Triumph and tragedy
HEMA RAGHAVAN
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China’s new benchmark in sports
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The 61st Independence Day would have gone on with neither a bang nor a whimper as in the previous years but for the touch of gold fired by Abhinav Bindra. As for the rest of the Indian contingent, they made their exit unsung and unwept barring Sushil Kumar and Vijender who refused to exit from their fighting rings for a little longer while. To be honest and truthful, I confess that I am envious of the Chinese. I am certain that like me many others in India will feel envious except that they may not openly confess it. This collective Indian envy is not just a neighbour’s envy over the awesome Chinese medal tally but over their fulsome pride in their nation.
Peculiar Indian psyche
For all the patriotic song and dance on our TV channels on I-Day, we Indians sorely lack a collective pride of being Indians. Even those momentary euphoric adulations on getting a gold here, a bronze there or a silver elsewhere are just frenzied eruptions. We suffer from a peculiar psyche that makes us passive watchers and bystanders rather than take a mental vault to leap to the centre of action. We crib that ‘others’ have let us down without making the least effort to be a part of ‘ the others’. It is said that there are people who make things happen, those who watch what happens and those who wonder what happened. We are in the second category without understanding that “action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.”
The Chinese pride in showcasing their country’s oneness as a nation is reflected in their attention to the minutest detail while playing the perfect host. They have set a benchmark very difficult for other host countries to follow leave aside, surpass. The Chinese nationalism has been in evidence in their use of imagination with precision, a perfect synergy of technology and human resource.
Where are we with reference to China? Except for the verbal boast of being an Asian giant, we lag far behind China. Let us not blame our present position on our soaring population. Even China was bracketed with India as being one of the most populous nations. If it could garner its human potential to this level, why have we failed?
How to redeem?
We lack the pride of being Indians, and do not act to bring glory to our nation; we act only for ourselves. Our human resource is enormous; our wastage of the same is colossal. We find satisfaction in articulating other people’s failures. We do have the necessary intelligence to be a superpower. We have the mental and physical toughness to endure what cannot be cured. We are inheritors of a rich culture and civilization that has helped us imbibe a sense of ‘dharma’. But we are unaware of our own potential.The Chinese triumph has been the rise and realisation of their human potential.
Our tragedy has been the colossal waste of our human potential. Already one hears moaning voices that we may not be able to do for the 2010 Commonwealth games one hundredth of what the Chinese have done for the 2008 Olympics. Let us not listen to them but instead cultivate the pride of being Indian, and show the world what it is to be an Indian.
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