the 19th Commonwealth Games

The 19th Commonwealth Games ended on October 14, 2010. For record, I am putting down some important facts about the games:12 day event, from October 3 to 14, 2010

• Next games: 2010 in Glasgow, Scotland
• Participants: 71 nations and C’wealth territories
• Mascot: Shera, the tiger
• Over a hundred C’Wealth records were broken.
• Top countries in the medal tally:

--Australia: gold 74 + silver 55+ bronze 48=177
--India: gold 38+ silver 27+ bronze 36=101
--England: gold 37+ silver 59+bronze 46=142

• India’s gold medal break-up:

--Shooting Men 11+Women 3=14
--Wrestling Men 7+ Women 3=10
--Archery Men 1+ Women 2=3
--Boxing Men 3
--Athletics Women2
--Weightlifting Men 1+ Women 1=2
--Badminton Women2
--TT, tennis Men2

I will give details of Indian medal winners in another post.

commonwealth games: finally some action

It comes as a much needed comfort that finally the government has taken charge of the games and things are fast improving. There is no time left for any big and systemic change and hence the works will mostly be cosmetic and yet they are very very important for boosting the morale of the nation. India also, deservedly, needs to give a message to the world: ‘you had till today seen how we goofed up because we believed in the capabilities and sincerity of some self-serving guys, and now you see how India can pull it off from the most desperate situation in no time.

One also hopes that the ceremonies and sports events are held smoothly, some records are broken, Jats are pacified and athletes don’t fall ill.

[But the wish also comes with these conditions: Government must (i) thoroughly investigate the inaction and corruption, (ii) take stern action against the guilty, and (iii) do these in a short time. If the government does not heed these, India will not forgive it.

loo's talk: delhi, games and aam admi

Delhi was earlier called Dilli, the city with a heart. British brought the capital of their Indian colony to Dilli and made it Delhi. In today’s digital world, it aptly represents del in ctrl,alt,del.

Though the guy in the street in Delhi is without a heart, he has one virtue: he is not ruffled with all that is happening around him. He suffers but does not raise his voice. He willfully pays bribe to get things done. He is a perfect pacifist that the God would like him to be. Road rage is another thing, but there it is not the aam admi - common man - but a rags-to-riches yuppie whose father has got enormous money by selling land or a progeny of a politician or a policeman. So, no issues there.

But suddenly the blood of each Delhiite has started boiling on drop of a hat, a footbridge or a tile on the false ceiling. The paranoia is so much that if he hears the words ‘Commonwealth Games’ in dreams, he takes a high jump in the bed, sprints to the loo, floods the pot and wrestles back to the bed. Earlier, these very words gave him a kick as if he had taken dope. Times have changed.

Starting with bed tea to going to the bed at night, a Delhiite will have argued a thousand times about what could have been done and why things went wrong at the Games. Even a housewife aam admi talks more of the Games than TV serials or her neighbour’d daughter’s latest affair.

Though tea shops, offices, homes, restaurants, parks, bars – every public and private place is good for starting a discussion on Games, chartered buses steal the show. You crack a poor joke about the Games while entering the bus and that is good enough a trigger for discussion in every bench. Even the cleaner would take a break from beating the bus side and throw a choice expletive on Sheila, Kalmadi, Gill, even Manmohan. Good that Sonia and Rahul have kept away from the Games and are busy worrying about aam admi outside Delhi.

More than spot fixing in cricket, the bets are rising here: yesterday, there was talk of 30,000 crore rupees having been ‘eaten away’ by Kalmadi and his team of demons. By October 3, two days after Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary, the figure will reach India’s annual budget. Last month, he wanted Kalmadi to resign and Gill to keep his mouth shut, today he has started demanding that they be hanged. Last week, he was wishing ‘rain, rain, go away, little Johney wants to play’, but by now he is wishing that the games are either not held at all or at least postponed.

Blah… blah… blah… I can go on, but let me conclude with this couplet by Shahryar:

Seene mein jalan,
Aankhon mein toofan sa kyon hai?
Is shehar mein har shakhs
Pareshaan sa kyon hai?
[why is there burning in chest, and sort of storm in the eyes ?
Why is everybody in this city sort of agitated?]

loo's talk: m s gill, whose smile does kill

MS Gill is India's sports minister, I said so if you don’t know.

Gill sahib has a big face, always smily so that a lurking photographer should not click him frowning. It is learnt that last week, after shooing away Sushil Kumar [the gold medallist wrestler]’s wrestling guru, Satpal, he didn’t take even ten seconds to wear a broad smile good enough for his photo with the wrestler.

What a big deal, you might say. Or you might whine that Satpal himself is as publicity hungry. Or you might suggest that with a wrestler and a well-built minister, a postcard size photo has no place for one more person. I will respect your feelings if you say one of these things. But allow me to tingle Gill sahib a bit more. In return I will not dare ask for a photo with him, not because I am not a wrestler but because he is Gill.

Just a month back, Gill was laughing at the habitually cribbing opposition in parliament. No siphoning of money had taken place, he told them. It was later learnt that he was so sure because siphons to remove water from rain soaked stadiums could not be purchased in time. When he came out, he told TV people that he had left everything to the God - because of untimely rain, his heart’s pain and choking of Delhi’s each drain. Now, if you think God will siphon money, are you sane?

The other day, he told us that because he was married in November, he would have advised that the games were held a month later. He smiled and then laughed when he realised that it had been taken as a joke. The smile was so romantic! Now, who could be a more optimistic and cheerful sports minister when Hooper, British Queen, Aussies and others are frowning upon Indians for the mess called CWG?

I am not reminding you of the incidents when he had insulted other sportsmen. But this one is worth emulating: he is reported to have advised a young mountaineer sometime not to take the risk such sport involved and said, such bravery is befitting to the Englishmen, not Indians.
I am told, he kept smiling after saying so, till the last press photographer had clicked him. If I were a sports minister, I would like to give similar advice to budding sportspersons who called on me, but my tongue would slip into saying something else, I suppose. Thank God, you didn't make me MS Gill.

Photo taken from Indian Express.

the way they are wasting public money on commonwealth games

Commonwealth Games are welcome, for that matter even Olympics. We in India need them more than many other nations because our obsession with cricket does not allow us to excel in other games.
What is so sad is the way the Commonwealth Games preparations have been handled. Starting with a sports minister who didn't want the games, the Organising Committee's lacklustre performance and poor monitoring of timelines and finances have made a mess of everything. The amount they have spent on the Games would have created a nice sports city somewhere near Delhi. People outside Delhi feel, the government is spending enormous sums to spruce up Delhi; Delhiites have suffered for over two years how the roads have been dug and re-dug and driving [huge traffic jams because of digging of roads] and walking [footpaths vanished and wherever they are left, they are dug up] and even living in the city [with unbearable levels of dust in the air] has become a pain.
Let the Games happen. Let them happen in a big way. After that, there should be thorough probe into siphoning of money, favouritism, exaggerated billing, flouting of norms and wilful wasteful expenditure. Let them not go scot free only because at the end the Games were a success [wish that it happens that way].