GOLD AT LAST!

So we managed a gold at last. Abhinav Bindra put us on the medal tally!!!
It is very depressing to look at the medal tally and read India 0 0 0.Ofcourse now it will read India 1 0 0 . Pathetic, but true.
It was nice to see him quietly shoot , a bull's eye almost, and then shake hands all around.No jumping around and hugging each other like we do after the fall of every wicket. He just went and shook hands with his coach and the other few and sundry who were present to watch the great moment! Watching the tricolour go up with the national anthem was an emotional moment.
It has taken since the inception of olympic games to get an individual gold medal. But that is how sports is run here in India.
We would rather churn out half baked Engineers, Doctors, IT people. But a sportsman Oh! that is different. Even if the kid excels in sports it is most important to finish college and have a degree. Anyway, that is a different issue, may be I will write about that later on.
For the time being let us all bask in the shine and glitter of Abhinav Bindra's gold medal. Let us for once forget that India lost a cricket match which they could very well have atleast drawn( thanks to the FAB FOUR!).
Let us also hope that four years from now, some one will come up with some such miracle, may be in swimming or athletics!Let us hope that in future parents will approve of kids who bunk college to go and play sports ( other than cricket) for the country. Let us also hope that the country comes up with a few colleges with sports scholarships, so it is easy on the kids and parents.Let us hope that now private companies come forward to sponsor sports other than cricket ( IPL, ICL, etc etc).
But ofcourse, I thought that this was nice platform for deciding who has to get the Khel Ratna awards, but Bindra has already got his. The various state governments have already come up with cash awards. ( HOw many of the cash awards, which the governments announce; are really disbursed, I don't know). So now the dilemma is what to award Bindra with, and who to give the Khel Ratna to.
And ofcourse last but not the least, I am quite sure there will be a long queue of sponsors at his door step waiting to sign advertisement deals . So for the next four years we may see him ride a bike, he gets the energy for riding from Boost? or may be Parle G. He may sport a well groomed hairstyle thanks to some Gel. He may prance around sporting reebok shoes attired in SKumar suitings! And may be he will also make all his calls local and international with an Airtel connection.
Whatever it may be Long Live Abhinav Bindra!!!!!!Three Cheers to him for making a nation stand up and realise there is sports beyond cricket.