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.