"Need gold? Saina hai na!...Breadminton Champion!"
The quintessential Amul hoarding at the famed Tilak bridge, Dadar speaks accolades about the recently hosted CWG at Delhi.
CWG represented India in its true spirit - complicated, controversial yet collectively composed and catapultingly creative.
What worked for us was the fact that the bar was set at almost a naught after the ghastly spate of scandals surrounding the event.
As fellow Indians, we were angry and outraged at having blown away such an awesome opportunity to showcase brand India to the world at large. We held our heads in shame and muttered unspeakable curses under our breaths and at other times the octave was set much higher.
Yet, when the time came for unearthing the commencement of this prestigious event, we sat glued to our television sets nervously anticipating the outcome.
The opening ceremony was a sight for sore eyes(in this case sore hearts) from Hariharan's Swagatham to Rehman's Jiyo Utho...it was spectacular!
The events that followed had us winning 101 medals and finishing numero deux after the folks from down under!
We held our heads in pride and devoured medals tally report in the same way that we religiously check for cricket scores! It was infectious...we rooted for our athletes and egged them on. It was water under the bridge.
India was shining again!
The closing ceremony took place with our blessings and this time the world sat up and took us seriously as well! We performed with grace and dignity and we tearfully bid farewell to Shera.
CWG certainly was not controversy free. It most definitely was tainted in more ways than one. We still have a lot of questions - answers that we rightfully demand as tax-payers of this mighty nation!
Yet, we need to commend the fact that we rose like a phoenix from its ashes and did Brand India a whole lot of good! Very good in fact!
CWGing Brand India ... cheers to that confluence!
Well said, Samyukta! As expected from you! Write more.
ReplyDeleteThe Commonwealth games may have ended on a high note, but what remains to be seen is whether the men who were responsible for all the mess, preceding the event are held accountable or not.
ReplyDeleteThe extremely lackadaisical attitude of the organising committee was downright disgusting. And the corruption..Blatant..In your face..Suresh Kalmadi and gang have some serious answering to do.
Having said that, it is commendable that we could “successfully” hold an event of such great magnitude..Kudos to all the athletes for doing us proud !
P.S Check out these Amul ads from their August segment. All of them are hilarious :)
http://www.amul.com/2010hits/page9.html