Why India needed this?

London Olympics came to an end and it's end pretty much coincided with the release of Ek Tha Tiger which means the efforts of our athletes in London are soon going to be overshadowed by the machismo of Salman Khan. That was inevitable, was it not? However a few hours are left in the release of the movie so I can expect people to remember London and thus relate to this piece of mine. In terms of medal count, it has been our most successful Olympics. Personally all I wanted from this Olympics was an improved performance. I was afraid that a disappointing performance would put Indians back into the “kuch nahi ho sakta” mold. They would feel that Beijing was just an aberration in an otherwise constantly disappointing performance and Indian sports is back to rock bottom. However our athletes lived up to the expectations that were established after Beijing Olympics, Guangzhou Asian Games and Delhi Commonwealth. Not only did our 6 athletes won a medal each, a few others came close to winning and in spite of missing the medal, they delighted us with their performances. While earlier I was disappointed by those close misses, but now when I look at the bigger picture, I am glad our athletes experienced it because now they know that there is no substitute for an Olympic medal. Securing a close 4th, missing by one shot or losing by 1 point means nothing. They must have also realized that in a nation famous for its jugaads, there is no jugaad for an Olympic medal. There is no shortcut. And I am sure most of our athletes will emerge stronger and better from these near misses. Talking of the medals we won, each and every one of those six medals gives me equal amount of pleasure and satisfaction. However two medals in particular make me immensely proud and I believe India as a country needed these two medals more than any other. Had India not won these two medals, I would have probably not bothered to write this piece. By now you would have guessed which two medals I am talking about. Yes I am talking about the ones won by our ladies, Saina and Mary Kom.

The obvious reason why I said that India needed these two medals more than any other is of course the winners being ladies. The more optimistic half of mine feels that most of the Indians do not need an Olympic performance to believe that an Indian woman is no lesser than an Indian man but the more pessimistic half of mine feels that no amount of medals will ever change the typical chauvinistic mentality of Indian men. Well this piece is all about good things so I will curb my pessimism for now and hope this performance will bring a positive change in the social fabric of India and we will see more and more girls competing for India at the world level. However the fact that these medals were won by ladies is not the only reason why I consider them more important. Where they come from also make them special. While one comes from Haryana which has the worst boy to girl ratio in India and has most cases of female feticide, the other comes from Manipur which along with its 6 sister states is pretty much a forgotten state of our country. The fact that Saina's birth was a bad news to her grandmother makes her success story even more inspiring and compelling. I am sure her grandmother is a proud granny now but will it take every female child in Haryana to do something big at international level just to get the love, care, respect and everything else which should be her birth right? I hope not every girl has to do the same. I hope Saina has done that on behalf of all of them. If she has, then her medal is much more than just an achievement in sports. Now let’s talk about Mary Kom’s state. Oh is it Manipur or Assam or Sikkim? I am sure many of you are not sure about that. Well Amitabh Bachchan was not when he tweeted about Mary Kom’s achievement. He said he was proud of her but sadly did not know where she came from. How could he, he probably would have never cared to bother about her or her five world titles. To be fair to him, how many of us did. But then again we do not host a game show based on general knowledge, do we? We did memorize the seven sister sates’ names and their capitals in school but that’s where we stopped learning about them. Unfortunately entire northeast just became a theoretical entity for rest of the India. Mary Kom (and Devendro Singh Laishram) has brought them back to our attention. Last time it needed a Baichung Bhutia from Sikkim to do that. Once he retired, the seven states were put back to oblivion. Let us not do that again. I am sure we will get more world beaters from there. It’s time we start learning more about northeast than the names of the seven sister states, their capitals and dig out more than just momos from there.

Not in many countries do women have to win Olympics medals to prove their life's worth. Not in many countries do people have to win Olympics medals to direct their countrymen's attention towards their states or regions. Unfortunately India is not one of those countries. Here a girl had to win an Olympics medal to get that same amount of love from her grandmother which her brother would have got just for being a boy. Here a lady had to win an Olympics medal, taking several blows on her face en route, to get her state some recognition and acceptance. Well they did it. I just hope and pray that what they did does not get wasted.

An eye opening unforgettable Sunday!!

So after 15 classes and one hell of a show I have come to terms with the fact that I am better off dancing in a crowd, a drunken disco or an even more drunken marriage crowd. I am not meant to be on the stage in front of live audiences. Not for dancing. Maybe for talking; that I can do anywhere (at least I’d like to believe that until the bubble bursts), but definitely not dancing.

Now you guys must be wondering how bad I must have performed to conclude that. Hmm not too bad. But it was disappointing because I was unable to meet the standards that I had set for myself. And they were not too high. I mean I really did not go up there to dazzle the crowd with my savvy dance moves. The only thing I expected from myself was to remember every step, do it as told and come back. Apparently that turned out to be a big ask. I have hardly ever goofed up during our sessions. I was well in sync with the music and steps till a minute before we entered the stage. It was once the lights and music were on, I kind of went blank. Not kind of, I actually went blank. I was drowned in the cheering of the crowd. They were told to cheer loudest for us. Aneesha Dalal asked them to. Oh yeah she was there. She asked them so because while every other batch had like 8 to 10 dancers, ours had only 4 and we were the first to go. Well she did that with the best of intentions and so did the crowd. Neither of them knew one of those four will get so overwhelmed by the cheers that he would not be able to hear the music. That is one drawback of doing things on stage in front of a quiet audience. You never get prepared for the noisy one. Anyways, so I goofed up. Forgot a few steps, and whatever I did remember to do did not look pretty either. Had it been my first blunder on stage, I would have let it go but few of my friends from Satyam know, it was not. ;) So I have just accepted it is not my forte. Like Harvey Dent said in The Dark Knight, you either give up wisely or you just keep on trying making a fool out of yourself. Well he did not exactly say so but what he said does not make sense here. What I just said, does.

Looking at the brighter side, the show was amazing. There were people of all ages dressed up in colorful costumes. It started with a sort of a jam session where everybody just went on the stage and danced. It was called the warm up session but honestly it was just an excuse to let everyone dance freely on the stage. Then there were the performances. Other than the instructors no one there was a professional and they have been getting the same training that I was. However their performances suggested otherwise. Of course no performance was perfect but there were glimpses of awesomeness in all of them. At times I could not help myself but standing and applauding, especially for the group of deaf and blind kids and the special potential batch. SPB, I am told, is a batch created from amateurs like us. They are just a lot more talented. Most of the students from SPB were just teens and their performance had everyone on their feet. I have seen such performances only on screen but watching it live from 5 yards was a totally different experience. I don’t know why but everything looks easier on screen and thus you don’t appreciate the efforts and skills of a performer as much as you should. It’s only when you are closer to the action you realize what it takes to do what you just saw. A lot of credit if not all, should also go to the instructors. During the last couple of months I had been in complete awe of my instructor for her fitness, energy and enthusiasm (she is pretty too but I would rather not talk about that :P). Today I saw so many like her. Seemed like a different breed all together. Those guys participated in all performances in bits and pieces. The way they made entry into and exit from a running performance to balance it was a top shelf choreography. In spite of the fact that they also had the responsibility of managing the show, they never stopped cheering and dancing. It was a Sunday and they were there doing their job. But not one of them had any complaints. They loved doing it. I envy them for that. Most of the guys from my industry would share my feeling. Maybe they do not earn as much as we do (a big maybe) but I know I would give up my job without thinking twice to do a job like that, a job that I would be looking forward to doing even on a Sunday morning. And with this thought I will now hit the sack because I do have a job, not one which I love but definitely one which makes it possible for me to spend money on things I love. That’s quite satisfactory if not delightful. And yeah, I won’t stop learning to dance, I’d just stay away from the stage :P

P.S: The only blemish on today’s experience was the movie StepUp 4 which all of us went to watch after the show. It is an awfully terrible movie. Please do not watch it, thus encouraging its makers to make another one in this dreadful series.