work towards a sustainable growth across India with a focus on improving infrastructure and general living conditions.

Watch out for the Indian traveller

It has almost become a norm but I can’t help it. Every time I travel, be it domestically or internationally, I have my eyes open to look out for what people are upto. As much as I dislike getting on the plane, airports are the place I love to be at. I just love the hustle and bustle, love people rushing off to catch a flight, people getting pissed coz the flight is delayed, people going on vacation, kids going away from family, it is a place where you have all the emotions in world at display.

The close observations during my travel are also on the peculiar nature and characteristics of travellers from different nationalities. I’ve tried long and hard to pick up common characteristics among nationalities but I guess Indians are the only one’s which have a fair deal in common. Here are a few details:

1. The final goodbyes or the homecoming: Indian airports are by far the busiest airports I’ve seen not just filled with passengers but with people who come to drop-off or pick-up a near and dear one. Thank goodness non-passengers are charged an airport ticket if they want to get inside the airport.

2. Check-in at the airline counter: Yes, there are more airline people manning these lines than the actual passengers. You never know when the lines are broken. Believe me there are still people who walk straight to the counter ignoring the line.

3. Security check: Now, this has happened to me so many times. Even at Indian airports, clearly marked lines on the floor suggest people to wait for their turn before they go through the metal detector. You would not believe but if you wait there for the signal from the security guard to come through, there will be couple of people who’ll definitely slip past you and go through.

4. Immigration counter: Please fill out the form correctly and completely and if not then move aside and fill it. The blame goes to the Immigration officials as well on Indian airports as they just love to talk, even though the lines are getting bigger.

5. Flight boarding: What is the rush? If you’ve got a boarding pass and you are in the departure area, believe me, the flight is not leaving without taking you. Then why crush so many people on the way to try and get on the plane quickly. I can understand if it is a public compartment in train and you’re trying to get the best seat but on a plane……keeps me guessing. Maybe the fixed seat concept is a bit new. I remember being told by an Indian passenger on a near empty flight from Delhi to Jaipur to go look for other vacant seat at the back of the plane as he was not too interested to put his bag away from the seat originally allocated to me :)

6. Landing and Take-off: We love our cell phone, don’t we? I guess we love it more than anybody else in the world does and on top of that we love to call the whole world before the plane take-offs or as soon as it lands. On a flight from Hong Kong recently, an Indian lady was giving a step-by-step detail to a relative back home about her movement from the departure area following into her seat on the plane. How about a CCTV camera, I guess that would be better. And offcourse, we won’t switch off our phones unless the airhostess stands on our head and we will switch it on as soon as the plane lands on the tarmac. In addition, we just love to hit the washroom as soon as the seat belts signs come on, don’t we :)

7. In mid-air: We as Indians love to drink and we’ll go to any extent to grab a free drink. On a recent flight to Sydney, I was immersed in my sleep when I woke up listening to a tiff between an Indian passenger and the flight steward. Yes, it was about the alcohol. If you’re going to skull each time a drink is served to you and expect the steward to keep serving you, well excuse me but there are few hundred other passengers in the flight waiting to be served. Yes, you paid for the ticket and the service on board but you didn’t buy other people’s peace. Also, please have the balls to swear in English if you are that pissed with the service and not bitch about the whole thing with your mates in Hindi. I guess who wants to go to jail.

8. Indian immigration officials: As much as I didn’t want to write about this but I guess it is important for everyone to know. By the way being an Indian, I am pretty ashamed of this. On a recent visit to India, I presented my passport at the immigration counter and after looking at my passport curiously, the officer told me that the lamination on the main page is coming off slightly. I said fair enough, I’ll have that fixed from the passport office. Well, he wouldn’t let me go just that easily, he popped the question atleast 5-6 times, “toh kya karma hai iska aap batao? Problem ho jaayegi aapko jab aap waapis jaaoge” (short and sweet, he was asking me to come aside and give him some money and he’ll ignore the passport issue). This wasn’t my first brush with corrupt officials but I am deeply saddened to see the rampant spread of it.

Boxing Day Test Match…………Aussies pack a punch

I know it’s a bit late and there’s no point taking skeletons out of the closet but can’t help writing this. It was a déjà vu feeling going into the MCG on Boxing Day (26th December) this year and no surprises as I witnessed the Boxing Day test match between India and Australia at the same venue back in 2003. Things did change drastically over these four years with the MCG getting a facelift and the Australian cricket team not having the likes of Gillespie, Warne, Langer in the playing eleven this summer.

Instead of the all five days of the test match I restricted myself to only the first day of cricket, almost sensing a shoddy performance from the Indian team. The first day started well with a terrific battle between bat and ball. Zaheer Khan swung the ball either ways and had the opening pair of Jaques and Hayden in all sorts of trouble but the Aussies did what they know best, attack. If it hadn’t been the experience of Kumble Australia were looking to post a total of 500 plus but the day ended with the Aussies nine wickets down for 340 odd runs. Taking back the train home that evening all I could think was, “what a fight back by India”, with the Aussies scoring 111 runs for no wickets till lunch, Indians came back and claimed nine wickets in the last two sessions. What happened in the next four days is a shame and a pain to write about.

It is not funny when they say, history repeats itself. Back in 2003 the Indian team started day one of the Boxing day test flying high with Sehwag scoring a blazing 195 runs. What happened in the next four days was no different than in 2007. Enough has been written in the press about technique, under preparation, strategy, etc of the Indian team going into the test match which eventually led to their failure. What about the millions of dollars earned by BCCI, salaries to BCCI officials and coaches, contract money to players??? If we expect the team to perform, is that a crime? Where is the bloody accountability? “Every time we go out there, we try to perform at our best”…..this bullshit shouldn’t be accepted anymore.

I got a bit lucky this time or call it my intuitive best that I bought (for AUD $35) tickets to watch only the first day of cricket unlike in 2003 wherein I bought for all five days. The point I am making here is that we as Indian cricket team supporters are spending all this money and time to watch a bunch of players who lack not only intent but skills to compete at this level. How can you justify presence of a player like Dravid who hasn’t played a noticeable innings in past 1 year or for that matter Wasim Jaffer who is best at scoring runs on placid pitches.

Don’t fool the common people by winning a stupid competition like a Twenty20 world cup and declaring yourself as world champion. Play consistent and entertaining cricket and then no matter if the team loses or wins, fans will surely support them across the world. For the moment, I’ve taken a vow not to spend money to go see a cricket match involving Indian cricket team. And what to say about the Aussie team…..you guys deserve to be the world champions.