The Spirits That Were Never Seen Before That Indians Put Towards Rio Olympics

To the great times ahead, not everybody has a Shobhaa De, many have good days too.

I’m overwhelmed. I’m just overwhelmed with the spirits that Indians have shown for every sport and every Olympian in this major happening filled with a whole lot of pride and expectations across the globe, Rio Olympics 2016.

When it all began, for the first time, it appeared okay to me, just like another news update even when A.R.Rahman posted a status on Facebook to drive the Olympians with a motivating force. Here, Okay be like we’re at the Olympics and we’re gonna grab some medals. Okay! But as it all started, the feelings stumbled upon some another level. And with time, I realized Kohli’s performance in a test match has given less importance than what Dipa Karmakar did or Sakshi Malik, or P.V. Sindhu.

Sakshi Malik. Image Credits: Indian Express.

With having a ban or acquitted of all the charges, Narsingh Yadav was seriously tracked with lots of prayers that he gets a chance to perform at Rio. Every Indian had a huge disappointment when two days back, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) put the ban on him for four years and didn’t deem the NADA reports nor listened to his appeal about the case of sabotage. Unfortunately, we don’t have him at Rio Olympics but the spirits and cheers pushed for him were overwhelming. And on the other side, the hopes were high with Yogeshwar Dutt to bring another medal to the club.

P.V. Sindhu bringing a silver medal to the nation and with that, more ruins passed on to the Shobhaa De, or giving an immense feel of compassion when Abhinav Bindra asked for a gold from her that he feels lonely in the gold club, or Amitabh Bachchan praising her, or Virender Sehwag’s quirky tweets, and counting endlessly many more, everything looked like a flashed dream because it was the time when a non-cricket zone was filled with the billion cheers at a glance.

People were stopping by the roadside to watch P.V. Sindhu smashing the shuttle-cock in the hopes of one more medal. News channels were continuously updating about the match timings. Journalists were roaming around and asking the random people about their excitement level who’re running fast back to their homes to tune the sport. Facebook pages were updating that the match has been delayed for an hour. Everything was happening not-so-ordinarily but in fact, it was overwhelmingly a giant new experience that Indian soil has seen.

P.V. Sindhu. Image Credits: Indian Express.

A lot of stories ran telling about these history-makers, the hard work and the struggle they’ve gone through to be the tip at the top to inspire the generations for the years to come. Parents who were not proud of their children looked into their eyes telling them do what makes us proud, and do of your own choice. The push of the force inclined towards the lads has been pulled by every single guy to be the one who counts for the country. Nothing makes more happy, and the feeling was completely different.

To the other side, when the countrymen expect a lot from the government looking at the brighter side of development, fortunately, this marks a point to the progress of the country that yes, the nation has started developing, and the country which counts more than 60% population of youth definitely has some plans of fortunes in its pocket that are going to smash in the face of people who once looked down at us.

Otherwise rewind a bit, when Abhinav Bindra won the gold, how many news channels ran the full coverage of cheers round-the-clock for more than 24 hours before and after the performance happened? P.V. Sindhu has been charting the trends since a long-long time and there is a smile on everybody’s face, every time they get to see her. When the news flashed that Air India has given two tickets to Sakshi Malik to travel to any of her choice’s destination around the world for free as once she said as a wish that ‘I wanted to become a sportsperson to travel in an aeroplane’, everyone went awestruck.

Such spirits were never seen before that Indians have put towards Rio Olympics and Olympians became an inspiration for one and all through their astonished performances. Something turned to be at the large!

Maybe during my school days, I was busy in increasing the count of scraps on Orkut, but this hasn’t had happened before. The spirits that every home was blessed with were never seen before. To be honest, I got this feeling a few months back, when in March, team India won against Bangladesh on the very last ball with some peculiar strategy of Dhoni, the feeling was same as it was during the Rio. More to it, India looked like a ‘one nation’ chanting the rhyme, we, the people. Everyone has forgotten the favours excluding those who were searching the Sindhu’s caste on Google, maybe they were looking for a girl for their son of the same caste but sorry, they are excluded from here.

Dipa Karmakar. Image Credits: Indian Express.

We have gone to some another level where we were above the label of Internet Hindus myths, Go-to-Pakistan kinda patriotism, Kejriwal’s tantrums, Swamy’s cat-fights with himself for R3, Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali tactics, Barkha’s unnecessary desperation towards Kashmir, Sagarika asking for some more bloody mary blogs, and thankfully, the credit for Olympics hasn’t been snatched by Rahul Gandhi. Vijay Goel has been spared too but Kumar Vishwas still wrote his silly poetry. Puns apart, we were at the level where we were only running to win, and cheering for the real happiness. We were not debating over the favours, though “why” is the term which always comes first in the nation but this too hasn’t appeared before the eyes and heard in the ears during this win-win journey.

Does it take one P.V. Sindhu to unite the nation? Maybe yes, but here I say NO. It doesn’t take only her to unite us, but it takes how you take the whole state of affairs. Next time, you think of the boundaries and stretching a line between the two disagreements, think of her, that for killing the taboos and bashing every wrong, we stood united cheering for our lady to bring the medal of grace to shine the billions of smiles with Colgate’s sprinkling teeth (or maybe Patanjali Dantkanti ones) to enlighten the home of happiness. What more you could’ve asked for that even highly pretentious woman Shobhaa De who earlier found wrinkles in Kate Middleton’s saree, said Sorry for her remarks!

The India as a nation stood united. Period. At a chai shop, or a restaurant, an outlet or a lounge, everyone is cheering and appreciating the efforts that these sportsperson put in to surface the pride for the nation. Every Indian regardless of any favoritism, sounded one voice together, Thank You, Olympians.

Indian flag at Rio Olympics. Image Credits: Indian Express.

The world has seen, and the country has witnessed the women power to move the nation a step ahead for the great times ahead. It isn’t a medal anymore, it’s become a heart of billions of Indians which breathes humility and compassion, and made us spot, at least for once after a long time, that we are one.