Olympics and India

Rio Olympics 2016 has just ended with very bright commencement ceremony. As usual USA and China turned to be the gold diggers. P.V. Sindhu won Silver, Sakshi Malik won bronze and Dipa Karmakar earned lots n lots of praise for her Produnova vault for India. (I know you must be thinking we all know it, why the summary....because give it 2-3 years we will definitely forget their names just like we did for Mary Kom and Karnam Malleshwari, but the movie Mary Kom helped us remember her). Couple of incidences happened this RIO season which made me think and put my thoughts together about it.

Incident 1: The famous Shobha De tweet which is a "good" example of how badly can "freedom of speech" and "social media" can be used for demotivating someone. It was no less than bullying or "ragging" as we call it.

Incident 2: An informal chat with my office colleagues about progress of each others countries in Olympics. This happened at the time when we dint even have one medal but Dipa Karmakar did a remarkable job standing fourth. And as usual came the question "why is it that second populous country of the world doesn't even have 1 medal yet?".  I was speechless. I just smiled and said "we are like that one youngest kid who enters in the competition against much more experienced adults. He is competing not just to win but also to learn".

Incident 3: A nasty discussion(argument you can say) with fellow schoolmate on "who takes the blame for not performing better as compared to other countries in Olympics". She dint have an answer to who actually takes the blame but she definitely had one stand that its not INDIA as country or Government nor the INDIAN people.

Incident 4: One more burning tweet by Piers Morgan quoting "Country with 1.2 billion people wildly celebrates 2 loosing medals. How embarrassing is that? "

I quoted these incidences because we all face at least one of them day to day. We think about it till OLYMPICS environment is alive in the air and forget about it until next one is about to come. I thought its my individual duty and responsibility being CITIZEN of INDIA to answer these questions not to the world but at least myself.

Every problem has a solution. We not performing well in Olympics is a "problem". And to find a solution, we must first accept that we have something lacking on ourselves hence is the problem. Now the question arises...what? The answer should be anyone or more than one of these: TALENT, TRAINING, MANAGEMENT, RESOURCES, MOTIVATION. 

"Ghar ka Khana" (Home cooked Food)

Diwali is around the corner and festive mode is on. I was just chatting with a cousin yesterday regarding the preparations and I suddenly had this happy realization, I have almost turned into my mom and grandma gradually. My ma and grandma are these superwomen who ace everything they touch. Both are a perfect blend of housewife plus working women in their own unique way.

My grandma helped my grandpa with all the responsibilities of farm and various subsidiary ways of income which came along with farming, while he concentrated with his full time job. Almost 50 years back, she had power and independence to spend the money she earned on whatever she liked. I have heard stories from my ma and uncles how she used to take them to city, buy them gifts , jewelry and take them to watch movies etc all by herself. When she turned into a grandmother, she soften a little and she decided to go with the flow and learned what all we liked. She learnt to bake cakes, make ice-creams, accompany us in buying western clothes that we liked. I had never seen a granny baking cakes and cookies before. (Especially because it’s not our tradition).

My ma was a next step ahead. She used to surprise us with beautifully tailored dresses. We would never ever see a thread lying anywhere and no one could guess if the dress is market bought or sewed at home. Designing them, buying laces, matching hair bands, when I think of it now, I dont know from where did she get so much time and patience to do it. As we grew up, our likes started to change, we liked Chinese, Continental food too along with our own. My mom took every cooking classes she could take in our small city. I remember she learnt to bake Black Forest cake and replaced the rum with cola. There was a time where you name a dish and it’s in front of you that evening. She used to try to incorporate healthy nutrients, replace unhealthy ones without compromising on taste. We used to get irritated as teenagers, why does she make everything at home, it’s so much pain, especially when you can go to restaurant and have it. She used to spend hours cooking for us in the era of two minutes noodles.

I remember one incident. I stayed away from home for my undergrad years, I just complained mom of being tired eating mess food and feel like eating puran poli and katachi amti (traditional maharashtrian-Indian delicacies). Same evening after coming home from college, I was welcomed with those and my mom  who cooked for 3 hours and drove for 4 hours just to fulfill my wish. When I go back in time and think about it, it makes me cry how selfless love can make you.

I was never like her. I used to tell my dad “I am never going to toil in kitchen” I have lived with at least 30 roomies in my life and all will agree I would never ever go to kitchen to cook. I would rather help cleaning the mess later.

But I don’t know what changed gradually that I started taking interest in cooking. I have developed a passion for making sure I have tried all those dishes that I and my family like. I began to get addicted to doing it because I realized there is a difference in market bought and hand made. Same difference as rented house vs own house. Or handmade greeting vs store bought one. You get an emotional satisfaction. It’s a product made of love and care towards your family. I never knew love can also be expressed this way. It doesn’t have to be rosy pink flowers , date nights or gate away or expensive gifts.

Indians believe in traditions of fasting for your partner, but I believe in expressing my love by feeding. There are few things that money can’t buy and satisfaction is one of them. This is a transaction where you give and gain satisfaction. It’s win win situation either ways. I salute all those beautiful hearts who take so much pain and efforts so that the family is well fed. If your wife/husband/mom/dad do it for you, you are the luckiest person. I learnt it very late in my life,  did not give justice to my mom or grandma for showering us with so much love. Even if one person reads and realizes it, it would be like a tribute I pay to my grandma who is not with us and I miss her very much.