Thank You London!

Slow Star & Ending with a Bang

London Olympics 2012 - that started off slowly and smoothly - reached a crescendo with the athletics event and finally finished with a bang yesterday. As an Indian, this was the first time I was looking forward to Olympics - primarily because of the various Indian Olympic Medal prospects  - Deepika Kumari, Saina, Abhinav, Gagan, Paes + Sania, Sushil, Virender. I was convinced of the Indian support for the team at Olympics and also of the potential of the Olympic Participants. And they did not disappoint my faith in them. 

Unexpected Delights

Among the qualified players for London Summer Olympics, some of them fell short of their potential on the 'D' Day and some of them brought their best performance to the table. But my biggest delight was seeing the unknown/unheard/unexpected like Gowda & Krishna Poonia qualifying for an Athletic finals (6th and 7th Indians to do so), Kashyap qualifying for Q/Fs, Yogeshwar Dutt's bronze, etc.  Thank you all the Indian players, for making us proud in the last two weeks. 

Thousands of Stories

If somebody writes an account of Indian performance in London Olympics 2012, there are many stories to say

• Sania falling against the Chinese Hurdle
• 2 Indians Qualifying for London Athletic Finals
• Expected Medals in Boxing, Shooting & Wrestling
• After all the fighting and squabbling on the press, tennis players having the expected poor performance. 
• Mary Kom wining her deserved medal and fame in India
• Yogeshwar Dutt ensuring that his name is not forgotten in Wrestling History
• Sushil Kumar establishing himself as India's premier sports player
• & many more. 

And I am thankful & happy for all of them. 

Thank You OCQ & MCT

But the biggest thanks should go to organizations like Olympic Gold Quest and Mittal Champions Trust. And I am sure that the team is thrilled to see their efforts in the last few years bearing fruit Hope these organizations (or similar organizations) don't lose sight - because of India's best ever Olympic Performance and Continue to find ways to support new & upcoming Indian athletes. 

Challenge 2016

But the biggest challenge for the Rio Olympics 2016 is whether a new set of athletes - who are inspired and buoyed by these 6 medals  - will go and win 6 gold medals for India. Hope 1.2 Billion Indians receive their deserved haul of gold medals in Rio Olympics 2016.  

Bye & Thank You London! Here we come Rio!

P.S: Seeing the Olympics also reminded me of my beautiful trip to London - a year earlier. 

Why I love Quora?

For some of us, who are hearing about the word Quora for the first time - Quora was created as Yahoo Q&A done for the Web 2.0 world. You can read more about it at http://www.quora.com/about.

But the reasons I love the service is that i generally come to know stuff about the things i really want to know. For example, what the heck does Olympic medallists do in London after they win the medal.  Yeah, the kind of the questions the interviews are supposed to ask from famous personalities. But they never ask. I get those answers at Quora.

e.g. Go read at Quora - What is it like to be an Olympic athlete after winning (or not winning) the Olympics? and also Do Olympic or competitive swimmers ever pee in the pool?

National Holiday in India Too???

After Kirani James won Grenada first ever Olympic Gold, the government has declared Tuesday afternoon a holiday. So when Mary Kom wins India's first ever women Olympic Gold medal, we should declare a national holiday too.. Right? :)

Read more at BBC News