Because we need to look beyond the positive side of everything

Gone are the days when our parents used to say "Padhoge likhoge banage Nawab, kheloge kudoge banoge Kaharab (Studies will make you King, Sports will make you bad)". Sports are trending in our lives. Children in our country are encouraged to take any sports of their choice and parents are playing a very important role. But all these have started to happen just a Couple of years ago when names like Saina, Sania, Vijendra, Bindra started to come up. With more than a billion population this is not what a neutral guy would have expected. Any intellectual individual would expect India to have atleast 0.1 % of their population to be involved in sports and from that 0.001% to compete at international level. Leave out the individaul, any normal being with a very rare but common sense would say that with so many people living in India, more glory should be attached with the sports.

We Indians tend to become very happy with our smaller or little succes, if not happy then I would say complacent. Latest generations are taking things seriously. But this was not the case some few years ago. Who is to blame? Is it Parents? Yes! Why? you may have heard "Strike when the iron is hot" why? because then only you get the desire shape. Parents, leave out moulding them into shape, they try to put cold water and cool them off. If you could remember once in your childhood you asked your mother to buy you a notebook, she must have felt glad to spent that special Rs.10 on that notebook but for obvious reasons, but try to remember that cold look you got when you asked her to buy a racket, bat or ball or anything related to sports. Your parents must have said, "Complete your exams first", "Bring a good rank", "What will you do with that?","Oh, we have an old one of your elder brother, play with that", "Why do you want join that club? there're so many players, you won't get a chance", "I can't afford that", "Padhoge likhoge banage Nawab, kheloge kudoge banoge Kharab" and the list continues.

We Indians have always been about individuals. We are more concerned about Leanders and Sainas, or the Bindras or Vijenders, or the Sachins or Bhuttias. Rather than the sport or the main objective behind cheering for the athletes we want our little knowing brain to filter out some name so that we have someone to support. By doing so we have suppressed our expectations. We first check what is the athlete rank in the world, did he/she won any medal previously, if the answer is affirmative they get our full support and cheer if not then who cares. Rarely do we try get to know them or promote them. A great Humanist and ethicist once said, "Social acceptance is the first thing everyone asks for without even asking".

In such high level competitions which is not neck to neck but nose to nose, winners are decided based on fraction of difference. A single medal would call for celebrations and a sense of satisfaction is seen among the fans. Those who miss out are not known and hence forgotten before even coming into the picture, even though they were not less by any means. With over a billion people, it is needless to say that we can achieve far better heights only iff....

Cricket is blamed and made the scapegoat everytime when some sport is not being pulled up. My dear it is a vicious cycle, you do well - you get awards - you get money - you get good coaching, infrastructure - you do well. So one must say there is not only competition inside the sports but also in between two sports, which hogs more limelight. And yes our parents too think that way. "So no one plays hockey these days and who the hell watches it? C'mon ignore it take swimming. Badminton ? Oh! there is Saina Nehwal you won't get much chance to win, take Tennis, but wait Sania Mirza plays tennis, not much of a chance there also, TT? not much good coaching, Kabaddi? not enough money, football? not good team, cricket? so many players already waiting for their chance....and so they wait for all the signals to turn green which never happen and they decide "LET'S CHECK WHAT THE NEIGHBOURS HAVE DECIDED"

Hey! but wait parents are not the only one to blame, I told they do not strike when the iron is hot. Here the primary and secondary schools are also to be looked after. How many schools take sports seriously? Countries like USA, China and Australia are famous to have some schools which have created some teen sensation in many sports. In India we have never heard about any such schools. What to expect from a government who is known to have created only 7 IITs (and 9 new) and 6 IIMs (an 7 new) in the whole of India with a population of more than1.2 billion. Corrupt is the only adjective that describes them. Politicians who do not even know what "S" stands for in Sports are made Sports minister. Barely knowing the National Sports of our country they are invited to present some lakh of rupees to the winners of Olympics. The winners are congratualted and showered incentives and motivated, but what about the athletes or sportsperson who missed narrowly. They too worked hard, why were their efforts not appreciated. They had to go home demotivated. Former players work hard to restore the glory of their sports while government sleeps.

some of our stars

Sports channel showing quality sports with quality commentry and quality host are rare too. Whenever some celebrity try to promote some game it looks like that is the best game of India. There is not a single sports website which will give regular updates on all sports and Indian athletes. They try to block some website, cut the power but never do anything that would encourage or motivate the young generations by coming up with some good website website because majority of youngsters are netizen). We should appreciate to what Facebook has done which our so called Sports union could not do. Through Facebook the news reach quickly to our youngsters than by any other channel. People are getting interested to know what's happening around and so it is helping.

But why would we look onto the bright side ??? Why not remove the darkness altogether??? Why to believe in satatements like, "we are improving every day..... yes the rate is low but definitely we are improving...", "Before the olympics, how many knew about Deepika, Kashyap, Jwala, Jai bhagwan, Vijay Kumar, Thapa and many more...", "We came close of winning a medal", "He is young he is bound to improve next time", "Movies are bringing out the truth, things will now change"

The winners are not different from us. China know how to use their most powerful resourse that is Human Resource, it's high time we too start using it instead of just misusing it in studies.

(The fact that I am writing this article at the time Olympics goes on to prove that I am also an Indian)