COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2010 - A COLORFUL CLOSING CEREMONY

It was 14 October 2010 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium; New Delhi, India celebrated one of its success stories of Commonwealth Games – 2010.

At 7 pm the Stadium was filled with more than 60,000 spectators from different rank and file in order to witness and enjoy the great finale of the Commonwealth Games with great interest and satisfaction.

I was not at New Delhi to see this great event; but I was at Coimbatore in my home sitting in front of my 32 inch LCD TV looking at the colorful ceremony in live.

The two-week sports competitions among 71 commonwealth countries went on peacefully without trouble.

The sports men and women were young and strong physically and mentally.

They enjoyed their participation in various events and celebrated their success winning either gold or silver or bronze medal.

It was a great joy for all Indians because India got 101 medals which included 38 golds.

On the medals tally as far as gold medals are concerned, India came in the second place after Australia which clinched 74 golds whereas England got 37 gold medals one less than that of India.

It gave the credibility of Indian sports persons in spite of the poor treatment they receive in their training facilities.

The formidable victory of Saina Nehwal in badminton yielding a gold medal for India was highly appreciated by one and all.

Unfortunately Sania Mirza could not come to the top in spite of her hard efforts and ended up with a silver medal.

The progress of young women in Indian sports indicates that India has a great future as it respects

and treats both genders equally.

Freedom to the female sex has revolutionized India as we see today.

The extravaganza in Delhi impressed me and millions of other all over the world who glued to their arm chairs in front of the TV set could give a good entertainment evening.

The Vice-President, Prime Minister, UPA President and almost all politicians connected with the games were present in person throughout the closing ceremony enjoying the events.

They might have enjoyed more than the citizen of the country like us.

Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa was also present in the ceremony to greet the Sri Lankan sports persons who won 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medal.

The Commonwealth Games was held in Malaysia once and the second Asian country in which the game successfully conducted is India.

The modern electronic technology was fully exploited for the game.

Suresh Kalmadi, the Chairman of the Organizing Committee was criticized by the media for corruption and inefficiency before the start of the games.

There was an unnecessary uproar against him and the Delhi government which some how gave a bad picture of India.

Added to that the monsoon rain was not kind; flooded Delhi and its surroundings which hampered and delayed the completion work of the stadia and the sports village.

There was talk about the poor condition of the rooms and toilets, leaking roof in the stadium, poor living condition of the migrant labors who came all the way from West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

All these were expected and under the Indian conditions one can not find fault with those who organize such a mammoth event for the first time in India.

Spending money and the administrative restrictions put forth by the account officers are so stringent in India.

Those who know the government administration procedures can appreciate it.

To sail all these hurdles, it is very difficult for anyone including Suresh Kalmadi to carry out and organize the games.

Without understanding all these, sitting in a TV news room or one’s own drawing room finding fault with the administration and projecting simple errors here and there is not a sensible thing to do.

The games ended with a pleasant note and it was successful.

That satisfaction makes us to forget all those silly comments on the simple mistakes committed at various levels.

Suresh Kalmadi, good or bad, could efficiently withstood the critics comments and organized the games successfully.

Above all we forgot the incredible work done by the Home Ministry to safeguard the games protecting Delhi from any untoward incidents of terrorism.

We need to appreciate the efforts of Mr. P. Chidambaram and his ministry for their commendable work outside and inside the stadia and the lodging areas of the sports persons.

I feel that India is heading towards a great leap after committing mistakes and correcting them at appropriate time.
Let us understand that every country has some limitation or other to progress.

One can not expect everything perfect.

Perfection does not exist.

So we should appreciate and applaud what is possible and what is not possible.

The colorful closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games – 2010 was memorable event everyone has to keep in mind.

The next game is going to be in 2014 at Glasgow, Scotland.

Will it going to be better than this one?

Let’s see.