How to get over the Commonwealth Games snub: A guideline.

Dear reader, (Ahem.. I know that it’s me and me only, most of the times) before getting into the matter, let me ask you, what exactly are you looking for? A creative and innovative solution to the Commonwealth Games organizing woes? Suggestions for conducting the Games in a better way? Or lessons that we should learn from the bitter experiences? This post is, nothing of that sort.
I take great pride in being an Indian. I am a sports lover as well. If you also belong to both of these categories, there couldn’t be a tougher time for you. I am, like the most of us, embarrassed and hurt, with the controversies related with the CWG. But it is better to appreciate the positives, rather than being dejected at the negatives. The following is an attempt to implement that thinking strategy.

1.Withdrawal of athletes

CWG, is the biggest sporting event that India has ever witnessed. But many of the top class athletes have already withdrawn from it, pointing at the safety and hygiene reasons. That might look like a disappointing thing, in the first look. But, that increases our winning chances. If all the other countries pull out, we win! Commonwealth games champions! May be that was what the organizing committee had in their plans. Anyways, it didn’t work out that way, and many teams have already arrived. But still, the absence of some of the big names might help our athletes.

2.PM steps in!

You know what that means? Just when the organizing chaos was running high, our prime minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh intervened. Till then, Sheila Dikshit was announcing deadlines to announce the next deadline. Whether the PM made a change or not, I don’t know. But with all the due respect to our democracy, let me say, both our current president and prime minister are rubber stamps. Our PM is a good economist, but, never a good leader. If he was, he wouldn’t have let things go this bad.

A sardar says : I’ve been proud of the industrious nature of Sardars. I’ve never seen a Sardar begging. Alas! Just then, Dr. Manmohan Singh was made the prime minister of India.

You know what is the difference between Dr. Manmohan Singh and our local pizza store? Our local pizza store stops taking orders at 11 in the night.

These jokes sum up what I’ve got to say about our PM. But just then, the news headlines about the PM’s intervention at the CWG, gave me a feeling that he is doing something on his own. Just a feeling. But it’s better than nothing. Right?

3.DD sports in HD

Are you people aware of the fact that there is a sports channel called DD Sports? There is. Apna Doordarshan’s sports channel. The channel has been operating, very effectively, for around a decade. It has always brought high quality sporting action to us, with superb picture quality. Their programs included the live coverage of the highly exciting games like Billiards, Caroms, Kabadi etc. Inter district cricket tournament in the state of Madhya Pradesh, Three day practice match between Australia and the President’s eleven, Race between tortoises conducted in Bihar etc. were covered, enabling us to catch the nail biting action live.

Now, they are going to telecast the CWG events, that too in HD. Their obsolete equipments have been replaced, spending a huge sum of money. At least for a small period, they are going to telecast something, that people would actually watch. Thank God!

Hope these worked for you. You see more positives like these? Let me know.

P.S :- Both the jokes about Dr. Manmohan Singh were picked up from Twitter. Credit goes to the unknown authors. I, shamelessly, copied those and used them in my blog, as if they were my own creations, and hoped that no one would find out. Bad me.

A 'not so good' experience.

A quick note, this is. After quite sometime.

Whenever I get an opportunity to travel, literally, I pounce at it. Traveling, books, movies - all make me go crazy. Equally. Around a couple of weeks back, I had a chance to be at the city where I spent four important years of my life. One of my friends was with me, the experience that I was referring to, happened on our way back.

Trivandrum central railway station. Me and my friend, call him A, were waiting to get into Maveli express in which, we had booked two sleeper class tickets. Around ten minutes were left for the departure, and we located our compartment, and looked for our names in the chart outside it. A was looking at the chart very keenly, and I said, "What are you looking at man? Let's get in".

A gestured me to wait. "There is one right next to our seat, dude."

"what?" I didn't get it.

"F 18" A replied, with a smile.

"Whoa man, Let's hope she is beautiful. She might already be there at her seat. Come, let's get in" I pulled A and we both got in. But her seat was unoccupied.

"You shameless idiot. Why do you look for girls in the reservation chart?" I started an arguement with A, just to kill time.

"Oh I know the kind of a saint you are. You also do the same, don't ya?" A hit back in the same tone.

"Well, I have done it, sometimes, while traveling alone" I had to confess. "Ok, leave all that. Just five minutes left for the departure. She might come in, any moment. Don't look at her too much ok? I hold the rights for that"

"Aha. Keep holding the rights. She probably might look at me, and never at you." A replied.

"But I do have an edge, pal. My station arrives at 2 o clock in the night. I'll get up, and watch the sleeping beauty, before I get down from the train. By the time you get up, she might not be there" Just when I finished saying that, she came in.

She was fair, and beautiful. Wearing a peacock blue dress. Accompanied by two people, her grand parents, probably.

A lightning passed across my stomach. My heart sank, instantly. She couldn't walk, or stand properly. Her hands and legs were dangling, as if she had no control over it. Her grand father was carrying her, and she was trying to walk, without much success. He made her sit on the side lower birth. She was talking to them, but, it wasn't clear at all. I saw her grand mother holding a white cover on which it was written 'Department of radiology, Trivandrum medical college'

I could sense the drop of tear that was there at the corner of my eye. I looked at A. He is a religious person, and he was already aplogizing to Jesus. Both of us, silently, walked to the door. Train had already started moving.

When I woke up at 2 o clock in the night, I did look and smile at her.

Here I am, a fellow human being with countless number of imperfections and weaknesses. I live, each and every day, fighting with each of those, trying to be a better person. She does the same. The challenges that she has to overcome, is much tougher, though. But who decides that a few people have to fight a tougher battle than most of us? Why can't they be like the rest of us? I don't know. And I will never know.