Much has been said about what has been done or what has not been done for Commonwealth Games - 2010. This has been dissected in great detail and the potrayals have been overly negative.
Our "free" and often "irresponsible" media went berserk and every invective in the dictionary was hurled at the organisers and the Games. Some even went to the extent of criticising the decision to accept these Games in the first place. There were veiled suggestions that we bribed many nations to get the Games awarded to India.
The hype was so great that the foreign press just had to add their bit and the impressions were of a disaster waiting to happen. Many athletes probably dropped out reading this stuff.
One minister Mr. Mani Shankar Iyer went to the extent of calling this a colonial relic and a waste of money. Every attempt made was to scuttle the whole event from taking place. An open and blatant attempt at self-destruction.
I am sure the then NDA government never imagined that we would live to see a day like this, when they went all out to get the Games to India.
It was an effort to project to the world about a young and modern India, a resurgent and confident India, an emerging heavy weight in the world hierarchy. It was also an exercise that would have inspired us Indians to excel in our pursuits and break those limiting shackles that time and our weak minds have imposed on ourselves. An opportunity to mobilise all Indians to come together and create something outstanding.
We were ready to
junk our image to mud.
believe that all these efforts are way beyond us.
believe that we did not deserve the glory that is rightly ours.
Self-destruct.
It would have been tragic if all these had come true. What surprises me is inspite of our manifold strengths, we repeatedly fall into that same trap and believe that we are so fallible.
The inaugural extravaganza was stunning and I was definitely very impressed with the effort. Coming on the back of very low expectations, the impact may have been higher. This, however, does not dilute any credit that the programme deserves. I am sure the rest of the Games would stick to high standards.
I remember Swami Vivekananda's words and wonder what the result would have been had we remembered his words:
Let these words inspire us to our best and not our media and TV channels who happen to believe only in our worst.
8 comments:
The situation was the same for South Africa when we were awarded the World cup. The hype was that the so called Black country will never be be able to host the world cup. Australia was ready to take over but as you know we hosted the best world cup ever. I am sure India will shine. I always say politican suffer from foot and mouth disease,
Its like a fat indian wedding always chasos before but all falls into place.
Yes, the media went berserk and highlighted every failure in the preparations for the games.
Mani Shankar Aiyar's behaviour was, as it always is, I think. :)
I hope that the rest of the proceedings go as well as the opening ceremony has.
One thing that should not happen though, is that those who indulged in corruption, go scot-free...
May be Aiyer was distancing himself from the time he was the sports minister.
Indian media started of by exposing corruption.Since other channels had to keep pace with competition, everything went for a toss and foreign media picked up the threads.
Hello Lakshmi,
There is an inherent assumption that a white person-nation is superior and a coloured / black is inferior.
SOmetimes, we start believing this.
Both India and South Africa have shown otherwise. The problem here in India is also the massive alleged corruption.
People are incensed at this.
Hi Manju,
Well, the Games have proceeded smoothly for the first three days so the experience should be good.
Re: corruption....let us see. Our track record in punishing the guilty is a clean slate. We never seem to get them.
Hello Chowlaji,
Media can ger very inane many times.
Today I saw some channel pointing faults at some marketing poster. This poster had a photgraph of some archer from Canada and he had dropped out.
The other guy criticised some aspect of the opening ceremony, another talked of empty stands...
We certainly excel in fault finding...
Though corruption is an unlicensed component it is still licensed ifor that matter every part of the world) Conniving politicians like kalamudi will continue to thrive in the world.
my issue about corruption is when the common man has to pay for water twice in bombay and corruption is seeped in !.
For getting a teachers job one has to bribe or to get a job in a bank in the railways or the BMC, or to get the telephone guy to put the line when one has to grease the palms than corruption is an issue or for that matter to get even a birth certificate from the panchayat office - when the common man has to crawl to feed the basic needs because of corruption..how much ever they say india is huffing and puffing ahead - hoisting a common wealth or an olympic next year is no source of big triumph in the present, but looking in hindsight and when we read history, our future generations will pose this question - how come india managed to pull it off when the system was broken and 60 % of the country is poverty stricken. - Jugaad ? will by then have become the gift of indian management to the world ?
Hello An,
I can feel the all the anger and disgust that you have against the system...
Things look very bleak and beyond redemption.
When men have no character, they stoop and then it is mayhem. The right thinking people can put many things right if they want to.
My previous post on Online admissions is not a private initiative. It is a Education Ministry initiative - Govt. of Maharashtra. Atleast in Mumbai, I have not paid a bribe for birth / death certificate, passport or driving license nor have I employed an agent.
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