No games, just sports...

Yet another case of political blame games totally cashed upon by the media... Well stoke it as long as the TRPs are coming in...
So what are commonwealth games... where did the last 3 games take place (without the help of a search engine if you can)... how many medals did India win last time round... which country topped the last games... sadly there might be a few who'll know these answers but that's the truth very few (I certainly know none of these answers).Here's a brief history cortesy - wikipedia - 'The event was first held in 1930 under the title of the British Empire Games. The event was renamed as the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954, the British Commonwealth Games in 1970, and gained its current title in 1978.' Now make no mistake... it is the third largest games in the world after Olympics and Asian Games... but can't really shake the stink of colonialism, can it.

Okay the last games were in Melbourne... I am sure the world formed a 'great' opinion about the city during the games. Surely the people all around the world discard whatever they know about us based on the 'success' of these games (whatever that is). And most importantly so what? So what's the big deal about India's image anyways... Cows on the road, land of the kamasutra, a powerful ecomony, snake charmers, bollywood song and dance, errr do you have computers in India? and of course Yoga.

I think we really need to stop getting so personal about things we don't care about. What makes you think the games will fail... what makes you think they'll be super successful... Don't we all know the reality... games will come, we'll be on our best behaviour for a fortnight and the games will go... Hotels will make money, government will lose some and we'll all go back to our respective lives. And Mr Kalmadi and Mr Aiyer will have to find new ways of staying in news...

Respected Mr Aiyar tells us that this money could be put to better use... surely sir, but I would like to say the same thing about your work as the Panchayati Raj Minister of this country... haven't heard you say much about the khap panchayats and their latest 'justice'... have we? I remember seeing your house (one of the two allocated to you for some reason) when I was part of a the technical crew for an interview a couple of years ago. What I remember is 2 gardens the size of football fields... and your 'love' for antiques... better use of the money eh?

And in the same breath the less said about Mr Kalmadi the better! Here is some (courtesy wiki again) - During the felicitation ceremony that had been arranged to honour the three Indian medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Kalmadi reportedly walked out because he had not been offered a chair next to the Vice-President of India Hamid Ansari. In January 2010, former Indian hockey captain Pargat Singh accused Kalmadi of being a 'sports mafia.

35,000 crore includes a lot of development work for Delhi (I know, let's not discuss the quality, but when can we ever?) And they at least hope to make some back with TV rights. So the actual hit because of the games is much less... Now about spending this money better... well we do have a lot of money spent in India that could have been spent better. Defence budget!!! Do most of us even know how much that is? Much more my friends, much more and a recurring one at that! How many of us ever tracked (or even care about) the 60,000 crore farmer subsidy... how has that been used... much bigger figures no? We are buying aircrafts worth $10 billion... thats more than 45,000 crore! Hmmm that is of course easily explainable... remember Kashmir! Yeah that is certainly more important than food and employment etc. quoted by the 'game-bashers'

I remember a line from the movie 'What women want'... no games just sports... Not a chance when you are in Indian politics...