Olympic Gold: Abhinav Showing the Way Ahead for India

My fellow Indian, be cheerful now and take pride in India’s triumphant moments at the Beijing Olympics. The clouds of gloom which had enveloped us for past few months have given way to the warmth of sunlight, showering on us the rays of hopes. Our dampened spirit and helplessness over the terrorist attacks are behind us now. The man, the Indian, who brought for us these moments of rejoice is a 26 years old Indian, Abhinav Bindra. He won for us Gold Medal in men’s 10-meter air rifle event. Gold for India at Olympics came after 28 years and it is its first ever individual gold medal. With that India announced its arrival on the Olympic circuit as well. My heart swelled with pride and eyes filled with tears of joy at seeing Indian tricolor at the top and India’s national anthem played in Beijing. Let us stand together and salute young Abhinav, who showed to all of us what results the determination and hard work can achieve.

Another fellow Indian is showing the same determination and grit at the Beijing Olympics. Sania Nehwal has made to the quarterfinal of women’s single Badminton event. She represents yet another hope for gold for India. Let us forget everything else and stay solidly behind Sania with all our good wishes.

Both these Indians embody the untapped potential of a billion-plus Indians. They represent new generation India which wants to look ahead and shape new future for India. They refuse to let themselves bound in time wrap. They acknowledge and respect our great civilization, tradition and culture as much as anybody else. But they don’t want to sit on the laurels of our great heritage and do nothing. They aspire to achieve new heights of success and do justice to what they inherited from their past. They are as religious as you and me. But with a difference; religion for them is a personal matter and they don’t want to discuss it with anyone. That attitude makes them more balanced and secular than you and me. We ignored our young India for long and wasted them away for long. In the process, we still have large chunk of our country without electricity, safe drinking water, proper sanitation, quality education and healthcare. Against such adversities, the young India of today is making difference in every field, everywhere in the world. Now is the time to wake up and not let the opportunity slip away from us again. Invest in them with all the seriousness. If there is anything more important for our national interest, it is to make serious efforts on a war-footing basis to create best of infrastructure at all levels in every sector. We can do that only if we are able to rise above petty and self-serving politics, abandon our age-old useless idiosyncrasies, adopt pragmatic approach, and create opportunities for their effervescent energies to unleash and acquire its true potential.

Coming back to India’s untapped potential. It is buried in its 50 million malnourished and underweight children. They constitute half of the world’s malnourished children. Millions would die before they are 5 years old. And those who survive, their stunted growth will not enable them, and India, to realize their true potential. It is a criminal negligence, a shameful blot on our democracy, and our ancient civilization in which we take so much pride. Wake up India, protect your children, feed them, educate them, take care of their health if you want them to grow into able individuals performing at their true potential and usher you into 21st century super power, win you bagful of gold medals at successive Olympics and at every other international competitions. Or, watch them perish, and with them India’s dream of leading the world. We owe more to Abhinav Bindra than just a gold medal because he reminded us that our future is in health and education of our children. Abhinav has shown us the right way ahead. Thank you Abhinav.