Salute to Saina! 

Umpteen expectations were in the hearts of the citizens all over the nation as the 83 athletes marched on to take part in 2012 Summer Olympics in London. In the course of the sports in full swing, the Indian media highlighted high hopes in the Indian participants to earn some glory for the nation in the Internationally Well acclaimed Olympic Games and of course I was one of those million men and women who were the fans of those in the field expecting my country men and women to win at least a few medals and bring laurels to the nation.  With my eyes wide open as I saw my own country men and women losing in the consecutive events, I felt like losing my patriotic spirit but deep within there was a big hesitation to do so. I could hear my colleagues stating that the Indians as usual will come out with one or two medals and they also sternly asked me not to hope too much from this games. Yet I had a hope that the Indian players will come out with flying colours towards the end of the games. All my expectations came to an end with just six medals including 2 silver and 4 bronze without a gold standing at 55^th position in the medal tally. Though this has been the best performance of the nation in terms of number of medals at a single Olympic Games, I was tempted to question ‘why only six medals from my country when my adjacent country, China could come out with 88 medals standing second in the total medal tally. The only answer I could have was the supportive spirit of their government and I cannot completely deny of my country’s support. Yet I have to accept the fact that in my country the sportive spirit is very less and the government needs to take extra efforts to encourage the young men and women to perform well in the international level especially in an event like Olympics. Though there was sadness spread all over my heart, the “never- give up” sportive spirit of my country men and women in the field especially of the medalists soothed my saddened soul. Of all the medalists, I here would like to focus on that 22 year old young girl who was sent with much hope for a medal. For a young man like me who was much interested in Cricket so far, this young girl revealed that there are also other games like Badminton  through which the nation can be brought to limelight in the international scenario. It was while she was playing at the London Olympics I was attracted towards T. S. Sudhir’s “An inspirational Biography: Saina Nehwal” published by Nimby Books that spoke enough of this young Badminton queen. My focus here is not without reason, there are many reasons to specify this young champion who is an inspiration to the young men and women of this nation, one of them being a “homegrown champion” as T. S. Sudhir puts it at the back cover of his book, another reason being an Indian Khel Ratna badminton player to have achieved these many prestigious achievements to her credit and thus bringing pride to the nation at the international level at this very young age and yet another reason being the one who fulfilled my expectation and the expectations of many more in this country. “With title wins at the Thailand Open and Indonesia Open, five weeks before the Olympics, Saina is one of India’s strongest medal prospects” wrote T. S. Sudhir in the prologue of his book of his expectations and of course Saina did prove her mettle with her bronze medal adding one more feather to our nation’s pride along with other medalists. “Saina Nehwal’s phenomenal success as an international badminton player is one of the most inspiring stories of Indian sports. She comes from a middle class family and has been groomed into a world class player in the face of the awesome odds,” thus writes T. S. Sudhir elucidating the greatness of this badminton queen. Saina at this very young age has brought many laurels to the nation and the secret is her commitment and the passion that she has for the sports and her ‘never-give up’ attitude to breach the charming Chinese Wall. Just a few days back we gloriously commemorated the Independence Day of our country and on that day there were many things to be proud of; one predominant thing being the Olympic medals and I personally felt how happier and more proud we could have been if many of our men and women had to win the medals at the Olympics. Of course winning medals at the Olympics is not the only determinant to weigh our nation’s glory, yet we must remember that it is one of the important events through which we can make our nation proud of at the international level. In a country like that of ours where majority of the total population worship cricket as the only sports, it is the duty of the government and the authorities concerned with sports to promote many more sports like badminton which will eventually lead us to prove our mettle at the international level. “If you ask me if is there a better life than this, I would say no. I say you have to be blessed to play this game. But I also say that you have got to be prepared to make many sacrifices. Anyone who aspires to be another Saina Nehwal has to be ready to make Badminton her life” writes T. S. Sudhir stating the words of Pullela Gopichand, Saina’s coach. We all dream of developing our nation and that must undoubtedly happen in the field of sports. To make India shine internationally, we need, not only one Saina rather many more Sainas; for this we certainly need many more Gopichands who can take our men and women to the international arenas. May this be a chance for the citizens of this nation not to worship cricket as the only sports rather to encourage other sports like badminton as well. As I ‘salute’ Saina, I ask not, “why only Saina? Rather “why not many more Sainas?” Saina has ahead of her four All- Englands and four World Championships and at least half a dozen Super Series championships every single year and as I salute this young Indian badminton queen, I wish and hope that many more young men and women become true champions in their life and add pride to the nation. 

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