Kashyap leads India's resurgence in men's singles

There was a time when India was a force to reckon with in men's singles in badminton. It was a time when Prakash Padukone and Syed Modi, the stalwarts who put India in the badminton map, used to play.

But I unfortunately don't belong to a generation that was fortunate to see Padukone or Modi play. Padukone won the Commonwealth Games gold in 1978, becoming the first Indian to do so. He won the All England in 1980, a year before my birth and by the time I was 10 years old, he had already bade good bye to the game.

Even Modi, the last men shuttler to win a gold in the CWG, achieved the feat in Brisbane in 1982, a year after my entry to the world.

Ofcourse, there was Pullela Gopichand making inroads in World badminton but I admit I was not aware of his exploits till I joined the journalism field. Blame it on my poor GK or lack of inclination to read newspapers. TV was not an option then as it is only recently that TV has started reporting the achievements of any sport beside cricket.

But after Gopichand, there has been a lull. It is not that we don't have talented shuttlers. We have a pool of them, we have around 10-15 players in the top 100. Shuttlers such as Anup Sridhar, Arvind Bhatt and Chetan Anand have defeated many top players and made their presence felt in the world. But still in CWG 2010 we didn't have a serious contender for the gold.

And so when P Kashyap scripted some sizzling performance beating higher-ranked Rajiv Ouseph of England twice (yes, I still consider the semifinal a win for Kashyap coz it was a clear wrong decision that spoilt his silver) and the stylish Mohammad Hafiz of Malaysia, he had just given that hope to Indians that perhaps the resurgence of men's singles is round the corner.

Kashyap had to settle for a bronze where he deserved a silver atleast. If he were in final with Lee Chong Wei, he nevertheless would have competitive if not more. When Kashyap played him in the team event he looked much more at ease than Ouseph (who played him in the finals of individual event).

In the Denmark open, Kashyap again created a stunning victory over Thai Boonsak Ponsana, who has victories against Lin Dan, Lee Chong Wei, Chen Jin and Peter Gade to his name.

The Indian may have lost in the quarter against a chinese but that doesn't demean his stunning victory in any way. It means only one thing, time for India to regain its pride and place in men's singles is very near. The dawn is near, the resurgence nearer and we wish Kashyap shines in the days to come.

"Shine like a crazy diamond" as Pink Floyd would have put it.

Life of a journo in the times of CWG

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Surely it is not easy being a journalist in the times of Commonwealth Games. If you are a electronic journo then you will have to warm your seat at the main press center (MPC) because your cameras are barred from entering the venues. So all you can do is operate from the MPC and make reports taking the low-quality videos footages from Doordarsan, of course you have to keep the public entertained.

But if you are a print journalist, you can't have the luxury of seating at the MPC. Everyday you will have to walk miles just to enter the MPC and then hang like a hanger around the shuttle service which takes you inside, needless to say through a bumpy road, of course that too if you are lucky. Otherwise, you will have to again depend on your legs and bear the scorching sun till you reach the MPC.

However, your ordeal is not over. It is just the beginning. You have to go through the numerous check points where they will frisk till it doesn't border in the lines of manhandling and if you bump against a foul policeman, he might throw the stuffs which are not allowed, which ranges from cigarrates, matchbox, coins to as important a thing as a water bottle, rather rudely with a glare as if he has just nabbed a terrorist.

If you are a cameraman then things are worse as you have to open everything perceivable and lay them bare infront of them and that too after your bag has already gone through the checking system. After you complete all formalities, you would enter the MPC, a swanky work place where there are 100s of computers and an efficient bunch of young volunteers who will be very eagar to help you.

There is another thing. While all these time you were sweating like a dog under the sun, now you will suddenly enter the antarctic zone where you will shiver till your blood turns into ice crystals. Inside you have coffee, tea and britania biscuits -- all free of cost to keep you warm. There are sandwitches and pasteries which you can buy but if you want a meal in the afternoon, you will have to burn holes in your pocket and even after that the food might not be satisfactory. Also you might have a dog for company inside the foodcourt, which is outside the MPC.

But that's ok because jounalists don't have the luxury of staying inside the MPC for too long. So you too set off for the day to cover an event. You walk to the bus stand where you might end up waiting for hours if you are unlucky to get to the correct bus which takes you to the venue. Of course, if you can get into one of these buses things are cool, quite literally for it is an AC bus, which will run in Games lanes.

While you will have a chilly time inside the bus, which have tainted panes, the driver, although on the games lanes, will still have plenty of difficulty in maneovouring the vehicle, thanks to the Delhities who don't mind spilling over the lane every now and then , leaving the driver with no other option but to honk the horn all through out.

Once you reach the venue, you have to show your accreditation cards and have to go through the checking drill many times till you enter the venue. Now that was for those who can manage the bus.

But, suppose, if you are coming from your home straight to the venue, soon you will be transformed into a pedestrian journalist since even if you have a car or motorcycle, you can't take it inside so you will again have to depend on your legs and it is in such times that the music begins.

In many venues, the policemen also don't have a clue what is the route for the media. They perhaps not even given a lecture about how to read the passes. You will keep shuttling from one gate to the other as whosoever you ask, he will either ask you to go to the next gate or will bring out his guidebook to see if you should be allowed to enter through that gate as you burn under the sun at times.

There are Gates where you can travel in a vehicle but can't walk though them. The first day I went to the Siri Fort complex, My friend cameraman was stopped at the gates and told that he can't carry his cameras inside. After a lot of phone calls and after walking a mile, the volunteers helped us to enter the venue. But once we were inside, the cameraman was told you can't take pictures as it is not allowed.

Even though there is Doordarsan and BBC radio recording bytes of the players, if you want to record an interview in your cellphone, you would be stopped.

All these little things point fingeres to the inefficiency that plagues the working of the organisers. It is a classic example of too many cooks spoil the broth as here right hand doesnt know what left hand is doing. There is a huge communications gap among the various teams, who are engaged in organising the event. But that's ok because we are Indians and as the Sport Minister M S Gill once said in India, everything happens like an Indian marriage. Sir you couldn't have been more right!

Do we understand the enormity of Commonwealth Games?

For a country starved of any achievements in multi-sports events, the commonwealth games is the biggest opportunity for India to inspire a billion people to take up sports and make india a sporting nation but a look at the stadiums at the various venues and one can't help feeling disappointed. It is the second day of the mega-event but there is hardly any crowd at the stadiums. It puts a question in my mind: Do we Indians understand the enormity of Commonwealth Games?

Well, perhaps not. It may is the biggest sporting extravaganza that the country has ever hosted, being only the second multi-sport event after the 1951 and 1982 Asian games but that hardly seems to excite the Indians, if the lack of crowd is any indications.

For someone who was born and brought up in a far-flung small town called 'Silchar' in South Assam, CWG is nothing short of a dream. A dream to see the greats of the game live in front my eyes. people whom you have seen on TV, athletes about whom you always read on newspapers, an opportunity to see them with your naked eyes gives me goose bumps.

I am stationed at the Siri fort stadium where the badminton mixed team event is going on in full swing. India is playing a lowly Barbados but that should not matter because it is Saina Newal, the current world number three, who is playing here. Someone who had put India at the world badminton map. The Chinese, the Indonesians envy her because she is one who has threatened to break their strangehold in the game. The English, the Australians, they look up to her with wide open eyes as she jumps in the air and plays a cross-smash, they hardly can hide their amazement when she plays a deceiving drops but for Indians perhaps it is not that exciting.

The Whole stadium, which has a capacity of around 4500, is occupied by a handful of around 50 people, the rest of the crowd are the volunteers who have been employed for a smooth organisation of the event. These small crowd does all the cheering for Saina. These are the ones who took the pain to get up in the morning and come to the stadiums just for the love of sport. Does it disappoint the sportspersons? Well it does. While speaking to Saina when I ask her about the lack of crowd, she breaks up into a smile. "Well, may be it is too early, so people are not coming in the morning session. I am sure they will start pouring in as the day progresses," she says with her infectious smile.

Well, they do start filing in but still it is not enough to fill up those vacuums in the stands. Perhaps, even the atheltes have started excepting the fact that perhaps we don't understand the enormity of the Commonwealth Games.