India's future at Olympics...........Looking Ahead Into Future

India's future at the world's grand and huge sporting event "Olympics" seems fading into the dark but for the three medalists winning a gold and two bronze medals ,thereby saving India's dignity and honour at the international podium. It was only for the "shooting star" Abhinav Bindra that we got to hear our national anthem for the first time at the Beijing Olympics in front of the worldwide audience, bearing witness to the moment of pride and glory of our nation. Wrestler Sushil Kumar and boxer Vijender Kumar had also played a big role in enhancing the glory of the country, when they received their bronze medals for their respective events. However sadly, none of these incidents provide reason enough for the Indian Government to awake from its deep slumber and promote these less glamorous games in the country. India never realized the importance of Olympics which comes every four years and is viewed by nations across the globe, unlike countries like USA, China and the other super-power nations. China, the emerging super-power, has already proved its importance to the world by presenting before the world an extravaganza of an opening ceremony and also proving its sporting talent by winning medals in nearly all events. The number of medals won by China is escalating everyday in the tally-chart and there is no doubt about it that it will defeat its arch-rival USA by a huge margin in near time. China is a shinning example of a nation which has risen from ashes and is now reaching for the stars, overnight. But the merit of its hard work behind this huge success at the Beijing Olympics cannot be lessened a bit. The country has worked hard and so did the athletes in order to prove a point to the worldwide spectators. They have shown us that they can no longer be looked down upon by any nation including the big-brother USA, which controls the global economy to a large extent. They have said it to the world that they are self-sufficient in all spheres.....be it technology or be it sports. This is the fruit of mutual hard work of the government and the athletes, who won medals for their nation and has increased the country's dignity in front of the global audience, who could only stare and watch their enthralling performance at each and every sporting event.Now to talk about our country where athletes are not provided any support by the government be it monetary or be it providing proper coaches, physios and mental-conditioners etc., a failure was guaranteed even before the start of the "Olympics" .People never expected an Abhinav Bindra to win a gold or a Vijender to win a bronze. The media too was not interested in covering these comparitively less glamorous sports stars prior to their Olympics exploits. Overnight, the attitude of the country has undergone a 180 degrees phase shift. Governments and private organizations are swooning over their glory and the media is also not far behind in this race. Each and every day we are getting to hear of a certain amount of money rewarded to these "Overnight Stars" .Photos of Abhinav, Sushil and Vijender are published in the cover pages of the leading dailies of the country with the sports officials hovering around them and sharing the spotlight and definitely the credit for such victories!!!I doubt where these people were when they were genuinely needed to support these athletes during their days of struggle. The media is now going gaga about their daily activities starting from morning till mid-night but where were they when they were really needed to bring the cause of these struggling athletes to the public eye.Actually, in India, only two things sell.........one is Bollywood and the other is Cricket. These are the only two spheres which have successfully carried our nation's name to the world...........this is what the media believes and hence we find the news dailies covered with gossips and every tit-bit trivial news about Cricket Stars like Mahi and Yuvraj and their ever-changing love interests and romantic adventures with the tinsel town beauties rather the Bollywood glamour girls and of course the Bollywod actors, be it a B-grade or a C-grade actor, like Rakhi Sawant slapping her boyfriend or Shilpa Shetty winning a "Big Brother”. We never get to know how a Saina Nehwal's father is knocking on the doors of the sports officials to get her some sponsors or any other less glamorous and lesser known athlete's parents cutting down on their expenses to nurture him/her. Most of the athletes belong to the remote villages of Haryana and Punjab and come from middle class, lower middle class or even poor families. They are in genuine need of support from the Government and the media but unfortunately, these are trivial issues in the eyes of the media houses. Abhinav's father, an industrialist, could nurture his son well and provide him with all the necessities required for an expensive sport like shooting but what about people having potential but no money??The Lakshmi Mittal foundation has come forward to promote these sportspersons but what about the Government??Is it there only to share the credits of the athletes after they win a medal??It is high time India should rise and take notice of these sports which are played at Olympics and participated and viewed by worldwide nations. Cricket is an entertaining sport and has definitely being doing well in the country and abroad and no doubt, BCCI has played a crucial role in strengthening the foundation of this game in the country and outside the nation too. But other games should also be promoted and provided for because cricket is played by a handful of nations compared to Olympics, where every country participates and the world wide media covers this sporting extravaganza. Winning ten World Cups in cricket can probably equal to winning a gold medal at Olympics. If India has to command respect and honour in front of the global population, it should improve the infrastructure of the various Olympics sports instead of only looking up to cricket for commanding world wide recognition. The Government has to have faith in our athletes, train them well and support them so that we can do even better in the future years to come at the Olympics. Otherwise ,we could lose all those stars who at this moment might be struggling to get the Government's attention and practising under some local coach in some remote village of the country. We don't want to lose the superstars of tomorrow who could probably write the name of our country in golden letters on international platform. We don't want to lose them just because they are not financially equipped or lacking proper training to compete at international level. We don't want any more mothers like Sushil Kumar's to starve in order to nurture a wrestling champ. Let us come forward and believe in ourselves. We can take India to the world.........the day would not be far when India will be shinning at the international podium and the world will stare at her with reverence and dignity .Lets start preparing our athletes from this moment on, so that we can produce a dozen Abhinavs who would fetch us golds at all international sporting events and make our country proud. India will someday rule the world.........The tricolour will fly high on the global pedestal and "Jana Gana Mana............" will echo from all corners of the world. WE CAN DO IT!!!!