India @79

 

Happy Birthday India!

'Tis time for the annual India post on the occasion of Independence Day, now in its 19th edition (Link for 2025 edition) Its been another weird trip around the Sun!

The nation's political landscape was shaken up by the emergence of a Gen Z movement sparked by a remark from the CJI. A movement based on a cause but fueled by reels! We have witnessed similar uprisings across the neighborhood but couldn't watching it unfold in India was surreal. All election calculations now need to take into account the mindset of an entirely new & different vote-bank! 

On the other hand, we have elected politicians merrily switching parties, making a complete mockery of the entire electoral process itself! While the common citizen is scrambling to prove their citizenship (given that none of the documents actually prove it!) and trying to search the electoral rolls from 2002 for the names of their relatives. Sifting through them is a mental roller-coaster given the sheer volume of typos and the fact that most of the constituencies themselves have undergone a drastic change due to delimitation. There couldn't be a better showcase of bureaucratic theatre than the SIR exercise!!

Moving from politics to the subject of geopolitics. A full scale war in West Asia, leads to choking of key energy transport routes sending most of the World including India to scour for alternate options. The situation may have eased out a bit but things continue to remain volatile, once again emphasizing the critical need for assured domestic energy supply.

And the energy must to be clean & green. Otherwise the already scorching heat wave is going to get hotter. The energy transition also needs to be fast especially with the emergence of AI as an energy guzzler. In the age of AI, it is becoming more and more difficult to differentiate the real from the fake. The more cynical folks now believe everything to be AI generated unless proven otherwise. Better to be safe than sorry in a more AI propelled scammy world.

On the other hand, lots of infrastructure being built but somehow not built to last. Falling bridges, potholed roads, leaking airports - this is one area which needs a permanent fix and not a bandaid solution.

Real money gaming was banned. Good riddance. Something which should have happened much earlier.  Still better late than never! This ban has also lead to a pause in the mushrooming sporting leagues. 

Given that it is still midway in the Olympics cycle, most Indian sports coverage is in a slumber. While sports administration is in shambles. Perfect example being football where an ISL champion club was sold for Rs. 100! India now holds the unwanted tag of being the global leader in doping violations. In this doom and gloom of the back pages of the newspaper the only silver linings have come from cricket - with the Women winning their first ever world title , the men retaining the T20 World Cup, and a 15-year old wunderkind blazing away all and sundry with his bat without a care in the world

So this was it as we enter into the 80th year of existence as an independent country.

Happy Independence Day! 

Jai Hind!

P.S. a map showing the princely states of pre-independence India coloured according to the number of gun salutes!

India @ 78

Image generated via AI

Happy Birthday India!

Continuing the personal tradition of a small blog post on the occasion of Independence Day, now in its 18th edition. (2024 edition Link)

What a crazy journey it has been since the last edition. The past year has seen India living through the very definition of a VUCA world.

We witnessed a major terror attack, were briefly at war, a deadly plane crash with a single miraculous survivor, are currently subject to Tariffs with ever-changing rates, are seeing renewed calls for Swadeshi, have been caught in a geopolitical cross-fire with friends/foes alike in a state of flux, have overtaken Japan to become the 4th largest economy (by GDP), while stock markets have soared despite overhanging clouds, watched internal political chaos with Vice-President resigning and Election commission being questioned, and organized the Mahakumbh featuring the largest gathering of humankind at a single place… Quite an action-packed journey around the Sun.

During Operation Sindoor, the TV news jingoism reached new depths. While it is understandable that media is used for controlling the global narrative and what is happening at the ground doesn’t come out in the open. But the TV news channels instead of providing an assuring note, were pulling out narratives out of their own fantasies! Only satisfactory note - the other side was no better. We discovered during the course of those 4 days that amongst other things, not only was there a port in Patna, but it had been destroyed by Pakistani drones!

Meanwhile life in India continues to be cheap – stampedes at cricket victory parade, railway stations & festivals, manmade & natural disasters, a messed up infrastructure– all reduced to a mere statistic.

Worst of all has been the rise of the Ugly Indian Image outside – Indian tourists & diaspora doing if not illegal, simply cringe-worthy activities across the world. Although, is this case also, the spin doctors are doing their best/worst to paint this outburst of such news items as is simply a coordinated attempt by jealous foreigners to malign India’s shining image globally.

And finally in the battle of species, the Hon. SC is hearing the matter of removing dogs from the national capital streets while the financial capital is becoming a battleground for feeding pigeons!

But amidst all the doom and gloom were a few rays of shining light

• Subhanshu Shukla became the second Indian to go to space.
• Chess is home – Team Olympiad Golds, Open World Champion, Women’s World Cup Winner, More Grandmasters than squares on the Chess board - we are witnessing the start of an era of sporting domination.
• Bids have been submitted for the 2036 Olympics and the 2030 Commonwealth Games. While a great initiative, whether this will result in grassroots initiatives as well remains to be seen.

In other news, the registered post will cease to exist as will the post boxes. A practical decision to move on with times. Which is what many folks need to do in various other matters as well!

So that was a little post featuring a tiny sliver of events from the perspective of the world's largest populace! Hoping for quieter times in the coming year!

Happy Independence Day!

Jai Hind!

India @ 77

Its the eve of Independence Day, and as has been a fairly long-standing tradition, time for an all things India blogpost (2023 edition)

The 77th year in modern India’s life was an interesting one. Political events in the immediate neighborhood have reaffirmed that for all the flaws, things could have been far worse, if not for the vision of our founding fathers!

The Chandrayaan landed on the Moon. Truly a monumental achievement!

There was the biggest Indian festival – the general elections. The results of the long-drawn campaign were a bit chaotic - those who won seem unhappy, while those who continue to be in the Opposition seem the happier lot. After 10 years, there is a Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The slightly unexpected outcome has also resulted in even the media becoming less of a cheerleader and a bit more unbiased!

Meanwhile, the nuance from any public debate still continues to be completely missing. There are two sides on any issue. Either it is a slugfest or it will be one outraging, other completely silent. And almost always split on the same political line. The echo chambers are becoming deafening. Only characteristic common is the hypocrisy. 

Also, we are becoming more and more immune. An illegal hoarding collapse, train accidents, manmade "natural" disasters, horrific crimes - we pause and we move on.

There was also a random narrative of  the official name of the country being changed to a name which is also the official name! A true case of much ado about nothing.

The economy continues to give mixed signals – the stock markets continue to rise and rise, while the on-ground picture doesn’t look that rosy.

The biggest nuisance – the phone call scammers. Electricity bill scam, fake couriers, customs, number disconnection threats, video callers, kyc… the list seems to be just going on and on. It just seems to be turning into a case of when you will fall in the trap of the cyber thugs! Keep navigating this minefield and pray that you do not randomly click a malicious link.

Climate change is becoming more and more real. The actions to combat it are simply not enough. The same monsoom season has seen both excess in many parts and a dry spell in the other. Flash floods, landslides, shifting seasons are becoming the new normal.

On the sporting front – the Men’s cricket team finally broke their trophy drought with a T20 World Cup victory, while a home ODI World Cup just slipped away. 

The Olympics are done, lots of folks bemoaning the low rankings (it’s a quadrennial rant) while never even bothering to find out what happens in the interim. The fact that the second highest medals tally seems an underperformance shows that the so called sleeping global sports giant has slowly started to stir (it will still take some more time to be fully awake). 

One sport which has grown leaps and bounds has been Chess – Gukesh becoming a Challenger and Praggnandha finishing runners-up show that finally Indian chess is moving out of the mighty Vishwanathan Anand era.

On that optimistic note, closing out this post. 

Jai Hind!

The Paris Pointers

The Indian campaign at Paris officially ended with USA’s Kennedy Blades defeating Krygyzstan’s Medet Kyzy in the semi-finals of Women’s 76 KG Freestyle dashing Reetika Hooda’s hopes of a place in the repechage rounds. Reetika had lost in Quarters despite the scores being tied 1-1 as Medet had got the last point (yes, wrestling also has a boundary count equivalent to break ties). Somehow summing up India’s campaign – a good show by most athletes, yet most of them finishing up on the wrong side of that fine line!

First a bit of a boast – my predictions were 5-12 medals for India. Well, we ended up with 6 medals and six 4th place finishes. Two more close calls in Boxing and the small matter of Vinesh’s medal that just slipped away! Given this context, it should be called India’s best Games ever, yet somehow it never felt like that!

So before starting the Road to LA28, a lookback at how India’s Games went

1. Neeraj Chopra added to his claim of being India’s greatest individual sportsperson ever, and not just for his on-field exploits. So high has he set the bar that an Olympics silver medal seems a disappointment. After all he finished second with just two legal throws across Qualifying & Finals! And one of the rare Indian athletes who actually speaks up on issues that matter and not in a scripted manner either.
2. The Shooting Redemption – 21 qualifiers, entries in all 15 events, 7 finalists, 3 medals and 3 4th place finishes. The shooting contingent did a good job in recovering from the washouts at Rio & Tokyo. Great show by Manu Bhaker, Sarabjot Singh and Swapnil Kusale in getting 3 medals – the most ever by any discipline at a single edition of the Games for India.
3. Aman Sehrawat ensured that India returns with a medal from Wrestling for the 5th Games in a row. A rich legacy which even the fracas of the Wrestling Federation couldn’t stop.
4. India are no longer the most successful Hockey team in Olympics history. With Golds in both Men’s & Women’s categories, Netherlands now have those bragging rights, although we still have the most Men’s hockey medals. Overall, quite a decent show put up by the team in retaining the Bronze from Tokyo.
5. The 4th Place – For many years, Milkha Singh finishing 4th was India’s most celebrated Olympics moment while KD Jadhav’s bronze was barely a footnote. Hence not surprising that we have a special affinity with the 4th place! Arjun Babuta, Manu Bhaker, Lakshya Sen, Dhiraj-Ankita, Maheswari-Anantjeet and Mirabai Chanu have all added to this rich legacy. (Also, there was India – the Dutch B-girl in the Breaking, who finished 4th!)
6. Six – 1 Silver & 5 Bronze medals, equaling their second-best performance. Not a bad one in the overall context but certainly made a case of what could have been.

If Only – Now what’s an Olympics without a lot of What Ifs

• What if that last shot against Germany in the hockey semi-finals had gone in?
• 100gm – That was the difference between what could have been the ultimate sporting story and a disqualification. Vinesh Phogat fought hard, beat the best, reached the Finals and yet missed out on a medal. The medal may have been gone but the reactions to the loss from certain sections revealed a telling picture! Personally, this was one of the lowest moments in all my sports following days.
• 2.4 cm – Over a distance of 70m in the tie-break shot. Dhiraj Bommadevara hit a 10 pointer yet lost out because of being slightly further from the centre.
• 1 KG - margin from Bronze for Mirabai Chanu. But just not to be!
• 0.32s – the margin by which the Men’s 4x400m relay team missed a Finals berth!
• Nishant Dev – any of the judges could have scored that Quarter-final in the other direction and my namesake would have earned a medal. But it was not to be. Boxing scoring is not easy to understand. No wonder there is a good probability of it being removed from the LA roster.
• Manu Bhaker had a 3rd medal just slip away in a shoot-off.
• Nisha Dahiya – an unfortunate injury while leading 8-1 with under a minute to go. She gave everything yet couldn’t hold on. It was simply painful to even view. Hope she recovers fast.
• Reetika Hooda – losing on countback because her opponent was last to score!

What lies ahead?

Lots of felicitations for the medalists, with all and sundry staking their claim to the athlete’s success. Kudos to Manu’s team for initiating legal action against those using her image. Hopefully some introspection a la NRAI, especially from the likes of

• Athletics: why do Indian athletes mostly peak in qualifying and not at the main event?
• Archery: why do the archers keep flattering to deceive every single Games? They come in as World Champions, even have good ranking rounds and yet keep coming up short in the knockouts?
• Wrestling: the medals and excellent results should not hide the shenanigans of the Wrestling Federation and a real cleanup is the order of the day. Will it happen though?
• Badminton – they are doing mostly alright. While the men’s side has some depth, the question of who after Sindhu is now growing louder?

Let’s see if things change!

The Games beyond India

• Mondo Duplantis vaulting higher that anyone ever has
• Simone Biles doing a triple flip
• Katie Ledecky winning again (what a surprise)
• South Korean archers – who give you a glimmer of hope and then fire in those inner 10s to snuff it out!
• The 100m Men’s Finals where everyone went under 10s
• Isabell Werth – the first person to win a Gold at SEVEN different Games
• Yusuf Dikec – the Turkish shooter, who proved that even silver medallists become famous!
• That Surfing Photo

All these and more showing how far the limits can be pushed by the human body. Just how far ahead they are from “normal” folks. Well, here is a video of when Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce participating in the parents’ race at her kid’s school!

Also, for the online trolls – Remember these are elite athletes. Even when someone finishes 4th at the Games, they are the 4th BEST in the whole world at what they do, unlike most others! Not that the trolls would care!

Some thoughts on the Games

• There was no marchpast and no Chariots of Fire theme playing in the Opening Ceremony. How does that even feel like the start then?
• Also, rooms with no AC in peak summer; cases of arson; sabotage of railways; robbery incidents; a polluted Seine hosting swimming events! And yet the Games went on. Remember the abuse for much less at Rio Olympics or even the Delhi Commonwealth Games or? Why the dual standards?

Finally, as the Paris Games went on, those existential questions also kept cropping up? Why do we follow sports and link our happiness and mental well-being with something we have no control on? At times, was seriously jealous of those who have no interest in sports!

But anyways, we the followers move on! To LA28.

Road To Paris : Episode 12 - Predictions Time

“There is a very tiny margin between fame and anonymity”

Nowhere is the comparison more apt than at the great Quadrennial celebrations of human endeavor – the Olympics.

It is all about the finest margins - a fraction of an inch, reaction times deferring by 1000th of seconds, a shot taken just too late or too early, weather behaving differently on that particular moment - an extra gust of wind, overhead clouds, slippery underfoot conditions, a judgment call which could have gone either way, a referee temporarily blind-sighted, a rule open to interpretation, an unfortunate injury, the luck of the draw, the coin toss etc. So many variables which could have gone the other way!

What do the athletes have to do to get the right result? Simply, it is just a matter of getting the physics right. For all who have prepared for entrance exams, this is where all the Irodov’s problems come alive in real. Except here, the athlete has to assume almost every single variable while simultaneously hoping that they have arrived at a better solution faster than their opponent(s). And do it again and again without fail!

This was just a bit of preamble before entering the predictions mode. After all foreseeing sporting outcomes is not the easiest of asks, which is what makes it fun!

So here goes a sport-by-sport rundown of what to expect from the Indian contingent.

1. Archery: Events 5, Entries 9

A discipline in which India have been perennial underachievers. This time we have a full representation. Can they get medals? Definitely! Will they? that is another question. After all they have beaten South Korea recently. So on the day, all 5 categories can give medals. But, we have a long history of not even coming close to winning!

2. Athletics: Events 17, Entries 22

Neeraj Chopra has dominated his field like no Indian athlete ever. He goes in as the reigning Olympic, World and Asian Champion. Since Tokyo, he has mostly come first and at others second. Anything less than a Gold would be disappointing given his track record.

Avinash Sable broke the Kenyan hegemony in the 3000m Steeplechase at the Commonwealth Games. Expect a National Record and a Finals place at the least.

At Tokyo, the Men's 4*400 m relay team broke the Asian Record and yet could not qualify for the Finals. And at the last World Championships gave a mighty scare to USA and Jamaica. A finals place should be expected.

Expecting a National Record performance from Jyothi Yarraji (100m Hurdles) and Parul Chaudhary (steeplechase) as well.

The Men's racewalkers are a group which have made significant progress over the years with 7 breaching the Qualification mark. Just need that one big performance on the global stage to push the discipline into the limelight.

For the rest of the squad, some National Records and Finals appearances are par for the course.

3. Badminton: Events 4, Entries 5

Satwik-Chirag can win a medal. But men's doubles has some crazy competition within the Top 10 currently. Lakshya and Prannoy are unfortunately drawn against each other after they cross their qualifying groups! 

Can Sindhu do a 3-peat? Recent form and injuries say No, but in the past decade there has been no other player who just keeps pulling off the medals at the biggest stage so consistently. Ashwini-Tanisha while not the favorites should win a game in the group stage

4. Boxing: Events 6, Entries 6

2 time defending World Champion Nikhat Zareen is a medal favourite, while Tokyo medalist Lovlina Borgohain landed up with a tough draw. On the men's side, Nishant Dev winning a medal will not be a surprise.

Special mention - Jasmine Lamboriya who went into the final qualification as a reserve. Then with a previous Quota winner getting suspended resulted in India surrendering the Quota. Jasmine drops down a weight category and earned back the place!

5. Hockey: Event 1, Entry 1

Since the Tokyo bronze, things haven't gone great for the Indian team. An early exit in the Home World Cup was followed by middling performances in the Hockey World League. While they remain sentimental favourites, recent performances don’t really give the confidence. They should cross the group stage, after which it becomes a bit of a lottery.

6. Shooting: Events 15, Entries 27

After 2 consecutive blanks at the Rio & Tokyo, the expectations from the Shooting squad are a bit tempered down. On the other hand, this is India's biggest ever Shooting contingent and the first time that India will have representation in all 15 disciplines. The squad has been revamped and quite a few Quota winners missed out in the Final Qualification series. Will this do the trick and end the medal drought?

Medal Favorites - Sift Kaur Samra (50m Rifle 3 Positions), Manu Bhaker, and the mixed teams.

Fun fact - There is sitting Bihar MLA in the squad - Shreyasi Singh.

7. Weightlifting: Event 1, Entry 1

Mirabai Chanu's silver at Tokyo had a sense of inevitability about it. However, injuries have made a repeat medal a tad more difficult. A fully fit Mirabai should get another medal.

8. Wrestling: Events 6, Entries 6

Both the Tokyo medalists failed to qualify. Between the Games the wrestlers had to spend more time battling their own federation than on the mat. And the results have showed. Just a single male wrestler in the fray. On the other hand, 5 female wrestlers have qualified! Antim and Aman are serious medal contenders. 

Special mention - Vinesh, who was at the forefront of the agitation, saw Antim earn a Quota in her weight category, then opted for a lower weight category and qualified in that!

9. Table Tennis: Events 4, Entries 6

Recent results have been impressive with multiple victories over the top ranked Chinese players. But a medal still seems distant. The team is getting closer though.

10. Tennis: Events 2, Entries 2

At 44, Rohan Bopanna is the oldest Indian athlete at the Games, also a recent Grand Slam champion and World No. 1 but his partnership with Sriram Balaji in Men's Doubles is largely untested. On the other hand, Sumit Nagal is fast rising up the ranks but still far away from the top echelons of Men's singles. Neither expected to make much inroads in the draw though.

11. Golf: Events 2, Entries 4

At Tokyo, Aditi Ashok was within a shot of a medal. This is another extremely difficult to predict sport. 

Special mention  - Diksha Dagar, one of the rare sportspersons who appear in both the Deaflympics as well as the Olympics.

12. Rowing: Event 1, Entry 1

Anything above a semifinals finish would be a good result for Balraj Panwar, India's sole Rowing entry

13. Swimming: Events 2, Entries 2

No medal hopes, but could be a good exposure to 14-year-old Dhinidhi Desinghu - the youngest Indian sportsperson at the Games.

14. Equestrian: Event 1, Entry 1 - Anush Agarwalla & Sir Camillo have qualified for Individual Dressage – another difficult to judge sport.

15. Judo: Event 1, Entry 1 - Tulika Maan will be sole Indian judoka

16. Sailing: Events 2, Entries 2 - Nethra Kumanan and Vishnu Sarvanan are both in their 2nd Olympics.

So, as always, Team India might go on to have their best medal tally ever or they might end up having no medals at all. The favorites maybe knocked out early and a medal may come from somewhere unexpected.

Let the Games Begin! Citius Altius Fortius

Links:

• Complete list – Wikipedia
• Road To Paris Episode 11
• Predictions for Tokyo: Link

BookMarks #116: Freedom at Midnight

Title: Freedom at Midnight

Authors: Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre

Genre: Non-fiction, History

Published: 1975

BookMarks

The book gives a narrative of the last year of the British Raj from the appointment of Lord Mountbatten as Viceroy of India, to Partition and Independence and Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. The book is at times intriguing, at others gossipy and sometimes filled with gruesome passages presenting the story of those turbulent times.

What is obvious is that it is written from a British perspective. They are presented in a kindly light, traders who somehow ended up ruling the country and never as oppressors. All problems are those of the natives, who couldn’t govern themselves! Talk about whitewashing of history.

Hence, it is best read as Mountbatten’s memoirs and perspective rather than as a work of just history.

A few passages and assertions which stood out for me

• Mountbatten’s claim that if he had been aware of Jinnah's poor health, he may have delayed the deadlines for independence and Partition might not have happened.
• The weighing machines at the railway platforms! Those are finally gone.
• Book banned in Pakistan because it referenced Jinnah having bacon with eggs for breakfast!
• 'Trade not territory', the Company's officers never ceased repeating, was their policy. Yet they ended up ruling and exploiting an entire sub-continent!
• 'The difference between what we do and what we could do would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.': Gandhi
• The eccentricities of Indian maharajas - none more than Kapurthala who decided he was reincarnation of Louis XIV and declared French as his court language
• What an arduous task dividing the possessions between countries must have been. Yet, in one aspect there was no debate - Wine cellars always went to Hindu India and Moslem Pakistan received a credit for what they contained.
• The masses from the villages heading towards Delhi on Independence Day - Tributaries of an immense and triumphant stream, they flowed with the dawn towards the centre of their rejoicing capital to celebrate in its streets the end of a colonization most of them had not even known.
• Gandhi's idea of self-contained village ideas vs industrialization. Something of Aatma-nirbhar Bharat was still there.
• After Independence people refused to pay bus fares, assuming they should now be free.
• £2000 – Cyril Radcliffe’s fee for dividing the countries, which he returned!
• Everywhere the many and the strong assaulted the weak and the few - Still holds true!
• Reading the butchery of the trains was just like the dooms scrolling during Covid times. Wanted to but just couldn't stop. What had gotten into the people.
• Khadi wearing politicians - evidence that the man under it reveres at least the memory if not the message of the man who espoused it.
• The tragedy of Buta Singh Overall, a difficult read. 

Many of the passages are eye-openers. Also, in today’s times, it is easy to see how selective reading of events & confirmation bias can just swing the opinion of the masses. Constant vigilance is the need of the hour to prevent the recurrence of the brutality of those times.

Previously on BookMarks: Dream With Your Eyes Open 

India @ 76

A couple of days back an SMS arrived.

“Har Ghar Tiranga is back. 13-15 Aug bring home & fly Tiranga with pride! Upload selfies on harghartiranga.com”

Yes, its that time of the year, when amongst other things this blog gets a post on all things India. (Here is the 2022 edition) 

Interestingly, I am also halfway through the book, “Freedom at Midnight”. 76 years have gone by, but many of those issues remain continue and can be traced back to those fateful last days of the British Raj. Bipartisan politics, communal violence, hope and worries for the coming days, history finds new own ways to repeat itself!

[An aside - Wouldn't it be the mother of all ironies, if Scotland is separated from the United Kingdom under the watch of  Rishi Sunak and Humza Yusuf?]

Returning to the present.

India has overtaken China as the most populous country in the world. Or maybe not. After all, the Census exercise has not been done since 2011, another collateral victim of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The effects of Climate Change are becoming more and more visible. On one hand, the monsoons are creating havoc on the urban infrastructure, while other parts of the country are reeling in drought. The seasons are becoming increasingly erratic. The hilly regions are even more at risk, as highlighted by the "sinking" of the town of Joshimath. Given the vast population, and its ever-growing energy requirements, drastic action is required on the climate front. While the government has stated ambitions of Net Zero by 2070, it might be a case of too little too late! Tthe discovery of lithium prospects in Jammu could become play an important role in this climate battle.

India has the G20 presidency. That means almost every city has got some G20 event happening across the year. Which also means there are weird (yet also cute looking) G20 banners and posters on every road and street!

The General elections are coming. That unfortunately implies more political mudslinging, further rejigging of alliances, lots of Aya Rams & Gaya Rams and more hatemongering. The race to the bottom in the political discourse will be heightened (or lowered). The political game of thrones will be on full swing till mid next year, till we finally get a government in place!

In the interim, the actual governance may go for a toss, with everyone looking to extract their pound of flesh from every event. Just look at the online battleground that the Manipur issues have become, while actual on-ground issues continue to be unresolved. Similar is the case of the Wrestling saga. In a country, where sporting heroes are still in short supply, seeing the visuals of some of the most decorated sportspersons sitting on dharna and being dragged around by the authorities was disturbing. And for the public opinion, whose side you stand on is defined by your political inclination. Just continuing the trend of everything being politicized and sharply polarized.

Lets hope the individual common sense stays in the heavily politically charged coming months!

There is a big Men’s ODI World Cup coming up and somehow BCCI has bungled up the event scheduling and ticketing. What a fall from the days of Dalmia & Bindra. Although, they also deserve plaudits for starting (finally) the WPL and providing pay parity for international games. Amidst all the chaos, they still are the best-run sporting organization in the country. Speaks more of the incompetence of the other sports bodies, which for some reason or the other keep getting themselves banned by the global federations.

Meanwhile, despite the Hindenburg report, the stock markets continue their bull runs, reaching new highs, and providing a pretty good silver lining amongst the political & environmental crowds. Although it all could be just a bubble waiting to be burst.

Overall, not a rosy picture but to end on a good note. “Naatu Naatu” won an Oscar providing the first truly Indian Oscar winners (earlier ones were all for external projects). It was a pleasant surprise to see this foot-tapping chart-topping song reach such popularity!

On that musical note. Happy Birthday India! Jai Hind!

2022 – Top Ten Moments from the Indian Sports Arena

As we enter the last week of the year 2022 AD, it is time to make a list of things to remember the year going by. Presenting the Top 10 moments from the Indian sporting field (rated by yours truly).

1. Thomas Cup win: Stirring performances from Lakshya, Srikanth, Prannoy and Satwik-Chirag lead India to become just the 6th country to win the Thomas Cup. It was a culmination of a long journey to becoming a badminton powerhouse.
2. Neeraj Chopra becoming the Diamond League champion. Such is the amazing consistency of India’s first ever track & field Olympics champion that a silver in the World Athletics Championships (the first ever Indian to do so) is not his biggest moment of the year!
3. Avinash Sable winning the silver medal in 3000m Steeplechase at the Commonwealth Games and breaking Kenya’s dominance of the event. This is the first time since 1998 that Kenya did not have a clean sweep in this event!
4. MCG, Men's T20 World Cup, India vs Pakistan, Over 18.5 – Haris Rauf to Virat Kohli, lands for 6 behind the bowler off one of the most stunning shots seen in cricket – a straight punched loft over the bowler’s head! And somehow India sneak in a win out of nowhere after a dramatic last over.
5. Lawn Bowls Gold at Birmingham Commonwealth Games. An afternoon spent plonked in front of the TV watching Lawn Bowls 4s Final wasn’t a part of any plans. But Rupa Rani Tirkey, Nayanmoni Saikia, Lovely Choubey & Pinki Singh combined to bring a new sport to the collective Indian sporting minds. After all, we are fast learners (at least in learning the rules of a new game).
6. The Women’s Hockey team won the inaugural Nations Cup, getting their rightful place in the next season of Pro Hockey League. They should not have had to play this round given that as alternates the team finished 3rd in the previous edition of the League. But they proved once again that they belong in the top tier of World Hockey.
7. Deepti Sharma runs out Charlie Dean at the non-strikers end to seal a whitewash for India over England. A non-striker run-out (formerly known as Mankading) and that too at Lords! As expected, all hell broke loose on cricketing social media with the defenders of the so called “spirit of cricket” marching in on full battle mode! The debate kept going on and on for seemingly ages! Don’t remember so much attention to an incident in women’s game before!
8. Nikhat Zareen became the Boxing World Champion, India’s 5th ever female boxer! She also added a Commonwealth Games gold confirming that Mary Kom’s legacy is in good hands.
9. Mirabai Chanu lifting the silver at the World Championships with a sprained wrist!
10. Achanta Sharath Kamal, at the age of, 40 won 3 Golds and a Silver at the Commonwealth Games!

Other honorable mentions: Manika Batra winning the Bronze at Asian Cup; Rudrankksh Patil winning a World Cup Gold to qualify for the next Olympics Shooting; Bajrang Punia adding a 4th Wrestling World Championships medal and Vinesh Phogat getting her 2nd medal.

Finally for an announcement off the field of play. In a major step towards gender parity, BCCI announced that the women players will be given the same match fees as the men for internationals. A great initiative, but just the first step in a long journey to parity. And this is something basic to be done for all sports.

Now looking forward to the sporting year 2023, which has Hockey & Cricket World Cups, the postponed Asian Games (fingers crossed given the re-emergence of the Covid situation) and many Paris Olympics qualifiers scheduled!

Road To Paris: Episode 3

Time for the belated third episode in the Road To Paris series.

Since the last Episode, we have seen quite a bit of activity in the Indian Olympics Sports front with the action not limited just to the field of play.

Starting with the on-field action

We had the Commonwealth Games, where India learnt about a new sport – Lawn Bowls. Unfortunately, its not part of the Olympics roster yet! Here is a short sport-by-sport review of Indian performances in the Olympics disciplines.

1. Athletics: 8 medals, a significant increase from 3 in 2018. Avinash Sable’s steeplechase run was the highlight as he broke open the Kenyan dominance with a stunning 2nd place finish, denying Kenya a clean sweep of the event for the first time in decades! The racewalkers after a decade of promise have now started delivering the medals as well. There was an India 1-2 in Triple Jump, as well as medals in Long Jump, High Jump and women’s Javelin. Things are looking up especially in the field events. Although there are doping cases also coming up. Thankfully all caught before they could make the tournament!
2. Badminton: The Thomas Cup success was carried forward with Golds for Sindhu, Lakshya, Satwik-Chirag, and Bronze medals for Srikkanth and Terasa-Gayatri. Losing the Team Gold to Malaysia would have hurt a bit though.
3. Boxing: Amit Panghal is back after the disappointment at Tokyo. Nikhat Zareen continues to carry the flag for women’s Boxing and there was an impressive start for Nitu Ghanghas. While not the toughest of fields, overall, it was a decent show by the Indian boxers.
4. Cycling: David Beckham and Ronaldo being in the squad created quite a flutter. However, the performances on track did not live up to the names
5. Gymnastics: there was nothing to write home about. The brief spotlight from Dipa Karmakar’s Rio performance has now dimmed.
6. Hockey: Silver for men & Bronze for women – both teams back amongst medals. However, the manner of loss in the Men’s Final to Australia would have certainly hurt. And when will our teams get rid of this habit of conceding last minute goals. Lot of unnecessary heartache for the fans!
7. Judo: 2 silvers & a bronze on Judo’s return to the Commonwealth fold with Sushila Devi replicating her 2014 silver medal.
8. Swimming: Once again no medals, but there was an increase in the number of finals appearances by the Indian swimmers with Srihari Nataraj making two finals.
9. Table Tennis: Achanta Sharath Kamal at the age of 40, just confirmed his status as the greatest Indian TT player. Playing multiple matches daily, he ended the tournament with 3 Golds & a Silver. While the men’s side had great returns, there was disappointment in the women’s side especially for Manika Batra who had been the breakout star of the 2018 edition. Sreeja Akula finished a creditable 4th in Singles and helped Sharath Kamal to his first-ever Mixed Doubles Gold.
10. Triathalon: We are not in the picture yet.
11. Weightlifting: India continued their dominant show at the event 3 Golds, 2 Silvers & 4 Bronze Medals. As expected, Mirabai Chanu dominated her category, while the likes of Jeremy & Achinta Sheuli got their first international success.
12. Wrestling: 12 entries, 12 medals (like 2018) including 6 Golds – another dominant show by India. Not much to be read in the performances, but 2 players – Vinesh Phogat and Sakhsee Malik made quite a comeback to the national ranks.

Outside the Commonwealth Games also there was a lot of action

1. Neeraj Chopra recovered from injury to win his first ever Diamond League event and qualify for the Diamond League Finals.
2. At the Badminton World Championships, the Satwik-Chirag duo became the first Indian pair to win a Men’s doubles medal and continue the trend of a medal for India at every major event (World Championships/Olympics) since 2011. The others could not reach the medal rounds though.
3. Linthoi Chanmabham became the first Indian judoka to win a World Championships gold (senior or junior) at the Cadets Championships.

And now for some off-the-field action (or rather mess)

1. The Anti-Doping Law has been passed by the Indian parliament. There have been too many doping cases, especially in Athletics & Weightlifting with some leading names also involved. To be honest, the number of doping cases involving Indians is a national embarrassment. This is certainly a step towards cleaning up their act.
2. Meanwhile the All India Football Federation got suspended by FIFA. Although the suspension was lifted, it doesn’t show our federations in good light. And there are administrative troubles in various other associations as well. Wonder how these will be cleaned up given the number of political figures involved in all these sports.
3. And its not good to see Courts getting involved in matters of team selections – Tejaswin Shankar and members of TT teams were involved in multiple court battles to ensure their participation at the Commonwealth Games! As it is our Courts have a huge case backlog, no point in adding to them!

That’s it for this episode. More qualifying action is set to commence in the coming weeks.

Till next time!

Links:

• Road To Paris – Episode 2 
• India at Commonwealth Games 2022 
• NADA Bill - Firstpost 

India @ 75

15th August – our Independence Day. Also, time for the annual blog post on all things India, a tradition which now enters its 15th edition. So, before we head into this one, here is the link for the 2021 edition.

75 years since independence – it has been a remarkable journey. The Government decided to mark the occasion as #AzaadiKaAmritMahotsav and launched the #GharGharTiranga campaign. A campaign which also resonated with the citizens. And the result - tricolours displayed everywhere, on buildings, individual houses and vehicles presented a beautiful sight (or a vihangam drishya, to borrow a phrase from Doordarshan’s Republic Day commentary).

After the travails of 2020-21, we finally seem to have got a grip on the pandemic (though still not completely over it). The covid waves are still coming, although its impact has reduced. The roll-out of vaccines, an arduous task specially in a country of our size, certainly seems to have had an effect in controlling the damage. Although we still don’t know the long-term impacts yet, but life is slowly coming back to normal.

I always believe in reading the newspaper from back to front. Because the sports pages (which come last) are filled with the stories of human achievements, unlike most of the other pages! In a non-Olympic and non-World Cup year, it would have been difficult to match the highs of Neeraj Chopra’s Olympics Gold. But our men’s Badminton team provided it by winning the Thomas Cup. Chopra himself followed it up becoming the first Indian athlete to win a World Championships Silver medal. And finally, we had the sports fans cheering the Lawn Bowls team at the Commonwealth Games, while simultaneously trying to learn the rules of this novel sport they had come across. Meanwhile the Football federation gets banned by FIFA, putting in jeopardy the upcoming Women's U-17 World Cup. Somehow, finding a cloud for a silver lining!

Where sports exist, so does betting. Although illegal, there are now a multitude of apps and sites providing a chance to win cash based on fantasy leagues! Most of them exploiting the grey area between a game of chance and a game of skill. However, some enterprising folks took this to a whole new level. They organized an entire fake IPL, streamed it, and made money off Russian punters! The sheer chutzpah of the scam is simply unbelievable! This is one story filled with lots of audacious elements – but finding people in Russia willing to bet on cricket matches takes the cake.

Whilst on the subject of online scams, there has been a surfeit of them. The mobile phone has become a minefield to be treaded through carefully. Fake job offers, fake tenants, changing numbers of legitimate businesses, sending links for payment, threatening to cut electricity supply, fake calls, hacking people’s social media accounts. Just how many traps can you avoid daily?

The initial lockdown days of Covid brought to light, how clean our environment could be with reduced human activity. While a lockdown is not the solution, it did show that the climate emergency could still be managed. In this regard, we have made a major commitment towards Net Zero by 2070. The economic costs of this transition will be quite high but something which needs to be done.

Which brings us to the economy. While we are not the worst performing, there are dark clouds looming all over the horizon. The collateral effects of Ukraine crisis, soaring energy prices and a looming food shortage are all potentially leading to a global economic recession. It will take significant political will to navigate through these VUCA times. Credit to the government for taking a stand and getting cheaper Russian crude.

On the political front, we had a change of leadership at the top. Meanwhile, in various states, the state governments keep changing not through elections but via backroom political manipulations and resort management. Certainly not a sign of a healthy democracy.

Meanwhile the social media discussions and debates continue to become more and more toxic. The balance is completely gone and replaced by a “with us or against us” mentality. Wonder what vaccine will help in resolving this.

Overall, it has been a year of coming out of chaos but there are threats looming everywhere. Let’s see what the next one holds.

On that note, Happy Birthday India! Jai Hind!

Thomas Cup 2022 Champions - INDIA

Scarcely believable but true. What a performance this has been from the men's badminton team over the past week as they went past one opponent after the other. The path wasn't easy filled with higher ranked opponents throughout but every time they were cornered the team fought back and hung in there. Fighting off match points, coming from a game down and in case of Prannoy not even letting a bad fall come in the way. And with each passing day, having to ward off the myriad jinxers on the social media timeline as well (As a sports fan, I am a firm believer in the power of the jinx).

What a performance it was - especially from Srikanth, Satwik-Chirag, Prannoy & Lakshya. Just showcasing the depth in Indian Badminton - not just individual brilliance but the collective strength. Living true to adage of whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

Now to rewind a few years. I first heard of the Thomas Cup back in the early 90s. It was more of a GK question back then – which sport is Thomas Cup associated with? At the time it was dominated by the usual big names – Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Korea, Denmark etc. For India, even qualifying for the main tournament was an achievement in itself! And now we are the Champions! What a journey this has been. The 2022 crown has just been a culmination of the Badminton’s steady rise since Gopichand’s All England win in 2001.

Now that we have tasted success, what next for Indian Badminton? Uber & Sudirman Cups should certainly be the next targets. And while we have had a steady flow of World Championships & Olympics medals in the past decade, certainly looking forward to winning more titles now. And the best part is all these are well within the grasp of this young Indian contingent!

What a lovely and inspiring sight it was to see the Indian Team with the Trophy and hearing the national anthem being played.

India – Thomas Cup 2022 Champions – that sounds right! 

P.S. Pretty sure Voot & Sports18 subscriptions would have seen a significant bump in the past couple of days! I certainly did my bit!

BookMarks #90: Bhagat Singh Jail Diary

Title: Bhagat Singh Jail Diary 

Compiled By: Yadavinder Singh Sandhu 

Genre: Diary 

Published: 2021 

BookMarks 

The book is a collection of notes from Bhagat Singh’s jail term from September, 1929 to just the day before his martyrdom in March, 1931. The jail diaries are a series of notes kept by Bhagat Singh from his readings. In modern times it would have been a blog or a podcast. The notes cover a variety of subjects including history, civic society, the many hypocrisies of the British rule, economics, law etc. There are quotes from various authors and extracts from poems kept for his records. The notes also present Bhagat Singh’s views on a variety of subjects like marriage, charity, slavery, inequality in distribution of wealth, conducting a revolution etc. 

We have been reading about Bhagat Singh since childhood. His image has been of an action figure, but he certainly was much more than that. Just look at the variety of subjects he covers in his notes and the clarity of the thoughts. Also, he was just 23. Certainly someone much more mature beyond their age. The biggest tragedy is that such a life got cut short so early. 

And inspired by his writings, here is me taking notes from his notes. These are the lines which stood out to me. 

• The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. 
• Their’s not to make reply, Their’s not to reason why; Their’s but to do and die 
• Don’t ask for rights. Take them. And don’t let anyone give them to you. 
• Great are great because we are on knees. 
• So long as the laws are made by the ruling class and the courts are presided over by members of the class; so long as lawyers are private practitioners who sell their skill to the highest bidder, and litigation is technical and costly, so long will the nominal equality before the law be a hollow mockery. 
• For reform, a threat of revolution is necessary 
• Neither the machine nor the machine owner may rule the human race. 
• In politics as in war, tactics means the art of conducting isolated operations; strategy means the art of victory, that is the actual seizure of power. 
• Teach him to live rather than to avoid death! Life is not breath, but action! Life consists less in length of days than in keen sense of living. 
• The end of Law is not to abolish or restrain but to preserve or enlarge freedom. 
• A revolution is justifiable when the government ceases to fulfil its part of contract — the protection of personal rights. 
• No one should be rich enough to buy another nor poor enough to be forced to sell himself. Great inequalities pave the way for tyranny. 
• The first man who, having enclosed a piece of land, thought of saying ‘that is mine’, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of Civil Society. 
• An insurrection is an equation with very indefinite magnitudes, the value of which may change every day. 
• Remember that plague and cholera may attack you tomorrow, and is it not better for you to die as heroes? - Can't beat this logic for motivating more people to join the revolution

What remarkable thoughts! 

Previously on BookMarks: Siddhartha  

Previously on Bhagat Singh on the blog: Learn N Blog #11 

India @74

Well, last year I was wrong!

Things took a turn for the worse in India’s 74th year, a lot worse. We nearly sailed over the Covid wave, celebrated early, even declared victory and then got hit hard by the variant. Those terrible weeks of April & May, where the nation was living through a collective trauma have been one of the most painful ones of recent times. People running around for oxygen cylinders and essential medicines. Queues for hospitals and even for cremations. Existing systems and the people manning them completely overwhelmed, yet carrying on. Even the crematoriums were malfunctioning due to excess use! Almost everyone was either affected themselves or had near and dear ones impacted. We were living in a dystopian reality. 

Amidst all this the key stakeholders in the Central government had gone incognito. There was an eerie silence, no words of reassurance or even acknowledgment of the grim situation came forth, and as it came out later no data as well. In fact, they were more in a denial mode. Meanwhile, ordinary citizens tried to help each other out. However, amidst the good Samaritans were the rotten apples as well, selling making a killing with exorbitant rates or worse providing fake medicines. Some finding their “aapda me avsar” while most citizens got a brutal lesson in becoming aatm-nirbhar. 

The government can’t even take full blame though, as the citizens kept flocking to potential hotspots – election rallies, sporting events, religious festivals and tourist spots, while not following even the basic mask and social distancing protocols. It has been a long year, but some more restraint would help. 

Then the Farmer Protests which have been going on for a while with no resolution in sight. Simply, because, it is in nobody’s interest to resolve it. The longer an issue runs, the longer it can be milked for various political purposes. 

The polarization of opinion on social media is near absolute. Every single issue is seen as either for or against with people picking sides based on their confirmation bias. Balance and logic in debates has simply gone for a toss. 

But enough of the negativity. It is said, read the newspaper back to front. The sports pages at the last register the human achievements while the rest of the pages are simply chronicling our failures.

Success in the sporting arena provided some succor. India had their best Olympics haul ever including a second Gold medalist in Neeraj Chopra and a potential resurgence in Hockey. What a moment it was to hear Jana Gana Mana played out in Tokyo! Hopefully the other Indian sports (i.e. non-cricket ones) build on from these Games. After all, our one billion plus populace should be able to easily accommodate all sports in the World. 

Cricket provided epic rearguard moment as the Aussie bastion of Gabba was finally breached. Yet, it was also in news for hosting the IPL amidst a pandemic. The argument of IPL providing a welcome distraction in the covid times began to ring hollow. And finally had to be suspended. The virus breaches even the most secure bio-bubbles. 

So, after a harrowing year, where do we stand? Dare we hope again for normalcy, as the vaccine roll-out gathers a bit of momentum while simultaneously bracing ourselves for further waves? Will there ever be a normal again? Or we keep adapting to the “new normal”? If the covid ravaged days have given one positive, it is the fact that one is not totally alone. Just ask for help. It might not necessarily come on time. But there will be people who will try (as per their might) to help out. And that to me is the silver lining amidst all the dark clouds. 

On that tiny note of positivity, a Very Happy Birthday to India! 

Talking Tokyo

Why do we follow sports? I read somewhere that Emotional investment in sports is just weird. You have absolutely no control on the result and are dependent on the efforts of some random people who currently have the allegiance to the same flag as your passport! And who most likely have no idea you exist. Yet, we somehow share the collective joy and disappointments! 

The Tokyo Olympics actually happened. And India achieved its best medal tally. After two weeks of action all that is left is an Olympics sized void in its aftermath! And lots of memories and interesting factoids for future sports quizzes! Here is what the Tokyo Games would be remembered from an Indian perspective (or maybe not). 

• 2021 – The bizarre answer to the question, “In which year were the Tokyo 2020 Olympics held?” There were Covid cases (thankfully very few), some bio-bubble breaches (dealt with severely), Russians masquerading as ROC (what is even the point of that ban then!), a missing Ugandan weightlifter, a nearly kidnapped Belarussian runner, and a coach who punched a horse! In all not too many off-field distractions. 
• 1988 – That was the last Olympics in which Leander Paes - the man who got India back to medal winning ways - was not part of the Indian contingent. 
• 126 – Final count of Indian athletes at the Olympics, with Diksha Dagar sneaking in after the Games started. And whatever the armchair critics might say, they were all there on merit, making through the long drawn Qualifying cycle disrupted by a global pandemic. 
• 87.58 – metres, that’s how far Neeraj Chopra’s javelin flew earning India’s first ever Athletics Gold. In one of the most dominant displays by an Indian athlete, Neeraj Chopra’s throws would have placed him 1st, 2nd & 4th and all this despite not even meeting his Personal Best! Just to give a perspective, Avinash Sable broke his own Steeplechase National Record, while the Men’s 4x400m relay broke the Asian Record and yet failed to reach the respective Finals. 
• 41 – Years since we last got a Hockey medal. It had been a while coming. We waited nearly half a century for the Indian team to reach the semi-finals and then in a matter of 24 hours we had two Hockey teams in the last 4! And somehow PR Sreejesh ended up on top of the goal-posts!
• 7 – Medals won by India - 1 Gold, 2 Silvers & 4 Bronze Medals. one more than the 6 at London 2012. Also improved the total medal tally by a whopping 25%. Remember the Names - Neeraj Chopra, Mirabai Chanu, Ravi Dahiya, PV Sindhu, Lovlina Borgohain, Bajrang Punia & the Hockey team (Dilpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Surender Kumar, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Gurjant Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Mandeep Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Lalit Upadhyay, P. R. Sreejesh, Sumit, Nilakanta Sharma, Shamsher Singh, Varun Kumar, Birendra Lakra, Amit Rohidas and Vivek Prasad).
• 7 – medals won by Indian wrestlers till date. The Gold still eludes but we are getting closer. 
• 4 – India has a long history of 4th Place finishes. In some instances, they are more celebrated than some medalists even. In this edition, we added a few more chapters. Aditi Ashok in Golf (where India got a quick lesson in bogeys and birdies), the women’s Hockey team (where real life nearly imitated reel) and Deepak Punia. Aditi missed birdies by an inch or so, while Deepak was leading for most of his bout. 
• 2 – PV Sindhu added a Bronze to her Silver at Rio, joining Sushil Kumar as the most decorated Indian individual athletes. Still 2 short of Hockey Legends Leslie Claudius and Udham Singh. 
• 1 Billion – Number of armchair experts who popped up during the Games, giving a detailed critique of every athlete’s sporting technique, physical fitness and mental toughness, while themselves having zero idea of (a) the rules of the game, (b) the qualifying process and previous competitions, and (c) even the names of the athletes. And then there are the abusive trolls, channeling all their misplaced anger and frustrations at the athletes! 

There is a very fine line between fame and anonymity. Nowhere is this adage truer than the Olympics. Take the case of Chirag Shetty & Satwik Rankireddy – they beat the eventual gold medallists in the first match but ended up finishing 3rd in the group despite winning two matches and were eliminated in the first round itself. 

And then there are the other heroic stories:

• Bhavani Devi – a true trailblazer, becoming the first Indian fencer to not only qualify but also win a round at the Olympics. 
• Fouaad Mirza and Signeur marking India’s return to the Equestrian arena after 2 decades. And making it to the very last stage, quite a commendable feat. 
• Kamalpreet Kaur making us watch the Discus Throw Final and finishing a creditable 6th 
• Satish Kumar boxing through stitches on the face for a chance for a medal 
• Vishnu Sarvanan registering a 3rd place in one of the legs 
• Saurabh Chaudhary – the only shooter who did not disappoint, he had a bad start in his Finals, but did well overall. 

And then there were the bizarre stories 

• Mary Kom thinking she had won the bout. Well, Boxing judging is weird to say the least so can't blame her. 
• The journos who spread rumors of dope testing for Chinese Gold winner in Mirabai’s event! 

And finally the disappointments 

• Sony Sports Network – where navigating through its myriad channels was an Olympian task in itself. Toggling between their various channels and invariably landing into ads rather than the real action. And they did not exactly cover themselves in glory by reducing the Indian contingent marching in at the Opening Ceremony to a small box on the screen 
• Then there is the rush to take credit for every success and was the blame game for every other result. 
• The Jinxers - small progress by an Indian athlete and they start updating the medal table. Wonder why the need to always jump the gun!

That was it for Tokyo (the Paralympics are still to take place). In Eminem's words - "If you had one shot or one opportunity, to seize everything that you wanted, Would You take it or let it go?" Quite a few of the Indian contingent took the first option thus leading to the best ever tally and yet there is that nagging feeling that we could easily have got many more! 

And now we begin the Road To Paris. It is a shorter one this time (hopefully)!

Road To Tokyo: Episode 21 - The Bearers of a Billion Hopes

With less than a week to go, it seems the Games may finally happen after all. The contingents have started trickling into Tokyo. The Covid screening is on at full swing making global headlines whenever they catch even one case (without ever giving the total numbers tested). 

Now if it’s a sporting extravaganza, then its also time to make predictions. I am no octopus (given how my predictions were way off for Rio). Predicting is an inherently risky business, but this time there is added uncertainty. Many warm-up & test events were either cancelled or poorly attended. Differing travel restrictions and ever-changing quarantine guidelines have further complicated the process. And then there is the chance of athletes testing positive and being barred from the competition at the very last moment. But all this uncertainty just adds to the fun (of making predictions, not the Games itself). 

"The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part; the important thing in Life is not triumph, but the struggle; the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."  - Baron Pierre de Coubertin

For years, Indian contingents at Olympics fully endorsed this line. However, there has been a marked change with many of them becoming world champions and medallists. Here are my sport-by-sport expectations from the Indian contingent, who bear the expectations of a Billion plus people.

1. Archery: A discipline which has consistently disappointed since the days of Limba Ram. Recent form in the World Cups has been good, but a couple of caveats here – many countries skipped these events. Then the Indian women’s team got Gold at both World Cup stages but lost in the first round of Qualifiers in between! Hopefully this could be a redemption of sorts for Deepika Kumari. India has a good chance for a medal in all the 4 disciplines 
2. Athletics: The Qualification cut-offs were tougher this time around. Most Indian athletes had to break National records just to meet the qualifying standards. And some of them broke them multiple times. However, Neeraj Chopra is the only one who could be considered a strong contender for a Top 3 finish. A special mention of the race-walking disciplines, which has seen a steady rise in direct qualifiers. A Few National Records and Personal Bests are the best hopes for most of the contingent
3. Badminton: Badminton qualification were severely hit by the virus with tournaments getting cancelled everywhere and scuttling the chances of Srikanth & Saina and the doubles teams. PV Sindhu enters the Games as the defending world champion but hasn’t played for quite a while now. Same for Praneeth and the doubles duo of Satwik & Chirag. They can certainly bring in the medals but there is no idea of their or the rivals’ forms. 
4. Boxing:After the low of Rio, the boxing team is getting back on track with 9 quota places. Amit Panghal is the top ranked boxer in his category and then there is Mary Kom who can never be counted out. The likes of Manish Kaushik have a decent chance of getting to the sem-finals as well. 
5. Equestrian: Fouaad Mirza is India’s first qualifier in over 2 decades. Let’s see how he and Seigneur perform at the big stage 
6. Fencing: Bhavani Devi created history by becoming the first Indian to qualify in the Fencing sport. Can she do a Dipa Karmakar now? 
7. Hockey:  It has been 4 decades since our last hockey medal. But Hockey is our National Sport. The Mens team is currently ranked 4th in the World & the Women have qualified again after the disappointment of the last place finish at Rio. We certainly can hope for the elusive medal. 
8. Golf: Anirban Lahiri, Udayan Mane & Aditi Ashok will be representing India at Tokyo. Aditi could spring a surprise with her recent performance in the European LPGA tour. 
9. Gymnastics: After Dipa Karmakar, it is the turn of Pranati Nayak to qualify for the Games. No one had heard of an Indian Gymanst till Dipa nearly vaulted to a medal. Let’s see what Pranati has in store. 
10. Judo: Sushila Devi is India’s sole representative at the Games 
11. Rowing: Arjun Lal & Arvind Singh will be participating in the Lightweight Double Sculls category. India couldn’t participate in the Final Qualifiers due to covid restrictions. 
12. Sailing: Nethra Kumanan is all set to India’s first ever female sailor at the Olympics. Also, these are the first Games in which India will be represented in more than one sailing event 
13. Shooting: India is sending its largest ever shooting contingent. Rio was a disaster for the Indian shooting team. Since then, there has been a big change in the personnel with quite a few young guns coming into the fray. As for the medal hopes, on their day all of them could bring in the medals especially the likes of Saurabh Chaudhary (who is named in Time’s athletes to watch out for) and Manu Bhaker. Or they could bring in no medals – that is how unpredictable the sport of Shooting is!
14. Swimming: For the first time Indian swimmers achieved the A Qualifying mark. Thus, there are 2 entrants in the Mens, Sajan Prakash & Srihari Nataraj, while Maana Patel got the Universality Place for women. Best case scenario will be bettering the National Records 
15. Table Tennis: With the arrival of Manika Batra, Indian table Tennis has seen a rise in popularity. While they haven’t yet broken the East Asian grasp on the medals, they are starting to get there. There is certainly an outside chance for the Mixed Doubles pair of Sharath Kamal & Manika, who also got a Bronze at the 2018 Asiad. 
16. Tennis: India’s best bet would have been the Mixed Doubles but they couldn’t qualify (as yet due to the extremely complex ITF qualifying scenarios). Don’t see either Sumit Nagal or the Doubles pair of Sania & Ankita Raina progressing much further. 
17. Weightlifting: Mirabai Chanu should get at least the Silver Medal and bury the demons of Rio for good 
18. Wrestling: India lost one Quota due to Doping. None of their previous medalists qualified for these Games. Yet Wrestling could certainly bring in 2-3 medals with Bajrang Punia, Deepa Punia & Vinesh Phogat starting favourites in their respective categories. 

So overall, this could be India’s best ever Games with a potential double-digit medal count and with some luck in favour could surpass the combined medal count of the last 4 decades! Or we end up with no medals at all. After all these are the strangest Olympics of all times!

And Now let the Games Begin! (Also fingers crossed that the Games proceed with minimal Covid impact) 

Links: 

• Road To Tokyo: Episode 20 
• The Rio Hopes
• Olympic Predictions

BookMarks #82: The Paradoxical Prime Minister

Title: The Paradoxical Prime Minister – Narendra Modi and His India 

Author: Shashi Tharoor 

Genre: Non-fiction, Politics, India 

Published: 2018 

BookMarks 

The Paradoxical PM is a critique of the first four year of Mr. Narendra Modi’s term as India’s Prime Minister by Shashi Tharoor, a member of the Opposition and a former Union minister. So while, he has a given a disclaimer upfront, the book has to be read with the background of an upcoming election (2019). 

The author states that “everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts”. But whom does one believe for the facts! After all given the echo chambers that the web has transformed into and the varying degrees of inherent “Confirmation Bias” that everyone has, getting the real facts is an onerous ask! 

Dr. Tharoor covers the various issues raised during the tenure (2104-18) attempting to highlight the paradox between what is said and what has been done. No issue is left untouched – cow, muslims, Bharat Mata Ki Jai, the Constitution, Hindu rashtra, women’s rights, demonetization, health, education, newspapers and media, governance, minimum governance. foreign relations et al. Here Dr. Tharoor has provided a critique of the government policies and in some areas a good summary of what should be India’s vision. 

A couple of lines which I really liked in the book. 

• it is the idea that a nation may endure differences of caste, creed, colour, culture, cuisine, conviction, costume and custom, and still rally around a consensus 
• in a democracy you don’t really need to agree—except on the ground rules of how you will disagree. 

The author has summarized the tenure as “in the end, therefore, he must be judged for himself; since he claims all successes as his own, his transcendent failures must inevitably also be laid at his own door". making the book an apt reading in these Covid times. The combination of arrogance and ineptitude is certainly deadly. 

Of course, there are things unsaid. Like the areas in which the current government couldn’t really do much because of various legacy issues created by the previous regimes. While Dr. Tharoor has highlighted all the failings, the fact that the government still got re-elected in 2019 (with an increased majority) says a lot about the Opposition’s terrible messaging to the voters. The Opposition parties certainly need an image sprucing and better communication. 

Overall, an interesting critique of the Government!

Previously on BookMarks: Think Straight