1 Silver for 1.3 billion people

Well, the Olympic games are over. US tops the medal tally with 103 medals (of which 35 gold) followed by Russia, and China. Small, third world countries like Mongolia, Cuba, Thailand, Jamaica, Indonesia have bagged gold medals and have added laurels to their country. Where does that leave one big sub-continent that is populated by 1.3 billion people (and growing)? Shouldnt that nation's sports machinery be ashamed to not even bag one gold medal? Are Indians all talk and no actions??

CNN runs in its 8/29 article on Olympics quoting "India had the worst ratio among medal winners -- just one, a silver in shooting, for its 1.3 billion people. "

Now, this is not like Oscar. When 'Lagaan' was nominated for the Oscars for Best Foreign language movie in the year 2002, i wasnt much impressed. Nor was i sad/depressed/concerned that no Indian movies get selected for Oscars, because that is a different ball game altogether. It is a matter of taste, and is more tied to our culture. Art is always subjective - while i find Ravi Verma's pieces the most impressive paintings in the whole world, Monet's scribblings are regarded much valuable by the art world of the west by many critics.

Olympics is the epitome of sports - it signifies strength, physical and mental toughness, and talent. It represents the strength of the people of the nation. It is the symbol of discipline. It symbolizes raw power of the nation. For a nation that is 'talked' of being as the superpower in line, it is a matter of ridicule that its citizenry are so weak and talent-less not to bag even a single gold.

I definitely hope Indian Sports ministry take proper actions here - invest in players, pick up them young and fresh and give them all what is needed to hone their skills. Make no mistake - it is not lack of talent that is the issue here - it is the lack of initiative, lack of training, and lack of resources and plenty of corruption and screwed up politics.

Sounds familiar?? 

Jumping out of a plane

Now that i have jumped from a scary height of 150ft, i thought i should push a 'little' harder now that i know how it feels to jump off a bridge. Thoughts led to ideas, ideas led to plans, and plans led to actions - now i wanted to jump off a flying plane.

13,000 ft - that is how high the plane was flying when i jumped out of it. It was a short flight - lasting roughly 10 minutes. Flying us was a pilot, except he was not dressed with flashy pilot apparell, but was in a tank top and shorts. He taxied the plane like a car, i guess this being his job, he might have made very short up-down trips like a 100 a week.

Seated inside the plan was a crew of 10 (three sky divers, three jump instructors, three cameramen, and one supervisor). Obviously only three out of the 11 souls (Baskar, Bala, and myself - the first time divers!!) inside the plane were trembling at the sight of the nothingness and depth when the supervisor slid open the door as the plane reached a height of 13,000ft.

it was a terrific view - never seen except in movies. One after another, people started getting out of the plane, thrown into open air into a moment of free fall where mother earth starts pulling anything and everything towards her.

Baskar was first to do the jump - i happened to see the look on his face seconds before he made the jump, and i have very rarely seen a deathly expression before. Bala was next; when he slid into the edge of the window, he was holding on to the plane for dear life (we were asked to cross our hands on to the shoulders) . But he finally let go, and down he went with his instructor tied to his back.

I was the last to leave the plane. the drop was painless because i didnt have even a second to pause and think about the depth and the craziness of the task ahead. It was just slide, slide, slide, and ok - get out of the f***g plane.

Out i went, and my whole body was feeling something really unique - it was a free fall and it lasted for roughly 40 seconds !!. There was a little bit of suffocation, little bit of pain (later on, when i look at the photographs i realize what was happening - i was falling down so fast the fat and muscles were being pulled up due to air resistance; i mean, physically pulled up). In the vicinity was the photographer doing all kinds of acrobatics and making sure he caught me in the video and camera.

While i was still enjoying the G, a knock from my flight instructor told me that it was time to open the chute. I felt a sudden, sharp pull upwards and i must have moved up 20 ft. The chute opened ok, and that was a big relief. Also, i didnt have to maintain a flat position anymore - it was time to enjoy the view.

it was an awesome view - very close to what you see out of a aircraft window, but in open air. Buildings looked like dots on a map, and large pieces of land revealed their boundaries all at once. With every seconds, things were getting bigger and bigger, and when we were like a hundred foot away from the ground, i practiced 'foot up' - which is, simply raise your legs letting the instructor making a safe landing all by himself. We landed seconds later, and it was the smoothest landing i have ever seen before.

The whole experience was simply awesome and the memories came back on and on as we drove back home. Two things really humbled me -(1)when i heard that it was roughly the 2000th jump for the tandem jump instructor that i was 'tied' to, (2) when i saw a 74 year old lady do a tandem jump - she had her first jump when she was 70 years old and she is still enjoying it !!.