Sunday 21 August 2016

Rio Olympics 2016 : Retreating Monsoons and our seasonally affected disorders-- (SAD)



At a time when the monsoon clouds recede from the Indian landmass the Olympic season  at  Rio is coming to an end. While monsoons bring with it, the positives of good harvest and prosperity so also it gives us a taste of floods and disasters. This  thirty-first Olympics bought in glories from stalwarts like Michel Philips , Usain bolt, Mo Farah , and Simone Biles with the US tallying high as expected in the medal tally . It also  bought disappointments and  despair among individuals and nations alike.

Well as the clouds of this sporting event  recedes we as a sub-continental nation-- with more than a billion people with most of them young – return back with just  two medals. Let us  console that the grace of the nation , at least marginally,  was saved by few  outstanding ladies.  While Sindhu and Sakshi came up with medals , Dipa with Lalitha Babur bought in hope . The glory of a  traditionally patriarchal society with gender biases  was thus upheld by these females. Sakshi ‘s win in the male-dominated sport of Wrestling  on the background of her coming from the infamous land of female infanticide conveys thus the right message:  

As like the monsoon,  our contingent saw many disasters too. Hockey which was our traditional grace saver did not move ahead beyond  the quarter-final . Similarly,  individual star performers from tennis and shooting went  down the line of expectation.  Poor Narsinh Yadav turns up into a doped tragedy and the list goes on

When  the game closes we come home with a bronze and a silver and a whole nation rejoices in line with  its culture – content on  whatever you get, I recall a   Pakistani tweet   ..''they get one and they rejoice as like 'getting 100

The game also has had its socio-political tamashas.  One of India’s top pulp fiction author who stinks with elitism got trolled for a remark on non-performance of athletes proving  that  whatever she speaks and writes is just indigested gas:  The Delhi walla Sports Minister invites the wrath and embarrassment for the   rude and unruly behaviour of members of his entourage. An unduly large crowd of babus and cronies from the Indian Olympic association and sports ministry had an opportunity to behave as in the Delhi railway station at the Olympic village. We also heard  a relative of IOA head  going on a Rio retreat in the garb of being a sport doctor.
  
As like during the monsoon this Olympics also    convinces us about our seasonally affected disorders which come because our sports machinery is infested  by nepotism and in efficiency . While Gopichand has proved how an individual's  training and mentoring can yield result the sports ministry has shown how a billion nation of mostly aspiring youngsters can be held ineffective through the web of ineffective bureaucracy  :


As we wait for the next Olympics in Tokyo as like we wait for our monsoons , let us be cross- fingered whether it is  going to be  thumbs down or a  thumps up: