The Commonwealth Games at New Delhi is going on successfully and we Indians are proud of the magnificent arrangements and the efficient conduct of the games. It is heart warming to see that till date we are in second position in the medals tally above England and Canada.
Initially there was considerable criticism about the arrangements at the games village and also about the misuse of funds and massive curruption apart from the inefficiency of the government departments and apathy of sports officials to provide proper, clean accommodation to the athletes. This would have gone unnoticed but for the media uproar and massive accusations by sports officials from other participating countries. Finally, the Prime Minister had to intervene, pull up the officials and set right things on a war footing. I am sure there will be an enquiry and the guilty will be given exemplary punishment because the currupt officials were putting the country's honor,prestige and pride at stake.
This reminded me of my own bitter experience with regard to accommodation provided by the sports officials when I took part in Inter District Athletic meet as a 4oo meters hurdler long time ago when I was a student of Loyola College,Chennai. I qualified at the local meet and was selected for the inter district meet at Vellore. At Vellore I was put in a dormitory without any bed or fan but infested with mosquitoes. I could not sleep the whole night and as a result when I ran the race the next day it was impossible to concentrate and tripped over the third hurdle and fell. That was the end of my race and my dream of getting selected for the State level meet became dust.
It looks like the apathy and callousness of the sports officials towards athletes have not changed even after so many years. I hope at least now their attitude will change for the better.
very informative post
ReplyDeleteLiked The Post As Well As The Pictures :) :)
ReplyDeletei as well...everyone should be given the opportunity to do their best without adverse factors such as accomodations coming into play
ReplyDeleteSpectacular post Joseph, I have been watching the Games every day. I congratulate India for putting on a fine warm welcome to all athletes.
ReplyDeleteLoved your photo's and I have seen much of India via the telelvision.
Take care.
Yvonne,
The Indian players have done well to make us feel proud. However the organisers and politicians have let us down very badly.
ReplyDeleteTo take up the responsibility and not doing their best is what is shocking. The stain will always remain there for everyone to see.
One can see that when things went wrong nobody spared us, but when India is doing so well few people have come forward to appreciate it.
I am especially ashamed at the NRIs who never stopped pointing out all the faults, but when it came to giving praises they were nowhere to be seen. When they started seeing India recover to some extent from their shame, they started in another route saying that for a poor country like India the money spent in all these games could have been better utilized.
Thank you for putting such good pictures of the Games.
Hi Joseph,
ReplyDeleteYou say, "we Indians are proud of the magnificent arrangements and the efficient conduct of the games." Personally I couldn't help cringing at the problems that have dogged these Games. Today I read that wild animals – monkeys, dogs, birds of prey, etc – have made up for the shortfall in people attending venues. At least India’s unsung sports men and women have done well.
Almost every day has been memorable for both sporting and non-sporting reasons. So you can’t deny the games have been entertaining! And for those people involved in organising these Games, this must have been a very lucrative opportunity.
Best wishes,
JI.
thank you for sharing that part of your life with me. I wouldnt have guessed it. Im sorry your dream of doing this was'nt full filled. We have this sort of thing here too, and there is always something behind the sene going on.
ReplyDeletevisited your blog today
ReplyDeletethank you for the info. Sorry to hear of your experience, though. that must have been very disheartening for you.
nice photo's
thank you for posting
drop by my site if you like
theworksofhope.blogspot.com
It is always disheartening when the officials running the show don't do their part, it makes for a bad name. Too bad about your experiences, but you seem to have come through okay.
ReplyDeleteGreat photo s mr Joseph.
ReplyDeleteThe weeks leading upto the games were such a mess, all the fault of the OC, Delhi Govt. and Sports Ministry. Indra Gandhi conducted the Asiad so efficiently. Wish they had made Kiran Bedi responsible instead of Kalmadi.
Any everyone breathing a sigh of relief now that that things are running smoothly.And India is doing very well.
This time I really liked the arrangements Mr. Jospeh and I dont understand why the foriegn media is displaying such a poor picture...Im amazed at the decorum on the roads ..how everything is upto the mark...how effectively things are being handled..its made me real proud.. and I really hope this continues even after the games are over.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your insights, thoughts and experiences, Mr. Joseph..
ReplyDeleteThis is a fabulous post as I am a fan of sports. I just purchased a new pair of running shoes :-)
Thank God, some how we managed otherwise the stigma would have ..... Thanks for the nice photographs. By the way were you in Delhi recently.
ReplyDeleteIts the Indian media which is running rot. The foreign media picks up their feed.
ReplyDeleteCould you please dispense with the "word verification". It does not serve any purpose but only prevents people from commenting.
Lovely pics !
ReplyDeleteIndia has bagged 37 Gold medals and ended up with second rank .
Kewl post !
Regards,
.
By the way, I also feel bad when athletes are not supported. Especially if they are representing a name, what more if it is of the country, and not get enough support in terms of food, accommodation, uniforms, etc. Sports is a discipline, and those engaged into it deserves to have a good play environment.. and moral support as well.
ReplyDeletePoor accommodation for sports people is not new, at least that's what P.T Usha said. And your experience too is testimony to that. Our Media went overboard with the negative publicity. In the end, I guess we managed to pull it off. Our sports team did extremely well, kudos to that.
ReplyDeleteHi Joseph! I've missed you! I hope to be back to the blogging world soon! God bless you, my brother! :)
ReplyDelete