My husband threw us out: Neera Chopra (26 April, 2009)

Gayatri, TNN, 26 April 2009, 04:25pm IST

Neera Chopra lived through abuse, poverty and some tough choices to make her once-unwanted girl child, Pooja Chopra, the Pantaloons Femina Miss 

Pooja Chopra with her mother.

India-World she is today. 

I don’t know where to begin... they were terrible times. My husband was well-placed, but the marriage had begun to sink almost as soon as it began. Like most women do, I tried to work against all the odds . 

My in-laws insisted everything would be alright if I had a son. My first child was a daughter, and that didn’t do me any good... but I couldn’t walk out. I had lost my father, my brother was in a not-so-senior position in Bata. I didn’t want to be a burden on my family and continued to live in my marital home in Kolkata. 

I looked after my mother-inlaw, who was suffering from cancer, and while bathing her, I would tell myself she would bless me and put things right. 

I don’t know how I tolerated it all. The least a man can do, if he must philander, is to not flaunt his women in his wife’s face. Then began the manhandling. I still wanted my marriage to survive. I was a pure vegetarian and learnt to cook non-vegetarian delicacies thinking it would please him. 

Then, I was pregnant again. When Pooja was eight months in my womb, my husband brought a girl to the house and announced he would marry her. I thought of killing myself. I hung on the slight hope that if the baby was a boy, my marriage could be saved. 

When Pooja was born a girl, for three days, nobody came to the hospital. There was a squadron leader’s wife on the opposite bed, who was kind enough to give me baby clothes for Pooja to wear. When she was 20 days old, I had to make a choice. I left the house with my girls — Pooja and Shubra, who was seven then. I haven’t seen my husband since. I promised myself, even if we had just one roti, we would share it, but together. 

I began life in Mumbai with the support of my mother, brother, who was by then married. It wasn’t the ideal situation, especially when he had children — space, money, everything was short. I began work at the Taj Colaba and got my own place. How did I manage? Truth be told, I would put a chatai on the floor, leave two glasses of milk and some food, and bolt the door from outside before going to work. I would leave the key with the neighbours and tell the kids to shout out to them when it was time to leave for school. 

Their tiny hands would do homework on their own, feed themselves on days that I worked late. My elder daughter Shubhra would make Pooja do her corrections... This is how they grew up. At a birthday party, Pooja would not eat her piece of cake, but pack it and bring it home to share with her sister. When Shubhra started working, she would skip lunch and pack a chicken sandwich that she would slip in her sister’s lunchbox the next day. 

I used to pray, “God, punish me for my karma, but not my innocent little kids. Please let me provide them the basics.” I used to struggle for shoes, socks, uniforms. I was living in Bangur Nagar, Goregaon. Pooja would walk four bus stops down to the St Thomas Academy. Then, too little to cross the road, she would ask a passerby to help her. I had to save the bus money to be able to put some milk in their bodies. 

Life began to change when I got a job for Rs 6,000 at the then Goa Penta. Mr Chhabra, the owner, and his wife, were kind enough to provide a loan for me. I sent my daughters to my sister’s house in Pune, with my mother as support. I spent four years working in Goa while I saved to buy a small one-bedroom house in Pune (where the family still lives). I would work 16-18 hours a day, not even taking weekly offs to accumulate leave and visit my daughters three or four times a year. 

Once I bought my house and found a job in Pune, life began to settle. I worked in Hotel Blue Diamond for a year and then finally joined Mainland China — which changed my life. The consideration of the team and management brought me the stability to bring them up, despite late hours and the travelling a hotelier must do. 

Shubhra got a job in Hotel Blue Diamond, being the youngest employee there while still in college, and managed to finish her Masters in commerce and her BBM. Today, she is married to a sweet Catholic boy who is in the Merchant Navy and has a sweet daughter. 

I continue to finish my day job and come home and take tuitions, as I have done for all these years. I also do all my household chores myself. 

Through the years, Shubhra has been my anchor and Pooja, the rock. Pooja’s tiny hands have wiped away my tears when I broke down. She has stood up for me, when I couldn’t speak for myself. Academically brilliant, she participated in all extra-curricular activities. When she needed high heels to model in, she did odd shows and bought them for herself. 

When I saw Pooja give her speech on TV, I knew it came from her heart. I could see the twinkle in her eye. And I thought to myself as she won “My God, this is my little girl.” God was trying to tell me something. 

Today, I’ve no regrets. I believe every cloud has a silver lining. As a mother, I’ve done nothing great. 

‘I won due to my mother’s karma’ 

Pantaloons Femina Miss India Pooja Chopra’s mother promised ‘One day, this girl will make me proud’. Pooja speaks on fulfilling that promise...    When I was 20 days old, my mother was asked to make a choice. It was either me — a girl child, or her husband. She chose me. As she walked out she turned around and told her husband, ‘One day, this girl will make me proud’. That day has come. Her husband went on to marry a woman who gave him two sons. Today, as I stand here a Miss India, I don’t even know if my father knows that it is me, his daughter, who has set out to conquer the world, a crown on my head. Our lives have not been easy, least so for my mother. Financially, emotionally, she struggled to stay afloat, to keep her job and yet allow us to be the best that we could be. I was given only one condition when I started modelling — my grades wouldn’t drop. 

All the girls in the pageant worked hard, but my edge was my mother’s sacrifice, her karma. Today, when people call to congratulate me, it’s not me they pay tribute to, but to her life and her struggle. She’s the true Woman of Substance. She is my light, my mentor, my driving force. My win was merely God’s way of compensating her. 

Constantly Elsewhere

The nowhereness, the nothingness, the absence of you
Is in those your words unspoken,
In what your eyes haven't broken
open, 
In the straightest stream of sunlight upon a syllable askew.

The almostness of youness, this nearlessness thing
Upturns in garden rows, unpoetried,
Hangs by a nail in spaces, ungalleried
Incognied
Like notes that dangle from the lips of a man who yet intends to sing

This gap-ness, this would-have-been happiness, the nothereness you are
Lies, dies, in the dust of unreadness of my book,
Cries with the notness that knowing, with just one look,
took
Like stories still unborning, in realms still a-churning, in worlds still afar.

The unbeing and unseeing and undoing of wherever you are there,
Is the diziness,
the everydayness of business,
Isness
Of your constantly, so constantly, being elsewhere.

Art's Boom Time

Art’s boom time
Art prices have dropped, sales are crawling. Then why are artists and gallerists alike, overjoyed? Gayatri explores

Gallerist Ranjana Steinrucke says from the Madrid ARCO on her last day there, “We only sold two pieces this year. Good.” Stop short. “Good, did you say?” “Yes, good. In the long run, the slowdown will be good for art (more time for introspection) and for collectors (no more ridiculous pricing).”
She’s not isolated in sentiment. Even as world over the sales of art faces, much like any other ‘commodity’ market, shoot the moon prices falling short, plummeting demand and waning investment, artists, buyers and gallerists alike are heaving, strangely, a sigh of relief.
Pravina Mecklai of Jamaat says “The art market was insane. I had a cab driver asking me which ‘picture’ he should invest in, and it was known that a painting would change hands five times a week, which is madness. Paintings were not being finished properly to meet demand – issues of fungus, fakes, price rigging were cropping up. It is far better this way. Now that the investors are out of the market, it is the true art appreciators who are buying.”
International collectors and auction house Christies released figures for losses posted in 2008 – sales had dipped 11 per cent over 2007 figures for the same quarter, and yet, there’s a qualitative spurt, they say. Kate Malin, Asia spokesperson for the house explains “We are witnessing more disciplined buying than in previous years, but there is still strong demand and committed bidding for the rarest and the best despite economic challenges. Collectors are driven to buy unique works of art through passion and desire, and as such they are driven by opportunity. If a collector is active for a period of perhaps 20 or 30 years, then they are likely to have only one chance to bid on any particular work.”

Meet iconic Indian artist Tyeb Mehta, whose Mahishasura had fetched a whopping $1.54 million in 2005, and you will understand why he is glad to be left to his creative isolation in his unfussy apartment in Mumbai’s Lokhandwala suburb, where he continues to work, come bubble or burst, fighting fading vision and physical disability. Tyeb’s last canvas Kali broke the Rs 1 crore barrier, and his Celebration went for Rs 1.5 crore ($317,500) on September 19, 2003. Neither contributed to his personal financial stability. “In all these years, it is only Ebrahim Al Kazi, who put up Kali for auction, who gave us 25 per cent of what he sold it for. It was a gesture straight from the heart, a magnanimous, kind, gesture,” says Sakina, his wife, “but the rest of it, which canvas sold for how much, has passed by us completely. We are not associated with any of the hype around the canvases. We only know of it when a catalogue features his works,” she says.
But then, says art critic and curator, Ranjit Hoskote, Tyeb, who was all about the money to an exploding commercial art scene, has never been about the money at all. “To Tyeb, the need to articulate deep-seated psychic realities and the crises and exultations of his society is paramount. During the six decades of his artistic practice, this need has taken precedence over personal comfort, worldly success, commercial gain, and critical acclaim. All these have been secondary considerations to Tyeb, who has patterned his life on the ideal of the artist who must speak autonomously of social, economic or cultural systems of dominance,” he says.
Tyeb is hurt, if not a little angry at how little art is understood, but won’t comment on the changing world of art around him. “I don’t go to exhibitions, or to see artists’ works because I can’t relate to their works anymore. When I can spare time from being ill, I devote it to my work. Of course my work is symbolic of a changing world and time. Just not necessarily of a changing art world,” he quips. The commercial scenario does not bother him. “I do not paint for money, or for what people think of me or of my work. I paint because it is deeply personal to me. I live in isolation, I paint in isolation. That is what the true artists do – there are a few and far between the melee, but they exist here and there.”
Artist Dhruva Mistry laughs that the only quantitative impact of the recession has been “While reminding a dealer about payment, he had mentioned that ‘sales were sluggish’.” Apart from that, he says, the season has served to allow genuine artists to get on with their work. “One thing I know well is that what I care for in my work would bother no one except me. My life and work are part of my self-enlightenment kit and I must look after my mind and spirit from the mass of material affectations.” He explains what the boom-time bubble meant to Indian artists, “The art ‘hype’ has been part of boom and bust economics of Europe and the US since the early 1980s, which was part of novel reforms of 1990s for India, China and many other countries. Success from 2002 until 2008 seemed to require being in the right place at the right time. Dealer entrepreneurs gamble with select minds, matter and taste to satisfy their speculative creativity. When it works, it raises demand, prices and stakes. In the wilderness of art market, modesty seems passé, shadowing couture and success.”
The genuine artists are thus shrugging off recession, and the aficionados -- collectors and gallerists alike -- are letting them be. As artist Samir Mondal put it “in the time of adversity, the best art creations are made.”

Times News Network
gayatri.jayaraman@timesgroup.com

Landscaping of Umrao Jaan

(Written by Muzaffar Ali)
I have a penchant for landscape; and architecture placed in landscape; and landscape seen through architecture. I see a great story in there, which is difficult to explain in words. An emotion, a spiritual experience. It is what nostalgia is made of. For a filmmaker it is what becomes the essence of Production Design and Cinematography. The last and the first sequence of Umrao Jaan had to be placed in such a landscape, a suburb of Faizabad. I went around Lucknow looking for such spaces. A space which could justify the terrible pangs of nostalgia, though filled with so much beauty, it wrenches the heart. It had found its meaning in lyrics...
Ye kya jagah dosto, ye kaun sa dayaar hai,
hadde nigaah tak jahan ghubaar hi ghubaar hai....
Now it had to present itself visually.
Driving around exploring the Awadhian landscape I came upon something of extraordinary beauty. A breath taking setting of an old haveli and a small adjoining mosque in a vast mustard field . I knew this would get into the bloodstream of the audience.

This was Amethi 15 kms from Lucknow. It was all that I was looking for. A cloud to sandwich the beginning and the end of the film.

Every morning we had to leave before the crack of dawn with my son Shaad, who I would bathe in a tub and get him ready for the shoot. He was also doing a small role as Umrao's little brother. As the location approached there was a huge speed breaker which I would invariably forget each day, but Shaad would remember and jump up before it came with a gleeful scream ' kal bataya' ... Meant I told you yesterday. We were shooting a bidai song in the old village haveli, and Shaad's role was that he was supposed to sit quietly in a corner and enjoy the happening. He began to get bored and became restless. He started slowly ripping apart an antique jazim spread out for sitting. I happened to notice half the jazim missing and Shaad discreetly pulling away whatever was left. I reprimanded him. He got very upset and sat and sulked in a corner. A little later he told my assistants that 'Main continuity mein phans gaya hoon varna main abhi chala jaata ghar.'

As the shooting came to an end the Maulvi who sat in Umrao’s last mujra, (whose close up nodding on a rhythmic interlude appreciating her footwork used in the song), was immediately sacked from the Madrasa. Next thing I came to know that my father's maternal grandfather, a great poet Mir Muzaffar Ali Khan Aseer after whom I was named, belonged to this very village.
As this came to be known, the Maulvi was honourably reinstated. Now that he is dead and gone he continues to nod in close up every time the arc light illuminates those frames.
Muzaffar Ali

Twists of Fate / Unpublished

Intro: One coincidence can change your life, for better or for worse. Ask someone who survived a terror attack, or close ones of those who didn’t. Gayatri explores if your fate can speak to you

Can a coincidence change the course of your life? Survivors of terror attacks are finding it is so. This is what a source at the Mumbai police comissioner’s office had to say about the three top cops Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar a few hours after their death “It was sheer coincidence, almost as if it was pre-ordained. Nothing could have stopped it. They were not meant to be in that car, and certainly not together. They were armed but couldn’t reach their weapons.” The driver of a Honda City parked nearby had been shot and was pretending to be dead just as the terrorists were moving in, when the jeep laden with the cops drew up. Perfect timing? Or an ill-fated one, depending on where you were standing.

While some lost their lives to fate’s roll of dice, the tales of those who were saved by chance are equally puzzling. And these are not instances to be shrugged off lightly, notes spiritual guru Deepak Chopra, who insists there is no such thing as a meaningless coincidence. “We’ve all experienced coincidences that seem to be endowed with special significance. A synchronicity is a coming together of seemingly unconnected events. If you pay attention, you may recognise that your life is shaped by those moments of meaningful coincidence. You may even be able to nurture and participate in those moments in a positive way.”

Artist Nawaz Singhania, whose exhibition wrapped up at the NCPA located beside the Oberoi-Trident, believes coincidences saved her that fateful night. “My exhibition ended 45 minutes before the attack, and some friends from abroad wanted to go to the Oberoi to pick up some stuff. I usually bend over backwards to fulfill all their requests, but that night, for some reason I didn’t, so they too ended up not going! We had been going to the Taj every single day after my showing, but that night our friends wanted to take us to Shiro, a lounge bar at Parel. Of course, these coincidences saved our lives,” she says.

Singhania further adds, “Not just for this, throughout life, coincidences are a glimpse into the ‘master plan’ of a Higher Power. It proves that someone is watching over you. I’m devastated by the loss of those who went, but I feel gratitude for these instances that left us behind.”

Joey Jeetun, British TV actor most famous for playing the role of a terrorist bomber on Channel 5, was at Leopold Café when the attack began. “I was covered in other people’s blood. So they thought I was dead and moved on,” he said, shaken by his experience. Slain ToI editor Sabina Sehgal Saikia was at a dinner at the Colaba Agiary when she reportedly took ill and returned to her room at the Taj — a room she wasn't meant to be in, says a close friend of Sabina’s. “As she checked into the hotel, the staff who knew her so well upgraded her, putting her in the suite next to the GMs family.” It proved to be a fatal move.

The machinations of destiny have fascinated man for centuries. While it was met initially with awe, reverence, even prayer, it is now being studied and probed. The term synchronicity was first coined by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung who said, “It is the coming together of inner and outer events in a way that cannot be explained by cause and effect and that is meaningful to the observer.” It was this cause and a twist of effect that saved the life of Apoorv Parikh who was dining with lawyer Anand Bhatt and builder Pankaj Shah, both of whom died.

His son, Rohan Parikh, describes how his father was saved by the bodies that fell on top of him. “On reaching the 18th floor landing of the Oberoi, the jehadis made the people line up against a wall. One terrorist positioned himself on the staircase going up from the landing and the other on the staircase going down from the landing. Then, in a scene right out of the Holocaust, they simultaneously opened fire on the people. My father was towards the center of the line with his two friends on either side. One bullet grazed his neck, and he fell to the floor as his two friends and several other bodies piled on top of him. He lay like that for several hours.”

Some call it God’s grace, skeptics shrug it off as coincidence. Either way, the tales pour in. The England cricket team was meant to check into the Taj the previous day; danseuse Mallika Sarabhai and her 25-member-troupe that had a last-minute reschedule of their performance and headed off to Indigo for dinner instead, is still too shaken to talk about it. Can you ignore a ‘coincidence’ that has just saved your life? “It’s not coincidence. It is destiny,” says actor Shilpa Shetty, “Some things are destined to happen. We are just living the course of our destiny etched out for us,” adding, “It’s sad, but true.”

Sad because, as astrologer Vipul Saxena explains, “Most coincidences that we observe are the negative ones. That is because when a positive coincidence happens, we rarely give it due credit. Coincidences are the fruit of our karma, the results of our actions that occur to pave the way for our success and failure. Astrologically, when the ‘time is right’ for you to receive, coincidences occur to put what is owed to you in your path. They also occur to remove what is to be taken away from you.”

Chopra believes coincidences are the way the universe speaks to you. “Once you put your mind into a state of relaxation and notice a coincidence, you begin to notice other coincidences that have brought you to where you are and who you are today. Science tells you the world is not organised by any external force. Coincidences are ways of revealing that there is a master plan.”

According to Vedic traditions, explains Guru Jaggi Vasudev, there are two signs of a person on the correct path to enlightenment; the first is a dissolving of obstacles, and the second is an increased occurrence of or awareness of coincidences around him.

Concludes Chopra, “People who are sensitive to events and stimuli around them will also be sensitive to coincidences sent from the universe. Clues may be as subtle as the smell of pipe smoke wafting through an open window, which makes you think of your father, which reminds you of a book he loved, which then somehow comes to play an important role in your life at the moment.”

The next time you come face to face with your fate, remember to take a minute to speak to it. Its language, is a coincidence.

Box: How to channel a coincidence
* Ask 'what is the significance of this?' Answers will emerge.
* Place yourself in silence in a peaceful environment and think back to an area in your life – health, money, love. List the coincidences that turned the course of each area.
* Keep a diary of coincidences in your life. Classify them as small, medium, whoppers and double whoppers.
* Cultivate an attitude of relaxed attention and intention.
* Simply by intending to create synchronicity in your life, you can nurture that result.
- tips by Deepak Chopra

Indian Cheeses/ Unpublished

Heading: Say cheese, desi ishtyle
Intro: Indian cheeses are stealing the march on the imports. If you truly want to be a cheese snob, stick your fork into this, suggests Gayatri…

* All local cheeses retail in and around their dairies. A few like ABC farms, Kodai cheese and Sikkim cheeses are available at national supermarket chains.

You know your Emmenthal from your Gouda, you’ve swirled white wine with peaches and Parmiggiano Reggiano beneath a tree in Tuscany, and you sprinkle your salads with feta not shudder… paneer…? But how well do you know your Indian cheeses?

“My feedback from the expat crowd is that a young Indian gouda is comparable to the best in the world,” avers Kuldeep Shanker of Steak House Delhi. He’s not alone, blogger Elga from Germany writes of her search for Sikkim’s gouda after backpacking across the state. “We thought we would find more as we went along, but we didn’t,” she writes. “It’s by far the best gouda I’ve ever tasted!” A rare find, Kalimpong cheese as it is called, was made by Brother Abraham, a parish priest in Sikkim, but after his passing away the quality of the locally produced delicacy, just isn’t the same locals in Sikkim explain. While production of the region’s Gouda has been taken over by Amul, a small amount of the local variety by Pappu Diary Co-op, which shut down wholescale production a few years ago, is available occasionally in Kolkatta (only 10 kgs are made each day).

Scattered across the country, small farms and cheese projects in collaboration with the Dutch, the French and the Swiss are moulding the best cheeses with Indian air, water and milk from cows, goats and even camels! “The Flander’s farm in Delhi has their own jerseys, so their quality of milk helps them retain a stronghold in the North” explains Shanker, “And Nepalese cheese was the equivalent of the Kalimpong one, and is just as good when you can procure it.”

A German couple in Kullu Manali send out a batch from Himachal when the mood strikes them, and if you’re lucky that’s a rare find. “A lady by name of Vijaya Vatsala, an organic honey farmer, is experimenting with goat’s cheese” points out Viraf Patel, chief executive group chef, Impresario. Himalayan yak’s cheese, sold across shops in Ladakh, and the only fat-free cheese in the world is now sold in American gourmet stores as a delicacy. Mansoor and Tina, a young Mumbai-based couple chucked up their hectic city lives to move to Coonoor in the Nilgiri’s with their three children in 2004, and run Acres Wild farm, a brand of cheese that retails around Coonoor, Coimbatore and Ooty. The Balakrishnans, nestled in the Kodai hills, run a bed and breakfast and their Cinnabar farms is the only place to take an organic cheese farming class.

While some like Rahul Akerkar of Indigo don’t put much stock by Indian cheeses, Patel explains, “We still have a long way to go, but India is doing well with hard cheeses and very well with fresh cheeses like mozzarella and ricotta. We are also good with vegetarian cheese and are the largest exporter of rennet because in India we have little use for it. But by and large, Indian cheese is used in cuisine rather than on its own. As a gourmet cheese, we are yet to develop a signature Indian cheese.”

Box:
How to use Indian cheese:
Use Flander’s kwark for baking cheese cakes, and serve Pondicherry’s gourmet cheeses with your wines. ABC Farms’ bocconcinni stuffed with olives and fondue cheese flavoured with wine or cherry brandy are great for parties, use Kodai’s Romano to flavour soups and sauces, and their Gruyere for fondue. Cinnabar farms’ Cinnableu and ABC’s blue are the only two blue cheeses in the country. Monterey Jack is great for melty BLT sandwiches.

Where to get Indian cheeses:
ABC Farms: The Parsi-run establishment, by the trio of Rohinton Aga, Adi Bathena and Eruch Chinoy (hence the ABC), have over 60 varieties of cheeses. ABC farms: 20-26810555.
Kodaikanal cheese: Specialities include the Danish Havarti, a pear shaped Provolone, a South Italian speciality. (Kodai Dairy: 04542-240293).
Cinnabar farms: Specialties are the Cinnamano, a Cinnabar Colby, and a Cinnableu. (Cinnabar: 4542-240220).
Acres Wild: Do a mean feta and camembert. They retail around Ooty, Coonoor and Coimbatore. (Farm cell: 94870-68898)
Auroville cheeses: Under the brand name of La Ferme. Available only in Pondicherry. (Le Ferme: 0413 622212)
Flanders Dairy Cheese: The Cheese Ball: 11-25314237

Our Olympic shame/ Unpublished article

Must Abhinav Bindras be able to fund themselves for India to win golds not to mention take credit for his win? India’s potential sporting heroes deserve better says Gayatri

NOW that the country has weakened the pace of its Singh is King bhangra to Abhinav Bindra’s individual gold, perhaps it’s time to play spoilsport and remind everyone gently that Bindra’s win was ‘individual’ in the fullest sense – India, the country, the Olympic committee, the sporting heroes and the general public at large had no role to play in Bindra’s victory. He did not train at a government shooting range but at his private and privately funded one, and everything from his confidence-building course in Germany before the Games and his triumph over his debilitating spinal injury, which should have been at government’s expense, and would have been for an athlete of his merit in any other country. But they weren’t. He won because he practiced hard, funded by an indulgent and supportive parents’ substantial personal means. Transport him to any country QED (everything else remaining constant) – Bangladesh or Papua New Guinea – and the win would still have been Bindra’s alone.

Like with Abhinav Bindra, for 15-year old tennis sensation Yuki Bhambhri’s parents have felt the strain of supporting his sporting career. “It’s been very difficult for them. I keep thinking how long can they keep going? You keep thinking, if I don’t win this, I’ll be paying the money from my pocket and that’s so much money down the drain. That’s a lot of pressure to deal with on your game. If I was supported, the pressure would be off and I’d be playing more games.”

Contrast this with 14-year-old diving sensation Tim Daley, who was discovered when he was 8 and has been preparing for his role in grabbing England a diving gold yet. After qualifying for the Olympics as part of the British swim team, Steve Foley, the former Australian Olympic diver who has galvanised the sport in this country as the British performance director, warned newspersons “he may not go further than 2012 if the media and constant pressure on him to perform take their toll. Take the pressure off him.” Psychological mapping, steadying him, managing his endorsements, and caring for his teenage awe of the hype has been as much a part of the process as the actual hours of training. The teenager told the BBC : “Lots of people say ‘go and get the gold’ and I just think I’ve got no chance. I don’t think I am just going for the experience and hoping to do a good performance.”

Bhambhri says the training makes all the difference. “Almost all our international counterparts are supported. They travel with their coaches, both their parents. The government only steps in when it’s a grandslam, but otherwise you’re on your own. I’m happy that with Bindra at least now they have realised his potential. But I have to say if they had done this earlier, India would have had a lot more medals. This country has a lot of talent, if only there was someone to nurture it.”

Ask 28-year-old Viren Rasquinha, former captain of the Indian hockey team, and an Athens Olympics hopeful, threw in his colours in disgust after 6 years of playing for the country and headed out for an MBA at the prestigious Indian School of Business in April this year. “You begin believing it’s enough to love and know the game and you realise that at international levels you’re up against everything but the game,” he says. “At the grassroot level, our domestic teams don’t even touch an Astroturf, they play on grass and on maidans.” Under the mentorship of his coach ‘Bawa’, Viren often distributed hockey kits, shoes, shorts, socks to players on domestic teams. “Our players don’t even receive the funding for basics, let alone keep pace with international circuits. I was fortunate to be at the receiving end. But it doesn’t filter down. There’s no way we can win like this.”
Fed up, Viren left to do an MBA, averring, “Maybe when I return with a degree I can instill some professionalism into the system. I don’t know. I can’t promise anything. There’s no future in this for me.”

For Baichung Bhutia, now in his early 30s but a football sensation since his early teens, individual efforts are not enough. “That’s still fine for a sport like archery, where individual effort and famil support makes a difference. But for a majority of participatory sports in the country, like football, we need the support of the government.”

Although himself trained and supported by the government at various levels, Bhutia says there is still a lot left to be done. “If you compare us to international standards, we are way way behind. There’s no comparison. What we need are facilities, infrastructure, funding, training, competitive games… etc These are what will keep the spirit of the sport going and inculcate the drive to win.

At 22, Armaan Ebrahim, a promising young motor racing star, newly signed up for GP2, 2008, started his racing career at the age of 12. The youngest ever Indian to win the JK Tyre National Formula LGB Single seater Racing car championship, the prodigy would of course credit his father, ex Indian F3 champion Akbar Ebrahim rather than any government body for his potential growth. But probe and fear of invoking government wrath makes sportspersons back off. Akbar Ebrahim refused to comment on what the government could do or has done for nurturing talent for individuals who unlike his son, lack the privilege of a sporting background. Yuvraj Singh also shied clear of comment, for fear of invoking the captain’s wrath. “Everyone’s always afraid to talk about the situation,” says Viren Rasquinha. “That’s because in this country sports has a lot to do with politics and less to do with how you play the game.”

So where do the countries hopefuls go? Along with Bindra, Krishna Poonia in athletics, Joshana Chinappa in squash, Virdhawal Khade in swimming and Saina Nehwal in badminton are others making a splash in their respective sports and are all currently under the spotlight in Beijing. The common thread? All were privately trained, funded and sponsored by the LN Mittal Trust and don’t have so much to thank the Indian government for. Manisha Malhotra, administrative coordinator of the Trust speaking to Timeslife from Beijing takes the pride of the organization having mothered these youngsters. Exhausted after packing Bindra back home, but exhilarated, she says “Our aim is to put India on the medal grid by the 2012 Olympics and we have been focused on identifying champions and providing them the bets possible facilities to further their training.”


The alternative route to success for many then is private corporations who enjoy investing in sports as part of their corporate social responsibility programmes. Youngsters such as Gaurav Ghei for instance on the golfing circuit gaining sponsors such as Deutsche Bank, early in their careers. The GVK industries chairman GVK Reddy who has stood shoulder to shoulder with Sania Mirza monetarily since she was 13. The Tata Archery Academy run by Tata Steel at Jamshedpur has been consistently supporting sportspersons and gainingsilent marches of victory that have failed to generate the kind of hype that more mundane achievements in cricket have. The trio of A Donda Raju, Rajib Basumatary and Ravinder Hembram created world archery history when they put a never before achieved combined score of 440 at the world archery championship in Mexico. In Chennai, Steria, a France-based multinational IT services provider, invests heavily in finding football geniuses. After successfully making the Mumbai Marathon an annual movement with momentum of its own, Standard Chartered Bank is now looking to empower women in villages through netball. Each corporation is on its personal quest that may lead to stray victories, but the fact remains India as a nation is ill geared for the quantum leap into a winning streak. That, remains in the hands of the government, aver sportspersons.

As Bhutia puts it, “Of course we are proud of Bindra and we have a right to take pride in the fact that he represented the nation, even if the merit of it was his own personal effort. Hopefully, his win will bring hope to the many talented kids around. What’s important is the whole package – the positivity about the sport, a good clean healthy environment. That’s what makes winners.”