The Man with the Golden Gun

Before we begin, I would like to warn everybody that this entry of mine will be utterly sentimental and jingoistic because an Indian winning an individual Olympic Gold is something that I hadn't hoped I would see in my lifetime. Well ladies and gentleman it did happen and I (like most of you) am bloody ecstatic about it. We as a country have consistently managed to fall short in achieving glory in the ultimate test of human will known to man... sports. For long we have lived under the shadows of cliche' statements like "In a country of a billion we cannot find ONE gold". Well we have now and this young man from Chandigarh has managed the single greatest achievement in the history of Indian sports. One thing that I would like to point out here is that apart from winning the gold Bindra has managed to do something that most Indian Sportsmen have failed to do in the past. Eight years back in Sydney when Bindra made his debut he like every moderately talented youngster in India was billed as the next best thing. Yes he had the junior world record, yes he had failed to win a medal at Athens in spite of breaking the Olympic record and yes he is the reigning world champion in this event. But this is not the first time that an Indian athelete has had a good run prior to the Olympics and has been hauled up by IOA officials and the ever hypocritical Indian media as a medal prospect. Limba Ram in Barcelona, Anju Bobby George in Athens, the Indian Hockey team (over and over again) are just a few examples. Abhinav Bindra has managed to convert all the promise and all his form into the greatest reward known to sportsmen. All of the other individual medals won by India have come as major surprises to us. Leander Paes fought so hard for his medal that he seemed like a petulant child who just wouldn't leave till he had something to take back home, K.D Jadhav's victory was a major surprise (even to himself); Karnam Malleswari wasn't even supposed to travel to Sydney and Major Rathore's victory at Athens had a quiet elegance about it. But Abhinav Bindra today possibly became the first Indian athlete to show promise, display good form, have consistent performances and finally convert everything into him winning an Olympic Medal. This is by faaaaar the most glorious moment in the history of Indian sports (yes i know i am being redundant). This achievement comes to a man who has no histrionics about him and went about his business quietly and was more relieved than surprised when he took the top spot on the podium. I am a sentimentalist when it comes to sports, world war II and India. Today an Indian Sportsman manged to give us the greatest possible gift prior to the 15th of August. Today an Indian athlete saw the tricolor make its way up to the top of the mast with the mellifluous strains of our National Anthem. Today they played Jana Gana Mana... at Beijing.

Mr. Abhinav Bindra you have done all of us very very proud. Jai Hind !