:: Shobhaa De

The father of all medals

Shobhaa’s Take

Let’s face it — we Indians are obsessed with gold. We just love the shining metal. It is our ultimate security blanket. So, when Abhinav Bindra won a piece of sona at the Beijing Olympics, the entire nation was delirious with joy. We did it! We did it! crowed complete strangers as images of Bindra’s admirable win flashed on countless television screens. All good. But can we get some perspective on this whole medal business, please? Bindra won because he has a rich dad. That single factoid is an important part of Bindra’s victory. By his own admission, Bindra spent over Rs 1 crore in the past year as he diligently fought his way back into the competition after a debilitating spinal injury. When nearly everybody had written him off (post-Doha Asian Games 2006), Bindra continued to heal his body and spirits, refusing to give up… even though the odds were daunting and stacked against him. It is said, at that stage he could barely pick up his 5-kg rifle! Combine that with a "negative four" power vision in both eyes, and Bindra’s chances appeared to be less than dim. This is where money comes into the picture. Bindra could afford to hire a personal physiotherapist (Dr Amit Bhattacharjee), who accompanied Bindra to Zagreb and was with him in Beijing. Bindra trained at his own air-conditioned shooting range, and also in Germany where he hired a dishy female coach called Gabrielle Buhlmann. All this was possible because Daddy-O believed in his son, and encouraged him to go all out to pursue his dream. If daddyji was not the money bags that he is... where would Bindra have been today? Certainly not on that podium in Beijing, with India’s first-ever individual gold medal around his neck! That’s for sure.

Sports people need money. That’s it. Either government agencies step in and provide the requisite funds, or fat cat sponsors cough up. Unless there is a richie rich father on the scene, like in Abhinav’s case. Without funds, an athlete is nowhere. Had Abhinav’s family not had the resources to see him through the intensive rehabilitation programme, Abhinav would have been yet another promising shooter whose career goes nowhere due to a lack of funds. Such a common story in India. Not just that. Besides supporting him financially all the way, his parents had allowed him to drop out of college and acquire a degree through a correspondence course. This sort of a long-distance education is something most Indian parents are suspicious about. And we know just how important that meaningless, mandatory degree is to most desis. I remember my own experience as an athlete, when my father refused to let me go to Patiala to participate in the national athletics meet for which I had been selected after breaking two state records. His response? "Forget sports. Concentrate on your studies… get a degree… then do what you want." Well… I did what most young people in my place might have done — lost interest in sports. And acquired a degree… to keep my father off my back. That was the end of one dream… and the beginning of another. God was kind! I am sure thousands of young people have had to deal with similar dilemmas in their lives. That’s us. While we crib about our pathetic performances at international sporting events, we refuse to encourage our sportsmen and women or take sports seriously. How many parents are either as enlightened or as wealthy as the Bindras? Most middle-class folk think of sports as an "extra-curricular" activity. Something kids are supposed to indulge in on the side once they are done with their excruciatingly tedious studies. Is it a coincidence that most of our world-class athletes (forget cricketers, who are in a league of their own), come from affluent backgrounds. Vishwanathan Anand, the snooker players and golfers, the tennis, badminton and squash players? Abhinav Bindra has come up entirely on his own. Nobody can claim a piece of this particular action. It is Bindra’s individual victory. And officials who try and cash in on it should be told to butt out. Where were they when Bindra needed them the most? Partying at tax payers’ expense in distant foreign locales, pretending to be on study tours? Sports remain a very low priority in India. That’s the sad fact of life. Supermodel Madhu Sapre was mocked for saying she would construct many stadia in India and make sports an integral part of students’ lives during an international beauty pageant. This was at a time when contestants were not supposed to go beyond declaring their desire to work for Mother Teresa. Popular opinion suggested her frank answer had cost her the crown!

It’s an entirely different story today. Winners attract big bucks. It is already being said that Bindra will outstrip Dhoni in the celebrity endorsement stakes. Astronomical prices are being quoted even as canny advertisers rush to "congratulate" Goldfinger by issuing front-page ads in leading dailies. When it comes to riding on a champion’s success, we are brilliant at it. Now, everyone even remotely connected to Bindra will claim a special relationship. Absurdly enough, Milkha Singh has demanded a Bharat Ratna for Abhinav! Can we please calm down a little? Agreed, a gold medal is a gold medal. But if Bindra deserves India’s highest civilian award, what should Michael Phelps have got for his seven golds? The White House??? Perspective, darlings, perspective! Meanwhile, his doting dad has announced a gift — a spanking Rs 200 crore hotel for his victorious son. I’m sure his mum is already inundated with marriage proposals from Punjabi mundis. My own guess is that a certain fraulein has hit bull’s eye and captured Bindra’s heart. It wasn’t target practice for nothing! Right, Gaby?

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