Should be all about the Olympics

Whorsquos the first Indian to win an individual Olympics medalrdquo This was a question in one of those nonmultiplechoice objectivetype entrance tests I once took The answer is Norman Gilbert Pritchard NGPmdashtwo medals in athletics representing British India at the 1900 Paris OlympicsWhile I knew this answer I did not write it Assuming that given the poor quality of my examinersmdashthey were from a secondrate news channel scouting for sasta campus recruitsmdashthey might not know the answer themselvesI settled for KD Jadhav KDJ wrestling bronze 1952 Helsinki Olympicsmdashhoping still they donrsquot think that the more recent Leander Paes bronze at 1996 Atlanta was the first of its kind Although it had indeed come after 44 yearsIrsquom obviously talking about a world of desi entrance tests before Google and after Manorama Yearbook or Competition Success Review Which basically tells you two things One a quizzerrsquos arrogance at age 20 Two how Olympic achievements can become forgettable national triviaSpecifically how many nonIndians are likely to have heard of NGP or KDJ or can even place from memory Karnam Malleswari bronze weightlifting 2000 Sydney Vijender Singh bronze boxing 2008 Beijing Vijay Kumar silver pistol shooting 2012 London Yogeshwar Dutt bronze wrestling 2012 London Let alone athletes PT Usha 1984 LA or Milkha Singh 1960 Rome who placed fourth on the trackI donrsquot know NonIndians donrsquot take UPSC exams What Irsquom willing to wager a bet on is how few if anyone at all outside China can list out the names of specific Chinese champions of each sport whorsquoll pick up gold after gold at the Olympicsmdashthis year or any other For us itrsquos just China that wonAnd they evidently deserve to given what the state and thereby their sportsinclined citizens go through in order to prove a point on sporting arenas of Olympics and its various versionsOne of the explanations a producer attached to the Bollywood film Dangal gave me about its miraculous success in China is that the audiences there probably saw in Aamirrsquos determined khadoos baaptrainer character a representative of their own statemdashwho regularly plucks child prodigies out of homes to sequester them and aim for international goldWhich ideally is true for training in any sport anywhere isnrsquot it As cricket coach Pravin Amre puts it in midday masterclass ldquoItrsquos all about getting the kids into the next level constantlyrdquo Or as the Olympic motto goesmdashldquofaster higher strongerrdquo The word ldquotogetherrdquo has now been added to the credo But itrsquos really nations competing for something write home about And what is sport for a lay audience if not collective projection of onersquos unrequited bravado exulting in unison upon victorymdashldquoWe won we wonrdquo No dude You sat at the barcouchstadium They won You watchedThat this muscular matter of nationalism is settled not so much by the proverbial size of onersquos chest but a gold medal dangling over itmdashshould one ascribe sports field as a permanent standin for the battlefield Saving lives in return since expansionist conventional war in a nuclearised world is hardly an option Looking at China one should hope soWhat about viewers worldwide over decades remaining glued still to a unique quadrennial spectacle of sports such as members of Daft Punk dressed like astronauts attempting to prick each other with sharp sabers or a Prince Kong hurling a metallic sphere like a human sling What draws us to these events when lsquonational pridersquo isnrsquot involvedSheer human excellencemdashrelatively untouched by multiple extraneous motives I find passion a bit overstated when both fame and money are equally expected outcomes Guessing therersquos less of both if yoursquore into fencing or shot put As against say basketball in the US or cricket in India Like high art itrsquos sports for sportsrsquo sake Just as much for the audience Anyway like Nobel for academics Olympics simplyunquestioningly equals worldrsquos bestmdashthe same way realestate companies promise you an ldquoOlympicsized swimming poolrdquo as if the pool is some other size at other swimming eventsBeats me to think what that this level of global focus and national attention once in four years might mean to athletes who arenrsquot perennially under the spotlight Instantly recovering from a goodbad day because tomorrow is another And eventually only one counts for so muchmdashpractically an entire careerOr as the Mare of Easttown Kate Winslet puts it ldquoDoing something great is overrated lsquoCoz people expect that out of you all the time What they donrsquot realise is yoursquore just as f up as they arerdquo Simone Biles at Tokyo 2020 was just that muchneeded rare reminder for empathy towards the supposed superhumans among usAnd then there are those thanks to Olympics who rise from obscurity towards national pride forever Of course yoursquod never heard of Mirabai Chanu silver weightlifting Tokyo rsquo20 Or the girls of Indian hockey with the back of their jerseys flashed across a national newspaperrsquos frontpage flyer for mounting the semifinalsmdashRani Savita Gurjit Vandana Grace Neha Nikki Udita NishahellipJumping from national anonymity to desi lsquoentrance examrsquo level of adulationfame Kids would of course do well to mug their names up if not aspire for more Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper