My Un-Ladylike Chronicles- Part 3

It’s not very pleasing for a girl to be complaining or pointing out obvious flaws in system, but here I am, on the third part of my series. And I got one more to go.

If you are wondering what today’s topic is going to be, you were right if you guessed the Olympics 2016.

OLYMPICS 2016.

An event where casual Indians complained and cheered as the Indian athletes underwent a range of struggles and emotions. And so did we. We were one with the pride of our country and if you were a follower of the games, you, like me, had never felt more patriotic before.

But I wonder. What do we know where do the athletes go through? A casual Indian is present just in the celebration of victory or the funeral of a loss. We all understand the frustration of every loss that Indian athletes underwent but just as onlookers and not as an individual standing in the middle of your battle ground while the crowd chants the name of your opponent. While your people cry in despair since you apparently were made responsible for their emotions.

That’s what the problem is.

Why is a hardworking athlete the reason for your disappointment towards your country when you disappointed them all along? Did you know how long they trained? How much they sacrificed? Did you know how many legislative ristrictions they had to face to get across the pacific? Did we make it any easier for them?

We didn’t. we didn’t do shit for them till they stood on the podium and claimed the metal; that’s when we truly claimed them as our own.

I am talking about majority of Indians, including myself. I never knew any of these sportsmen and women. PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Dipa Karmarkar and OP Jaisha were simply a future pride to come and I feel ashamed for not following their progress upto their victories. For then I would truly feel like a part of the celebration.

I don’t need to remind anyone of comments made by famous figures and our ministers and Neta’s barely batting an eye towards the plight of our dehydrated runners. Anyone can point out the obvious flaws of lack of systematic support or any acknowledgement towards the players by the government until they proved themselves. I know a solution to that Netaji, how about you start tweeting with the right names and spellings of our victors?

It was clearly outrageous; the lack of support by the government as pointed by OP Jaisha furiously. Haven’t we really thought about this? Isn’t the real problem our attitude towards sports or the lack of one? If only more young men and women were pushed into this art and more coaches were supported financially and with better infrastructure may be Piers Morgan wouldn’t really have a chance to tweet what he did.

With 2 winners, 2016 should be a year of start of incremental improvement in our sports system and outlooks until we fly to Tokyo.

And sure lets address how WOMEN shone out bright as they wrestled the shaming of Indian status and emerged and saved the day. Suddenly all of us value the “girl child” even more. World take a hint already. We are here.

Not only did the bharatiya naari shine, but all the women who struggled to get on the field, the track and the mat and finally stood amidst of the supporters, they won. They won when everyone wasn’t rooting for a man or a conventional sport, but when faces were painted in the honor of a sport other than cricket or football.

Badminton

Gymnastics

Running

And the myriad girls who will be inspired to enter the gym despite of all the boos and raucous laughs. Their hearts were won. That’s when we all won; we are one step closer to the pride of being a woman. Carolina Marin.

 Israel. 2 bronzes, with half their delegation women. Yarden Gerbi.

If you don’t know these names, keep up. We are moving ahead too fast.

And oh I m proud of all the athletes who won and made their country proud. Men or women. But as far as india is concerned, I m going to be biased and say it.

Our ladies seized the day.

Image Courtesy: 

www.rio2016.com

www.vox.com

www.news18.com