"We are like this only" - Rant at the armchair critic

Sit back, cross your legs over the stool, and flip between Star Sports, ESPN, DD Sports and Ten Sports. Click – There’s Saina, she drops a point against the World number one.

Scoff and switch down to Star Sports. There’s a recap of Jai Bhagwan’s defeat. Make a joke, “Heeey, his name ought to be changed to Hey Bhagwaan! Hahaha!”

Click – Still shaking with laughter, switch to DD Sports and watch Gagan Narang being interviewed. Sneer at the applause he’s receiving from the audience.

“Well hey, look at him celebrating like he just won Gold. And the ugly satisfaction one feels when putting others down.

What good can this scoffing, head shaking, derisive snorting, tongue-clicking attitude do to anyone? It’s like picking at a scab on your skin for the perverse satisfaction it gives you. With this attitude, we make the odds against our athletes. Every single one of us is responsible. The athlete, the coach, the people in the office, you, me, every single Indian who sighs and says, “It’s no good. We’re no good. We are like this only.”

The great performances of our athletes is being demeaned by many who are dissatisfied with anything less than a gold, and these people go and demean our athletes, country, and everything related to it further. Vicious circle of negative reinforcement.

We make ourselves prisoners of our own identity. An identity forced upon us by us and watered and nurtured since the British rule into a beast which makes Indian culture synonymous with a slacker attitude. We need to realize that as long as we keep fueling this negative self image of ourselves there’s no way that we can escape it. You only grow into what you believe yourself capable and worthy of. If that self belief is so narrow that you deem your entire country to be full of laze slackers without even having met 1% of the total 1.2 billion, well, you need to go out and stare at the night sky to appreciate the vastness of the universe and your own insignifance or something. Anything to help put into perspective that your self-limiting attitude is painfully, self limiting.

Gandhi said “Be the change that you want to see in this world.” We call him the father of the nation and ignore his voice at the same time. Instead of making something happen in our own small way, we are content to sit back and point out everything that is wrong with the country, the athletes’ motivation, the incompetence of the training staff, the poor.

Nothing is ever good enough is it? Nothing will be unless we can look at things in a positive light and try to move forward instead of picking at scabs.