At Last…

This was the headline on the front page of one of the various English Dailies in the metro. The article was, of course, referring to India’s first ever Gold medal in the Olympics won by Abhinav Bindra. And I think this is also is what the rest of the Indian’s will be reflecting!!! Certainly, like all other Indians I too am proud to read and watch news reports of the prestigious win by the Indian shooter but there was that ‘other’ part of me that wasn’t all that impressed.
The first ever individual gold for a country with a population count exceeding well over one billion and harbouring a large pool of athletic and sporting talent, what an irony!!! The headlines all over the newspapers, it seemed, were secretly mocking at the present sports scenario in India. And my ‘other’ part seemed to agree.
This gold is the symbol of the dismal image of the country on the world’s sporting scene. It reminds us that we, the people, as well as coaches and sportspersons, have been ignoring the sports and games other than the bloody game of cricket. While all of us pour our interest, time and investments into the Gentleman’s game we forget that our country needs to exhibit it’s excellence at other sports as well. Table tennis, swimming, archery and so many such sports are still waiting for their fair share of popularity, fame and glory.
On the other hand this gold also tells us another truth, the truth that the Indian Sportsperson is ready to give it his or her best. He is ready to face any challenge and any hurdle, be it lack of finances, lack of training facilities or pure negative criticism, and rise above it all with a passion for the game in his heart and be a true winner. And that is what I think Abhinav has truly done, he has invested in himself and his own training (with not only money but with hardwork and determination as well) while other ‘experts’ out there were shamelessly criticizing him. A hearty congratulation to you, Abhinav.
Hence as my ‘other’ part rightly says, this Gold medal makes us proud and yet it leaves us humiliated!!!

At the Steering Wheel…

Today, I attained one more of the few “teenager’s milestones” in my life…I attended my first driving lesson! It was a tense yet exhilarating experience. The first lesson of course got me familiar with the basics…putting the car into the first gear, slowly releasing the clutch to thrust the car into a gradual glide…and that was it. I know, it was not much, yet it suddenly dawned on me that I had now gained a new degree of freedom, in a few weeks time it would mean an independence from the bus timings and train timetables! Now, I actually knew what the Wright brothers must have experienced on that fateful day!
At the end of the class, the instructor opened the bonnet and explained to me the various automated parts and their functions. After the class got over, when I was passing through the gate of our building and heading towards the staircase, I walked over to the parking space and looked at our little WagonR. A thing that had seemed so lifeless and obvious a few days ago now seemed unique and alive…I was able to appreciate a piece of machine whose components, once started, worked in perfect harmony.
Then, when I reached home and sat on the PC to deliver this beautiful experience I thought…there are so many of such inventions which irrespective of their complexity, are taken so much for granted by the us, that is the Gen-X! We work with these tools all day long and all throughout our lives and yet we do not tend to understand the indispensability and distinctiveness of such machines and tools and their inventors