Monday, August 22, 2016

Bye bye Rio, Next stop -Tokyo

Surprisingly, 15 days got over very fast. I was recently getting excited about the Olympic games starting in Rio, and today, the games are over. I must tell you, the two weeks of Olympic games, is one of the most exciting time, which I really look forward too.

video courtesy: GAGALOVER347
This time India couldn't do that well as seen in last few Olympic outings including London, Beijing. But at times, we nearly missed the medal. Most prominently to remember are the missed bronze medals by Abhinav Bindra, Saniya & Bopaana and Dipa Karmakar. They really missed it at the last hurdle. Feels bad for them. Abhinav wanted to finish his career with a medal, which didn't happen. Dipa took so much efforts, even learned the difficult, nearly death level Produnova. Saniya and Boppanna, however did not look that effective in their efforts to clinch the medal. 
In contrast, some players just gave a big surprise by actually winning the medal. While every one was thinking about Vinesh Phogat making a mark, Sakshi Malik suddenly gave a great news of winning a medal. Although, it was heart wrenching to see, how Vinesh  went into pain while playing her quarter final bout. I can not even imagine myself in that position, the way her leg got all twisted and crushed under Chinese wrestlers weight. On similar line, everyone was expecting a sure medal from Saina. Nobody, though, knew that she is going through a severe injury, which actually needed a surgery. It is really difficult to digest a fact that she reached till pre quarters with the help of killer pains. But she had started in London, had to be taken ahead in this round of Olympic games. Last time, she brought Bronze mdeal for India. This time, another player managed to convert that Bronze into Silver. P.V. Sindhu, the youngest Indian to win a medal, really made all the Indians start loving Badminton in a span of few days. Her match against the World No.2 chinese player is one of the best matches I have seen. She was almost perfect in that games. By the time she reached Semi final, her confidence was evidently grown. It was apparent, the Japanese opponent was not match for her. The finals though was different. The way I look at it, I may be totally wrong here, Sindhu lacked a bit of attack in her  game. Marin was just too good that day. 
All in all, one silver and one bronze is what we could earn this time.
There were many failures, which left us disappointed. Biggest one is Dipika Kumari led archery team. Can you believe it, she is a world record holder. I followed her game in London olympics and again this time. But, I never felt confident about her performance. She is not consistent for some reasons. Ofcourse, I have watched her play on few events only, so my view might be totally wrong also. But, at a bigger stage, she some how fails to deliver. There was a huge expectation from our Men's Hockey team. But they could live up to their expectation. Surprisingly, Argentina, a team India defeated in their league matches, won the Gold. The last and biggest disappointment came on the last day of the games, when Yogeshwar Dutt lost in his first round of match itself. Actually, he is really good in his game. I have seen him developing and growing since his bronze medal win in London. His exit in the first round itself was shocking.

This was India at Rio. It wasn't as expected considering we sent the biggest contingent till date to Olympics games, but, we came to know about emerging talents, which are surely going to make a mark in coming days.

Friday, August 12, 2016

Amul - India's official sponsor of Olympic Team

Since the time Olympic games have started, I have been looking to share this commercial. Amul is the official sponsor for Indian Olympic team. There is an amazing advertisement appearing on TV, where some of the games being played in Olympic games are constructed from milk itself. It begins with the lighting of Olympic torch and from there it goes on constructing visuals out of milk representing different games including gymanstic, swimming, volleyball etc. The ad is beautiful and surely makes you spend 30 seconds worth watching it. Surprisingly, the ad is available on the official youtube channel of Amul India. So, I had to search a lot to find it on net. Finally I found a link by Afaqs, which I am embedding here, though, the quality is not so good.



 There is another good quality of the same advertisement available on net. I could not embed this video because of permissions. But, You may visit the following link for better quality version of the same.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqq1w4WRWjg

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Rio Olympic games: Heartbreaking Day 3 for India

 I think, yesterday i.e. Day 3 of Rio Olympic games, probably could be one of the heart breaking days for India, in its entire Olympic journey. Yesterday, Indians missed opportunities at shortest possible intervals.And even these missed opportunities took place with in a close interval of time. For me, it was more of a shock after shock. Believe me, I never felt so bad after watching any sport event. Not even, when India lost in Cricket world cup finals!
First jolt came in form of Bindra near miss at the Bronze medal. It was really bad that he missed his career's last opportunity to get a medal on the last shot of the career. And it wasn't bad. He scored perfect, but still lost it. The intensity of this loss is evident from his pledge to never try shooting in life time ever after, even as a hobby. He has offered to sell his rifle. This is difficult to digest. Well, even after his loss, he looked calm with any effect on his body langauage.
The other shock we receive with a matter of minutes was the loss of Indian Men's hockey match against Germany. I was so much disturbed when the German hit that 2nd goal with only 3 seconds left for the hooter. It all happened in front of my eyes. I was so praying that Indians will tackle the ball out to the safe zone. They tackled it once, when there were 11 seconds left, but the germans returned and their player hit a shot from a long distance, with only 3 seconds remaining. I was so hoping that it will not reach the goal post, but was worried in mind for the other consequence. Unfortunately, that consequence came to reality. Even I lost cool and was disturbed. I don't how all our players must be going through after that goal. I am just worried, that this goal shouldn't effect their confidence. They still have a good chance to move ahead.
All the other events, where Indians participated, doesn't really need a mention. Laxmi Manzi just managed not to loose in straight sets in Archary. Swimmers just managed, not be the last one among all the competitors. All other shooters managed to get a ranking going in the double digit. 
So, one more disappointing day for India.
Today, we have a chance in Rowing (skull) and again in archary.
Lets see, if Indians make a mark today.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Olympic games 2016

 One big sports event is about to begin in less than 48 hrs. Yes, we all are eagerly waiting for the Olympics 2016 to watch some sports other than Cricket or for that matter, Football. Olympics and Asian games have always  been a part of inspiration for us as kids to take up non-familier games and enjoy the excitement and thrill of those games. Out of such events only, I took up the game of Badminton and  practised hard to play at higher level. 
This time, the host for the games is Rio de Jenerio, Brazil, where all the sportsmen will gather and try their metal. This place has always been, kind of intriguing for me. My first encounter with this country was in connection of a song. Way back, when English was still a difficult to understand, kind of language for us, there was one song, we were very well verse with. It was "Brazil". The song has only one word in it "Brazil", and rest of it was all music. That is how, we came across this amazing country named "Brazil".
Somewhere down the line, we heard about Brazil Carnival, that we tried knowing from all possible sources available.
But, the best connection of this country came in the form of Football World Cups, where starting with  Pele, we went on becoming fan of all the players including Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, coming from this soil.
With this event of Olympics, taking place at Rio, we are inching more closer to this country from South America.
But, even before going to the venue, lots of issues cropped up in our teams. Mostly the issues related to Doping. This issue with Narsinh Yadav doping case, has really brought up the dirty political background, which our players have to get through, to make a mark and win laurels for the country. It is a very sad state. Some players apparently are struggling to get financial assistance, even though they have qualified for their respective competitions. Probably, such things are part and parcel of sports events.
Though, the inauguration of the event is still awaited, few pre-qualifying rounds of matches have already started. To be specific, Women's football matches are going on. No event involving India as such are going on as yet. As the event will begin in 2 days, our players will have chance to make their dream come true. If you want to follow Olympics  you can probably check this page:

Just to end, if you have ever given ear to the music during the prize ceremony in Olympics, there is one music piece, which always get to hear. It is one of the most awesome, soothing sound, you might have ever heard. I am talking about the music piece of "Chariots of Fire". This music piece is a part of the movie by the same name, which again is based on the real life events of a couple of sthletes who represented Great Britain in 1924 Olympics held in Paris.
The movie is also fantastic and the music piece by the famous "Vangelis", is still one of the most heard music piece in the world. It makes sense to keep it as a back ground music during the prize ceremony, because of its close association with the games.
If you wish to hear it, follow this link:

Infact, I request you to hear it at least once. I bet, you won't be able to stop listening it again and again. You can also download the audio file from the link.