Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Golden games

And it was a golden end to a rusted beginning. Rusted beginnings are very common for Indian sports contingent. Any games start with a controversy for the Indian contingent. Be it the Olympics or the Commonwealth Games or any other sporting encounter. Such games are always associated with scandals and controversies. Infact that is all that can be associated with Indian contingent at international meets. When it comes to the actual games, barring a few exceptions, the team always puts up a no-show. But this time round, though the contingent started the Commonwealth Games with their usual false start (read controversy), the team found the right track. And this time round, it was not only a couple of silvers and bronze medals and the exceptional gold to wipe out the false start, but a handful of gold and almost equal number of silvers and bronze that fell into the kitty. Infact India is ranked fourth on the medals tally list.
So is that news? Looking at it positively, yes, it is news. Considering the fact that it has been ages since India managed to get so many medals at a major tournament. But then can one ignore the fact that a country with a population of one billion gets only 40 medals? And that it is not topping the medals tally list. Shouldn’t there be more medals? So is the country lacking in talent? Definitely not. What we are lacking in is approach. The approach of the government towards sports. The approach of people towards sports. Sports should be looked at like any other profession. And when one talks about sports, it should not be only cricket or tennis. It should include other sports as well. The important thing is to give these sports enough publicity and more importantly sponsorships. Once this happens, the attitudes of people will automatically change. And there is no better time to do something about it, than now with so many golds for support.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Stars unstruck


Movies promote tourism. Rather should be: Movies promote commercialization. This weekend I had been to a place, which had it not been for the movies, would still have been a pristine location, untouched by commercialization and urbanization. But thanks to the numerous films that are shot here on and off, today this place and its surrounding areas have become a lot more commercial. But it still has retained its own charm. The due credit must be given to the locals of that place for still maintaining the sanctity of the place. Am sure that had that been happening somewhere in the cities, all people would have gone berserk by now. And as time passed by, they would themselves have started acting like stars, forget the film stars. Thankfully, the locals in this village have somewhat become indifferent to films. Ask them about any location where a film was shot and they will just point in that direction with so much indifference that it will make you wonder whether they have understood what you have asked them. But then that is what it means to them now. Probably nothing! Am sure they are proud of the fact that their place is on the international screen, but that doesn’t stop them from being themselves. Their standard of living definitely has improved. But they still are the same people beneath that urbanized and commercialized exterior. And unlike in cities, people here do not go berserk when a film crew comes to shoot in their village. We visited a family there, very much normal people like us. As we were leaving their homely abode, we came to know that it was here that the cast of a popular film made themselves at home, in between their shots. Had it been a family in the city, I am sure that the first topic of conversation would have been the film stars or rather would am sure that it would have been the only topic of conversation. Makes me wonder what it is that makes people in the city so star crazy.