The Honourable Sports Minister of India, upon his return
from the recently held Olympic Games 2016, has taken stock of the remarkable
infrastructure, facilities, opportunities, fund allocation (for players and not
personal betterment of those involved in the chain of funds disbursement) and
collective Government and bureaucratic apathy towards Indians who may have even
the slightest interest in sports.
After intense dialogue, discussions and discernment of what
is and what should be, Minister GOAL has listed out the following list of Games
for official Indian entry –
1. Wrestling
– more the Freestyle kind that a lot of Indians indulge in while mounting and alighting
metros, buses, trains, planes. Also seen at malls, halls and bazaars.
2. Archery
– for chucking garbage into designated and non-designated places. Special
events for those who excel in aiming from moving vehicles.
3. Athletics
– with rising cases in chain, wallet, laptop, mobiles snatching, the
sporty-spirits engaged in such activities must have world class training.
4. Badminton
– barring isolated genius of a Nehwal here and a Sindhu there, we as a species
excel in putting the ball (or cock; pun intended) in the other court.
5. Swimming
(with special attention to breast stroke) – with a collective male interest in
any skin showing by Indian or Foreign women and the pronounced Indian male
interest in the woman breast. As a female of the species, get into a crowded
transport or area and personally experience how adept Indian men are at
breaststroke.
6. Steeplechase
– A common man’s delight, each time he has to get to work on time, get an
emergency patient past the hospital gate to the OT, or take a pregnant wife to
the OB-GYN just as a VIP cavalcade is passing by.
7. Shooting
– This one has a special significance for the Subcontinent. Getting away from
the traditional game, we in India and the subcontinent practice this fine game
by spitting into potholes, wall corners and lamp posts. Also Indian men, at
large, seem to need more practice in shooting their own piss into the man piss
pot (as men themselves admit) and on trees and boundary walls (barring those
with Hindu Gods’ tiles plastered on them).
8. Rhythmic
Gymnastics – while dancing, stooping, bending backwards to the tune of our
modern day lords and masters.
9. Boxing
– God alone knows if we need anything less to wriggle our way out of
packed-like-sardines public transport.
10. Cycling
– not just to get away from being / becoming the World Diabetic Capital but
also because very soon the roads will be / have been taken over by potholes and
Venice like canals on main roads and highways.
11. Water
Polo – As the Monsoon of 2016 (and many monsoons before this) has depicted, our
main roads in several cities are naturally ready to host this grand sport, as a
special shout back to our royal past.
12. Rowing
– We are perpetually in a ‘row’ with neighbours, the system, the policy
implementers, our own family, the other religion, other man’s politics and
their life. What’s more! Cross-border real or fabricated rows keep all our
political parties busy without much else to accomplish.
13. Relay
race – for all the multitude of hands the money (or palm grease, if you will)
and favours change, all in a day’s life.
14. Fencing – this refers to only figurative
poking of people around with the sharp edge of the fence and actually involves
one’s personal fenced area to encroach upon the other man’s (or the public /
government) land.
15. Handball
– I almost didn’t write about it; but it is such a rampant practice that I just
had to include it in. Seen prolifically in public areas, on buses, behind
office desks and practiced solely by men on their own body part.
16. Surfing
– While Sweden is cutting down its work day to six sharp hours and prohibiting
any kind of social media surfing during work hours, we on the other hand, in
India, are increasingly spending more hours in office, but half of them surfing
the Net for personal entertainment. What’s worse, we have taken the nasty habit
into our Parliament too, and there in its haloed precincts for primal
pleasures.
17. Basque pelota – the Minister, in a rare
expression of empathy, calls for a revival of this game played officially only
in the 1900 Olympics. Given the number of times we ourselves and our documents
are tossed against the bureaucratic wall, we seem to have a natural
predilection towards the sport.
18. Tug
of War – between our general demands and the crippled supply; between our
expectations and the lack of deliverables from those who ought to deliver;
between what is and what should be; between the haves and have-nots; between
the public and the politicians; between our rights and duties; between the fact
of life and our faiths; between life and the difficult cost of living. We
definitely would be medal winners here.
19. Rappelling
– While Climbing is, apparently, coming up in Summer Olympics of 2020; we back
home have been excelling at our homegrown version of Rappelling for years –
each time we
take an onerous, uphill task and then attempt
to make it easy by kissing the ass of the guy on top and kicking the head of
one at the bottom.
While we, the general India and
our ruling bunch of voted pack of some-deserving but mostly undeserving
political fiefdom, engage in this abysmal juggernaut, may the truly meritorious
and zealous continue to dream, train, perform and win; in spite of all of us!!!
Note 1 - This article may not be reproduced without the permission
of the author.
Note 2 - This article has appeared on Faking News (http://my.fakingnews.firstpost.com/sports/uniquely-indian-olympics-27578) and
on Unboxed Writers
(http://unboxedwriters.com/the-national-sports-we-already-excel-in/#.WCcF4NJ961s)
