Such is the event, THE event - the 30th Olympiad - the London 2012 Olympics!
I am a big fan of the BBC. ( may be a separate post for this later). Over the past 18 months BBC has been running a series called Olympic Dreams, featuring British athletes from across the country and their stories of hope and struggle, to win the coveted gold.
There has been a similar series featuring Olympic hopefuls from over the world.
A feature on Britain's golden girl Victoria Pendleton - a unique insight into the struggles and sacrifices made for the sake of the sport.
Another one on Usain Bolt, the fastest man alive. And another on Tom Daley, the poster boy of Britain.
All through this, the Olympic fever has been slowly building up. And so has this thought in mind.
What amazed me was the sheer dedication, hard work - inhuman at it I would say, and the single minded pursuit of one burning passion in the sports person's mind towards her sport.
Apart from that one person's life investment in the sport, there is so much, just so so much that the country is doing to nurture and encourage this sports involvement.
The facilities, infrastructure, training, opportunities, grants, subsidies - numerous forms of tangible and intangible efforts from the government to encourage its talented people to take up sport as a career and excel at it.
After all, it was England that first made Physical Education (PE) compulsory in state schools till the age of 16.
The importance and allocation of efforts and funds that is given to sports along side education, technology and industrial development is just amazing.
Fair or unfair, I don't know, but I could not help compare the (disparate) sports scenes in India and the UK.
The passion, dedication and struggle at personal level is still the same, or even more in India - so many talented people have made it or are trying to make it big in spite the adversities.
But the investment coming from the country - leaves so much to be desired.
The condition of stadiums and sports villages is unfathomable.All that drives the initiatives seems to be money and more money. Indian sports scene reminds us more of mishaps like the recent Commonwealth Games , than the glories and victories. Petty politics, group-ism, unfair, uncalled competition - why and how are these things connected to national sports? All the good schemes, grants and subsidies by the government ( if any) get lost, misused or abused by the middlemen before reaching the deserving candidate.
If nothing, sports seems to be spelt as c-r-i-c-k-e-t in India. All other sports are step children, and very badly treated ones at that.
The Olympic scene is not entirely glum ( but lets not even talk about Paralympics - the dignity of disabled people in India is a topic that demands a full fledged discussion!), we do have some hopes in tennis, badminton, weightlifting, sharp shooting, boxing, wrestling - and am glad we do have some bright sparks - though far and apart.
We Indians are habituated to living in past glories.The Milkhas and P T Ushas are still revered, but hardly new names rise on the scene. Sports persons who try to make it big , are hobbled by numerous hurdles - the performances are inconsistent, selection committees are riddled, international participation is marred by controversies.
The problems are numerous, and it just boils down to the apathy of the system towards the importance of sports and its nourishment Very few dare to make sports their career - because sadly, neither does it lead to fame and glory, nor to financial stability.
Not even 24 hrs into the 2012 Olympic, the mystery lady who made an appearance during the march past is already making news in India.
I hope Olympics 2012 has a few surprises - very pleasant ones - in store for India.
C'mon India - Be A Sport!
