Indian Talent, Global Content
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Indian Talent, Global Content |
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The Indian Sport Mythos
India is abuzz with news of Abhinav Bindra’s Gold Medal win at the Olympics and somehow, it is difficult not to notice the sycophancy that becomes intricately woven into the celebration that follows international recognition of any Indian talent, be it sports, literature, performing arts, academics, politics… anything under the sun really, as long as the recognition is international and the achiever is Indian (even if remotely so). So, the sequence of events that really followed the win was a strange combination of disbelief, shock, relief, tremendous satisfaction, immense pride and ecstasy, all finally climaxing in an overwhelming, noisy, euphoric celebration. Soon, the sudden familiarity with this person is quickly worked up on and the full potential of the situation gauged. And then, the show really begins, with people clamoring for more details, looking up the news for more about the boy, his family, his coach, his entire childhood, his favorite food (“kheer!!” and mothers will swoon to the very prodigal choice of this wonderful boy) and his entire life in its minutest details. The news channels are suddenly absorbedly doling out information on how as a 13 year old boy, Abhinav Bindra would carry his air guns and shoot beer bottles and birds at his farmhouse, how he grew up into a very focused individual. We are familiar by now with how his manager was faced with a strange situation that of facing the media with an unprepared statement on our new wonder kid and his spectacular achievement and providing us with just the nuggets we want to hear, like “I don’t really have a statement prepared! It was so unexpected. But no one deserved it more than Abhinav. Shooting’s all he’s ever done- he’d gym, swim, do yoga- all so that he could shoot better. He’s extremely devoted to the sport, and also very reticent. But he’s very focused. In fact, his email ID ‘goforgold’!!”(Courtesy: Hyderabad times, The Times of India, dated August 13’Th, 2008), very clearly defining Abhinav as the perfect role model and young son-favorite of the nation. There is no diminishing the glory that Abhinav Bindra has brought to the country. It is indeed no mean achievement to win a gold at the world’s most prestigious sporting event, the Olympics, where the best of the world come to compete and are poised to deliver their life’s best performances. Winning at such an event is indeed an achievement that commands appreciation since in winning the Gold, the person has proved his supremacy, in that moment of judgment, when nothing but talent and performance matters amongst peers who represent the best of all the countries present. It is a cause for celebration for the winner as well as for the entire nation. But then, where do you draw the line? A lot has already been said about the achiever and his Gold. Pages of newsprint and great lengths of newsreels have been dedicated to defining and re-defining the glory Abhinav Bindra has brought home. And all this just in a matter of a day! In a day, we were informed of his struggles, how he coached under a European, how he worked hard and was always focused and we were even told what food he likes!! There are plenty of such cases in point, where there has been a sudden propelling of the status of a sportsperson into national property. Sania Mirza is a relevant example of becoming a victim of the nation’s obsession with ensuring the correctness of individual lifestyles according to ridiculous definitions provided by the groups claiming to “protect our Culture”. Their lives become subject to acute public scrutiny, so much so that they find themselves battling not only on the field, but also dodging controversy after controversy on every conceivable topic related to their ways of life. In addition the media invades their homes to pick up anecdotes on their childhood, the struggles they faced to get to where they are and other personal details which somehow become appropriate to publish, all the while expecting the wonder kid to stay within the realm of defined code of conduct set by a country of people fixated with convention. The responsibility of holding up the expectations of a billion-strong population is a very heavy price to pay for having made the nation proud, not to mention, the deal is never really explained in its full complexity to any of these hard-working unsuspecting individuals, until they find themselves facing it head-on, bang in the middle of it. This will have to be blamed on the regular Indian’s insatiable need to relate through anecdotes told in jest or seriousness so they feel an exaggerated adulation for their idols and the idiosyncratic affliction to appear a part of the highest secret circles with ‘insider’ information that the ‘outsiders’ within the group couldn’t possibly know. It is imperative for us to be privy to the personal lives of our stars, to feel an association of recognition and acceptance, in order to exploit it further to a status where every deed of theirs must compulsorily be a virtuous one, because they will be portrayed as role models to hundreds of children (another quintessentially Indian tendency). Every successful person, must be held responsible for his success and be the role model so many others can follow him. And failing to live up to that could incur the ire of a billion people, which again, isn’t a very pleasant situation to find oneself in. So, from the moment news is released of an achievement, families are contacted, uncles, aunts, friends, grandparents, gullies and mohhallas are brought together to sing the praises of the apotheosized hero, which, after a few days of intense public adulation, gives way to a controversy, which will keep raging on and off as per the availability of other more entertaining news. I cannot help but remember this quaint quote I read somewhere, “we do not want achievers, we want entertainers” referring to our general tendency to gossip on the personal lives of popular figures. So where does it all begin? Plenty of times, we have come across reports on the rampant corruption at every level in the field of sports. The cricket board is too rich, the hockey board is too poor, the other sports are too few to be taken seriously and the government is too big and busy with its own murky politics to really look into the field of sports as an important destination for investment. Sports, according to the average Indian are “… just a hobby. Academics are more important!” So in this great country of ours, when a sportsperson shines in a field of sport other than cricket (Although, cricket in India, is more of a religion), it is almost always greeted with surprise. For most part, not many Indians are aware there is a category such as the 10m Air Rifle shot in the Olympics. Even fewer will understand the kind of information the news articles will throw at their unsuspecting but expectant readers. To quote an article in The Hindu (so much for premonitory publishing), “The 23-year-old Delhi lad, a two-time Olympian, went into the final a joint leader with two others at 597, and shot a 102.1 in a nerve-wracking climax to emerge top from a strong field of 122 shooters from nearly 100 countries. And “ Precious talent For all his precious talent and phenomenal focus on the sport, Abhinav had nothing much to show except for two bronze medals in the World Cups in Germany that he captured in 2001 and 2003. He looked ready to set the record straight in the Athens Olympics when he made the final with a similar 597, but was unlucky not to finish among the medals then, despite shooting close to his best. Abhinav had shot a miserably 97.6 in the final then. If anything, the bad memories did not dare plague him this time as he shot a spectacular series of 10.3, 10.3, 10.3, 10.0, 10.6, 9.3, 10.9, 9.2, 10.5 and 10.7 to win the gold with a 0.8-point margin.” Now this was the barrage of information, which an average Indian, fed on an exclusively-cricket diet, wouldn’t really grasp. But here it is, in the newspapers and everybody is lapping it up, some also memorizing the facts and figures, for future quoting, so as not to look ignorant of the sport that won India its first Olympic Gold. You could say it is important for the newspapers to state the facts whether or not the readers understand them. . That is partly true. But then, everybody will definitely notice the part in the second article about how “he was unlucky not to finish among the medals despite shooting his best” and then how “he had shot a miserably 97.6 in the final then” and how “the bad memories did not dare plague him this time as he shot a spectacular…. And won the gold!!” This is how the Indian interprets the information apart from not understanding even a faint blip of the facts and figures being thrown about in random gaiety. This goes to a great extent in explaining the utter defeat of genuine appreciation of the feat for its technical perfection in the melodramatic theatre of our perceptions. Through mediocrity and ignorance, we misrepresent the stalwarts of our nation and the emotional effects are presented in such a dramatic way, that their sensationalizing will create an excitement around the event and ultimately, make it sell. In the end, it is all business, with a little patriotism, a little celebration of achievement and a little pride thrown in. We, as Indians, cannot really resist the urge to suck up to it. Perhaps, someday we will recognize the need to let these people live their lives in peace and not subject them to acute scrutiny at every stage of their career as well as personal lives and balance our overwhelming adulation with a respect for their privacy. Another disturbing aspect that has been noticed is, inspite of the rising talent, the country has a very poor infrastructure to support sports. This is increasingly being brought forth in the fact that most achievers have had to seek training abroad for enhancing their skills owing to an utter lack of resources within the country to sustain the kind of training and practice required for them to excel at the international level. Much can be debated and spoken forth on this but the bottom line is that unless something is really done, with a singleness of purpose without corrupting it with multi-layered politics and irrelevant gestures, nothing can really change the face of sport here. For a country with a billion-strong population, it is not very difficult to believe that great talent exists in droves. The difficulty, unfortunately, lies in recognizing and nurturing it, which when worked upon could well propel India into a league of its own.
>> Read more articles written by Chillibreeze writers:1. Articles related to Content and Outsourcing
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