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
Friday, August 22, 2008
India Medals Dream @ Olympics - My Pledge :
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
3 Stories: Steve Jobs' best speech
Brilliant Speech by Steve Jobs at Stanford Graduating Ceremony.
For those who have NOT seen this, on 3 stories he needs to tell in life and his learnings:
1. Connecting the Dots: Of how he dropped out of college, did what he wanted to do, and then it helped him later in life. Its true when he says, " you can only connect the dots backwards". A lot of us ask questions like - "how would this help me in my career / life later?" well, most of us just guess the answer but can only realise later on in life, that a lot of things that happened are not planned, it just happens as a result of things you did before, but never anticipated it to happen!
2. Love and Loss: Of how he was FIRED out of Apple!. The company he started! and how he regenerated. Of how one needs to be positive of things that happened and for what will happened. "Never Settle!"
3. Death: Live each day, as it was your last! Do what you would do if it was your LAST day in life.
Hope you enjoy it!
Cheers
Nikunj
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
How does China win so many gold medals?
An Article from CBS which gives examples of how Chinese Young Talent is nurtured from a very young age. Debatable if this is by choice or by force for this young athletes, but what is appreciable is that China is thinking way ahead of atleast India on winning more Gold Medals in olympics and hence developing its talent and infrastructure for greater things in the next decade.
http://www.cbsnews.com/
Nine-year-old Zhang Huiman is on the lonely road to Olympic gold, running 20 miles a day preparing for the games of 2020.
"My heroes," she says through a translator, "are runners who won gold medals."
Welcome to a nation so obsessed with Olympic gold that it is training 200,000 handpicked kids in state-run sports boarding schools, CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen reports.
Weightlifter Ye Ping came there four years ago.
"I miss my mom and dad," she says through a translator. "But the Olympics is the goal of every athlete."
It's the same system the Soviets used to train gold medalists like Maria Filatova in their Cold-War sports duel with the United States.
Now a coach in upstate New York, she remembers officials motivated to find the children with the most potential.
People were promoted, she told CBS News if their athletes won gold.
Copying the Soviets, the Chinese went all out - to out-gold the United States.
The Olympic Games plan: sports with less profile but more medals.
Meanwhile, China has three in judo, five in shooting and eight in weightlifting.
To the Chinese, weightlifting counters those golds won by Michael Phelps.
"I think it's important that people realize that the Olympic Games can be gamed," said Matt Forney, a former Beijing bureau chief for Time Magazine who recently wrote an op-ed article on the topic.
Winning isn't just about bringing home a gold medal - it's also about winning a golden future. For many Chinese athletes, thanks to a grateful nation, they can be set for life.
They get a $150,000 bonus - 30 times the average Chinese annual salary.
But the real message is Communism beats Democracy.
"It's their way of showing, see 'our' system - the Chinese Communist Party - put our country on top of the gold medals chart," said Olympic historian David Wallechinsky.
They're already practicing for future Olympics - to again win the most gold - and again win Olympic bragging rights over America.
Monday, August 11, 2008
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!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
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
Monday, August 4, 2008
Chinese Police asking for Religion!
Hey Guys
After posting the last port this morning, this incident just happened with me today!...
My Good Friend and Ex Flatmate just got a call from the Police:
Police- " What is the religion of the Indian Guy Staying at the house?, is he a Muslim??"
Nick (my friend) - " No he is Indian, a Hindu"
P - "What is Hindu? So he is not muslim right?"
N - " No its not muslim, its a religion in India"
P - " Ok Ok, thats perfect, and does he keep a Beard ?? "
N - " No, i have seen him clean shaven most of the times"
P - " Oh then perfect!. No Problems!!"
This is a real story.
Also, during the palace party, I invited a lot of my Indian friends to the party, and the neighbours complained to the Police that a lot of Middle Eastern People are walking in the area with boxes (which had beer), at the middle of the night
So, I need to not keep a beard, dont say anything abt religion and maybe paint myself white to survive :)
Nikunj!
China and Olympics Security
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/
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
