Mumbai duo's effort lights up Games HQ

Amidst pessimism, they deliver public's goodwill messages to CWG athletes

The team of Roney Rodrigues and Obaid Siraj, two young professionals from Mumbai, who travelled across the country to garner goodwill messages for the CWG athletes amid all the controversies surrounding the event, reached the head office in Delhi on Sunday afternoon.

The duo had a relatively easy access to the CWG headquarters. "We went and met the director who was touched by our story," said Siraj.

Siraj added that they met Kalmadi at his office on the 9th floor but could not talk at length because he was busy with foreign delegates. However, Kalmadi asked his director to provide all the help to Siraj and Rodrigues.

Goodwill gesture
They were finally taken to the PR department. Everybody in the department had heard of how they had travelled to Pune, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata to gather goodwill messages for the athletes. "One of the officer revealed to us how touched they were by what we did. He also said that while everybody had condemned them, they could not believe that someone from outside Delhi was helping the situation by encouraging the athletes," said Siraj.

Rodrigues and Siraj spent nearly nine hours in the building, recounting their experiences and talking about public support for the much-maligned Games. They finally handed the book containing the goodwill messages of the public to an official who promised that he would personally deliver it to the athletes.