At Their Crappy Best

Aloha folks! I started my day today with a wonderful piece of news…India is going to be placed on the global map. Isn’t that fascinating?! Yeah, it’s going to top the list of the worst man-made disaster in the history of the human race: as the host of the now-without-a-doubt doomed Commonwealth Games 2010. There are about 11 days to go for the games to begin, and the government is at its callous best. If I remember correctly, when there were 11 days to go for the IPL, the grounds were ready, the infrastructure was in place, and we had the top politicians of the country making the rounds of the teams, giving their crappy all-the-best speeches. In contrast, looking at the CWG, it looks like a political-social-technological- international disaster in the making. Let’s count: filthy living conditions for the athletes, infrastructure not being ready for the games, falling structures…hell, no one’s going to come even a close second. Moreover, athletes are pulling out of the event left, right, centre, and the sports heads and coaches of other countries are pointing out the pitfalls in the way the so-called preparation of the games are being conducted. And to top that, we have our government telling the people of the country that, I believe the exact words were: ‘These are ‘minor glitches’ that happen with every major event, and we are totally ready to host the games’.

Is it true? I don’t think so. The Commonwealth Games have been going on for a long time now, and whenever a country gets a chance to host them, it is a matter of immense pride. The Indian Government, too, accepted its role as a host with equal pride, but that’s that. It hasn’t assumed the responsibility of conducting the games in such a fashion that it might be a success. The callous nature of the government appalls me, as it does to every Indian I’m sure. When we, the people of the country say that the government isn’t doing anything concrete and corruption is deep-rooted, the government is probably used to hearing such comments. But when the international community is lashing out at a country about its unpreparedness to host an event of international importance, then HOW in god’s name can the government not take the issue seriously? How can a government sit on the sidelines and watch, or rather, hear such harsh statements and not bother? And the fact that they are all true is even sadder.

And, the saddest part is, all we can do is sit and wait for the brickbats galore when the games do start, (IF they start, of course) because it seems that not only has the government has gone deaf this time, it seems to have developed permanent amnesia. Because the next time a disaster-in-the-waiting happens in our country, the hell they will remember their past mistakes. Their statements would probably go like ‘Tch…see, talk about this situation now. Forget the CWG. It happened FOUR months back’.