Waiting for Go(l)dot

                                                            Waiting for Go(l)dot

Rio is over. Over to Tokyo.  Many of us may not be aware that Rio is a city where droughts are rare and yet it had seen the worst drought in 2014-15 when the water supply to the entire metropolitan region got severely affected. India, always sympathetic to fellow nations and especially of the BRICK, has stood solidly by RIO  by a parallel display of  a medal drought, though that was spoilt a trifle by Sakshi and Sindhu . Dipa Karmakar almost played the spoil sport by vaulting down, but at the end missed her berth on the victory stand. The male athletes were more determined to express a sense of camaraderie by refusing to ascend the victory podium and they deserve Har Ratna for their magnanimity to yield the slots on the victory stand to all other competitors from the rest of the world.

Reams and reams of words have been written about our athletes , about our caring Ministers overflowing with milk of kindness and concern  for their nation’s  sportsmen and women  and about officials for their invisibility when most needed and for their faultless  visibility during selfie time. The cricket crazy nation diverted from its first love had  turned to the Olympics only soon to regret its passing fancy as it recorded a medal-less outing to Rio(with the exception of the two ‘S’s) . Many gratuitous advisors have suggested how a repeat Rio should not happen in Tokyo and how to give up our age old chivalrous tradition of “aap pahle”(you first) to competitors from other countries.   The ‘do’s and ‘don’ts  for our athletes, coaches and officials are getting documented every day and soon it  will be a hefty tome that no one will even glance at, but more likely that tome  will never see the light of the day. The hon’ble deputy Chief Minister of Telengana has come out with the most presumptuous prescription for Sindhu to win a gold in Tokyo by giving her a new coach. Since Telengana and Andhra are both claiming Sindhu exclusively  as their beti,, one will not be surprised if Andhra offers yet another coach for Sindhu !  All men and women who have never wielded a racquet or a javelin, a hammer or a pistol, who have never been off the blocks or vaulted with or without pole or jumped high and long, have come out with suggestions so that our National Anthem is played every day during the 2020 Tokyo games.

 But Tokyo is still four years away. The players and in particular the officials have to recover from the jet lag. Why talk of Rio or what went right and what not! The hon’ble Parliamentarians may seek an answer – especially those in the opposition bench about the medley of failures if they don’t have any new scandal to haul the ruling party over the coals.

The officials will have a busy time compiling the highs of our Rio performance where a near miss will be deemed equivalent to an outright win and an entry into the second round to an achievement as marvelous as entering the finals. The self glorified Media, wise as Solomon and enjoying unbridled license to cavil at anything and everything will stop flogging all the officials and politicians connected with sports as soon as it  gets another Breaking News  to fire. As for the politicians, they will feel smug after announcing rich cash awards to the Rio winners as though it is from their private pocket and not from the tax payers’ money. As for the vox populi, Rio and Sindhus and Sakshis, Dipas and Jaishas will be forgotten when Virat Kohli and his men take centre stage in India or in some part of the globe.

Four long years to go, forty eight months before Tokyo is on the sports map, one thousand four hundred and sixty-one days to be numbered before we shall wake up and feel the adrenalin rising and then WAIT like Samuel Beckett’s tramps for …an ever absent  Go(l)dot!