Sports and the two Indian women

Two women who would strike any Indian’s mind in the sports arena are Sania and Saina. Both of them have a given a face to India in the international platform. Let’s start the discussion with the tennis sensation. She started her career in 2003 and became the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament at the 2005 U.S. Open. She won the mixed doubles event at the 2009 Australian Open and is the first Indian woman to win a Grand Slam title. In 2006, Mirza was awarded a Padma Shri, India's fourth highest honor for her achievements as a tennis player. But my question is haven’t we, the Indians, sensationalized her achievements too much. She could have a career best of 27, and we were pretty happy with that. Why not look beyond? Why are we only contended with the fact that she only got a chance to play with Serena in the third round of the Australian Open? India has a population of 1 billion, and it is a trillion dollar economy. India definitely deserves something more than this. There’s lot more to the sort of dress she wears, the accent with which she speaks and the person to whom she is married. When it was time to nurture the budding talent, media sensationalized every action of hers and that led to where she is today with a world ranking of 111.

But history should not repeat. India has once more produced a star in the name of Saina Newhal. Saina is the first Indian woman to reach the singles quarterfinals at the Olympics and the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships. She made history becoming the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament, by clinching the Indonesia Open and the Singapore Open. Saina Newhal clearly emerges as a winner over Sania Mirza with whatever she has done as of now. We all hope that Saina keeps on doing wonders for herself and the country and we as Indians should let her concentrate on her game without intruding much into the personal front or overemphasizing her achievements.  

A calculated risk

It was around 4’oclock in the afternoon and I was frantically searching the net for the Bangalore International Airport Bus timings. I knew this was on the cards. I had lot of deliverables in office on that day and so I made it a point to carry my luggage to office itself. My flight was at 9:20 PM. Eventually I boarded the bus at around 6 o’clock. Volvos, I suppose, are one the best buses that have travelled on Indian roads. 

I had some work to do, a job that I needed to finish and I started working on my laptop. Not that I liked the work that I was doing, but I had to do it. I had already put my papers down, and I had to finish few of the closing activities. Times changed a lot. 15 years back, nobody would have even thought of opening a laptop while travelling on a bus. There were hardly 6 people in the bus and I just could not fathom what revenue would it generate for KSRTC.

By the time it crossed Trinity circle, it was pretty dark. Metro work was on. MG Road was looking different through the bus’s closed windows. Loads of people on the streets with backpacks coming out from offices, shopping malls around, streams of cars of different makes; Bangalore, people say is a land of opportunities and I had put my papers down. It was a calculated risk. The bus was travelling pretty fast but I guess my thoughts were changing locations faster than that. It was really a disturbing thought and I tried concentrating on my laptop.

Anyways I reached airport on time and I was waiting for the security check. I felt hungry and grabbed a sandwich and a coke. I looked at the bill, smiled and threw it on to the bin. It was not one of those company sponsored trips where I could have reimbursed it later. I could hear the boarding call for my flight.  I was going to Mumbai for a 2 day Induction program before the start of my MBA course.