As far as it gets!

    There it ends!London Olympics.In a grand and glorious manner.Ending the journey of Record breaking performances,triumphs,tears,pride & joy of the 204 participated nations.And on the records front,well, the list goes on.Starting from the number of nations participated,the records just pile up.In fact,London 2012 Olympics is the most watched event in the U.S television history as per the reports at CNN Entertainment.And on the national front,India has bagged its highest ever medal count!
   If you are happy with that fact,well you may have the right to be,a little.But nothing more than that.Telling it as the highest ever medal count ,is a Mellifluous way of saying it.
   Leaving beside the history, the number of medals India has won in all the events put together is just equal to the number of Bronze medals won by Azerbaijan.Haven't you heard of the country named Azerbaijan,which is located at the border of Asia & Europe,placed a good 25 positions above India in the medal tally? Well,even I didn't! Never even read about it. Not until I came across it in the medal tally.And with a little insight from Wikipedia,my mind ends up thinking how does a country having 120 times more population than the other, end up on a less triumphant note in a competition which underlines the importance of its people as an asset .Well,isn't that the topic all the national dailies are taking their fodder from. A few articles on the main page about giving the medal-winners a hero's welcome at the Indira Gandhi International Airport and all the talking about hell breaking lose as the 'proud' citizens of the country breaking the police barricades just to put a garland around the athletes' neck.Turn the page; and you'll find all the so called intellectual people talking about the nation not putting forward enough and sensible expectations and the medal-winning athletes not being produced in proportion to the nation's mind boggling and ever-growing population.
    Well,what do I say.Monogamy is not only a traditionally preached practice in the nation, but even the citizens abide to it, while following a sport.With no disrespect to the Nehwal's, Chhetri's, Dhyan Chand's and Anand's,India is a one sport nation. Even a 9 year old in my country would happily watch Indian Cricket team play against Bangladesh at Dhaka, rather than giving a damn for Vishwanathan Anand's outstandingly brilliant game.Well, to paraphrase Agatha Christie, It's the grey cells that's of the utmost importance & it's the grey matter that demand's the opposition's respect.In reality,it's far from it!
   That's how the scenario has become.If you randomly listen in on a conversation between two people drinking tea at a road side stall in hyd,the probability of hearing "kya baat karte ustaad,aaj sachin jaroor century marega!" in a typical Hyderabadi slang is quite high!(Its quite funny to hear it though.Damn,I miss a friend who had that slang!) To point it,that's how deep, cricket has its roots in the hearts of the citizens.Let it be the amount of money being pumped in by Corporate giants just for a 2 minute commercial involving a cricketer (or) the amount of time alloted to cricket even in a 5 minute news reading,the huge volumes of cash being splashed over our new found interest in the form of a domestic league or the prospect of the amount of fame at stake even at the expense of luck (remember Joginder sharma?), what not,everything has contributed towards the deep-rooting of cricket in India,till the extent of giving it a religious status.In Harsha Bhogle's own words,as spoken at TED Talks,"Even in a small patch of land you might find more than a dozen matches taking place,letting the fielder to wonder,to which match he actually belongs!" In short,India speaks cricket,plays cricket and lives cricket.
   Then how can we expect athletes to just go & win us a bunch of medals,when no one even cares about them for the better part of the four year period between two Olympic games. Let alone providing them with world class training facilities , the bare minimum requirements of the athletes had to come under scrutiny. Achievements need to be appreciated,funds has to be allotted,importance has to be given,Corporate sector need to find new brand ambassadors amongst them.In short India has a long way to go,to win medals in proportion with our population;provided the entire nation gives them the respect they demand but not just during the heat of the moment!Right now,this is all the athletes can achieve.This is all, the nation can expect. This, is as far as it gets.Lets just hope,the good day is not far away.Right now,on the occasion of the 66th independence day of our country,lets just bask in the glory and pride of the fact that India has achieved its best ever medal count!

P.S-I am not saying that support is not being given to our athletes.Some of them even stress the point of the amount of support they received, from government and other charitable organisations.Its just that the reach of these things is supposed to be far more better into the remote areas for encouraging and developing budding talents.How else would a wide spread disease be cured without the right dosage of medicine?