India Medals Dream @ Olympics - My Pledge :

India's olympics campaign ended today with a bronze, and for the 1st Time in History India has won 3 Medals in the Olympics with 1 Individual goal (1st time as well). Wohoooooooooooooo, again, better late than never!.

Over a casual conversation on GChat with one of my friends, I jokingly said that I Promise to make all efforts to make sure my Son/Daughter can win 1 Medal (gold :P) in either swimming / tennis for the country.

But on hindsight, this might not be a bad idea. I mean, a lot of our parents thought that "..i wish my son would grow up to be a doctor / engineer / successful businessman"... " ..i wish my son would grow up to be a cricketer / bollywood star!"... but none of them would ever think of a medal in Olympics!. Its a fact that in the Indian society everything starts with the opinion of parents and what they want you to become, and we spent the rest of our lives fulfilling their dreams. But think about it, being an olympian and being known All over the world and the country is not a bad idea!. It results also in the subsequent rewards, recognitions and better opportunities as well!

Food for thought

Cheers

Olympian Indian :P

GOLD for India @ the Olympics 08 :)

After a long wait of 28 years, India finally won a GOLD medal at the Olympics at Beijing 2008!

This is also the first ever Gold Medal in Individual Sports for India. Well as the saying goes - Better late than never! Definately a great start for the Indian Olympics dream.

The Gold clinched by Abhinav Bindra in the Shooting (Rifle 10m). Was just going through the daily emails on a beautiful and sunny monday morning in Shanghai. Didnt have any such monday morning blues , thanks to the news flash by CNN IBN Gtalk client!, was one of the first ones to know about this great news, and instantly flashed it to all my friends online. Its great to see the excitement and enthusiasm for this in India and in the virtual world, and I hope the whole country can wake up atleast in the sphere and produce more successfull sportsmen and women apart from Cricket!

Hope we can do some wonders in Tennis, Badminton (some hopes are alive)



A Picture to cherish!

Links:
http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/sports/headlines/shooting/n214528114.shtml
http://olympics.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3350682.cms


Cheers


Proud Indian in China!

China and Olympics - ctd

Continuing with my encounters with China and the Preparations / Atmosphere for the Olympics, here are some new updates from people I know and myself.

- The Husband of my boss works for the Hotel Industry as a manager in Shanghai. He gets a call from from his boss at midnight and informs him that his flight to Beijing is booked for next day Noon and he needs to be at Beijing for an indefinite period to help out the Hotels there for Olympics. No Notice, no preparation time, Nothing!. My boss was complaining that she needs to go to a business trip soon and who would take care of the daughter but no consideration from the boss / government. Its not an option to say no to the govt for anything to do with Olympics.

- People have been asked to Q up for the opening ceremony as early as 4 hrs before time and the ceremony would last for 4 more hrs., and need to go through innumerable checkpoints.

- As some of you might already know this, No Flights are to land in Beijing during the Opening Ceremony on 8th aug, 8 PM onwards.

- One of my friend's visited Beijing last week, and as per her, the atmosphere is not very lively there!, loads of security, less people everywhere, she said she cudnt feel the excitement and crazyness of a big event coming up. lets see hw the atmosphere is next week.

All in all its the biggest thing china has ever done, and I really hope they can pull it off as successfully as they have planned.

Ciao till the next update ;P

Nikunj

China and Olympics Security

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/sports/olympics/04china.html

A lot of you have been asking me about the environment and atmosphere in China about the Olympics. Well the Euphoria is amazing, all the roads, flyovers, websites, TVs, Shopping Malls, Trains, Metros, taxis, bus etc are packed with Olympics Logos, promotions, ads, explanation of the various sports involved. Ofcourse the Chinese Govt and people are spending millions and millions of Dollars to promote the games among its citizens and companies are using the best advantage of the games as they should.

But, a meticulous level of planning and preparation has gone into place by the Chinese govt to make sure the games are safe and successful. In these times of terror, no country can be isolated from the threat of terrorism and attacks, not even China. There has been incidents of attacks and threats for the olympics (as everyone knows), but this article is a brilliant summary of the kind of arrangements that is rite now in Beijing and elsewhere in China. Its a classic example of "prevention / preparation is better than cure"

Some of my / my friend's personal accounts of the "fortress security" has been:

- I have been stopped on the road by policemen twice already asking for passports and house registration details, they want to make sure everyone living in Beijing / Shanghai are legally staying here and are authorised to work / live in China.

- The Internet has been the greatest WALL of china since I have come here, a lot of websites refuse to open at times, latest being Amnesty International / Facebook (at times) blocked by the Chinese govt for security reasons

- one of my friend is now working in Beijing foe 1 of the service providers for the olympics, and he daily updates us with army / security personnel checking randomly for identities, doing their drills for any attacks, and how the Internet for the journalists is also restricted!

This might be the biggest event that China has ever hosted, and as per chinese culture, they would do anything to not loose their face in the world. There has been critisisms, environmental concerns, human right concerns and complains from a lot of foreigners for harrasment / visa issues, but lets hope after all this, the world can have a safe olympics!

The Final Countdown begins!! - 8/8/08 - 8 PM!!

Good Bye from Sunny Shanghai!

Nikunj