17 Record Breaking Days

As curtains were drawn with burst of fireworks to the 2012 London 

Olympics games, statisticians are still busy in comparing the records made by these meticulous athletes. This Olympics progeny witnessed one of the best league of athletes with names of Usain "Thunder" Bolt, Michael Phelps, Felix Allyson. Some of these best, returned dejected with their performances. Roger Federer in wait for his first individual Olympic triumph, will have to wait for another four years.

All eyes were on the most awaited event of Olympics viz 100 m Men final and u can not pick one this time. Once again worlds fastest man rose to the challenge and showed us why he is called the "Super Human Machine". He Defended his gold medal in 100 m at the Olympic arena, feat only achieved by the great Carl Lewis. Not satisfied with only this, he took the golden emblem in 200m and 4x100m relay and left an eternal mark on the athletics history pages.

With 14 medals already to his name Michael Phelps was going for glory in this Olympics. His slow start did not bother him as he ended with 22 medals and all the editors were left searching for a synonym to describe his achievement. Many call him the greatest athlete of the millennium and with number of records to his name, no one can deny this title to him.

This Olympics may not have ended well for some of the high ranking players and top on that list will be tennis perfectionist Roger Federer and 110m hurdler Liu Xiang. While Federer was looking for his first individual gold and was favorite to win in the finals, it was home favorite Andy Murray breaking millions of Federer fans heart in the final. On the other side, first Chinese gold medalist in men's track and field and World Champion Liu Xiang once again left the field despondently. After failing in Beijing, he once again fell in heat and has to return home, all torn up.
 

 

 

By Indian perspective, count of medals doubled this time than last event, with two silver and four bronze medals. Gagan Narang was the first to win a medal for India in this event when his counterpart and previous Olympics gold medalist, Abhinav Bindra failed to qualify for finals. Sushil kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt lifted our head in the World Wrestling with a silver and a bronze to their name. Vijay kumar, the name I don't think many had heard before, made country proud by winning second all time silver for India in shooting. Saina Nehwal made every Indian woman proud by winning a well deserved Bronze in Badminton.

One name which has to be mentioned with utmost respect, who gave her best effort to include Woman Boxing first time in Olympics is Mary Kom. Five time World Boxing Champion, 29 year old and mother of twin sons won a bronze medal and earned a great respect in international community for her efforts. We hope next time this medal tally will increase with expectations on Indian Boxing, as our male Boxers failed to made a single podium finish this time.

Indian Hockey was not mere a disappointment but also shame for a national game after not winning a single game. This catastrophe can not be blamed on a single person as this story will remain alive for a few days in the Indian streets. After this, we all will forget and again after four years will be discussing, "Why we are not able to win more medals?". Until then, the focus will be back on the sport being played by only eight and a half nations and question will be "Can Dhoni give India another T20 World cup?" or "Who has been recently spotted with Yuvraj Singh?".

       GROWTH PARALYSIS

                          Alarm bells started ringing but sound was not from the clocks, instead it was the headlines of all the news channels that caught my ears early in the morning. GDP data plunged to nine year low and Dollar was hovering at an all-time high of 56.52. Indian economy being called as 'gasping elephant' is clearly in a downward trend after fourth quarter data was released by Central Statistics Office.

                         Despondency in the market is such that no big investment is making news, although coal scam of 1.8 lakh crore is much more in talking. Market experts are foreboding 1991 crisis in the current scenario and the protagonist in that play, currently PM, is again at the center of media attention. This time people are expecting stronger reforms and that too, before any other scam bubble-out in the media. Manmohan Singh's stern statement of 'quitting public life' if found guilty doesn't guarantee any future policies in the bag.

                         Pressure on the government is clearly visible as it plans austerity drive by throttling non plan expenditure to less than 10%. It banned creation of new posts and holding meeting in five-star hotels besides curbing foreign tours. Only rosy picture which can be drawn here is that world market is also shriveling due to Euro-zone crisis besides international commodity prices, which are flat except crude oil.

                         Hour of need is to first knock out mawkish sentiments from the market by policy changes and reinvigorating all the stalled projects and ventures. FIIs which took out major chunk from the Indian market in last two quarters will automatically bring back money to the subcontinent once things look bright. With UPA completing three years and many not expecting another term for them, this is the time to act swiftly. Who knows, we get another surprise like that of 2004 general elections.

From LOKPAL TO JOKEPAL

Amid opposition and such a long time, UPA Government tabled the much awaited Lokpal bill in Parliament. As such there were no high expectations from our Government but people were awaiting to see a strong Lokpal bill. UPA was under tremendous pressure for last one year with scams, Lokpal bill, inflation, elections hovering around the '7 Race Course Road'. Timing of Anna Hazare’s fast in Mumbai could not have been better, but unfortunately Anna’s fast was much shorter than the non-seasonal rain in Mumbai.

All eyes were glued on the idiot box since morning of 27^th Dec, waiting for some healthy discussion in the house.  Contrary to that it touched such a low level that it could have beaten the benchmark set by cash for vote in parliament during Nuclear Bill. Lalu Yadav’s mocking comparison of Draupadi’s five husband with CBI’s nine shows seriousness of our MP’s against corruption. Meira Kumar with her typical “Shaant ho jaiye, Baith Jaiye” was the only soft voice being heard in the House.

  After passing the bill in Lok Sabha with such an uncertainty, UPA was facing an uphill task of going through Rajya Sabha. Congress with only 92 seats in Rajya Sabha does not enjoy the same royalty of Lok Sabha. Reaching 122 mark was made more difficult after its allies came in strong opposition including TMC. On the other side of the river, BJP was rowing against their opponents without any clear views, why they are opposing the bill? They were against the bill and the reason for same was that there should be a strong bill. Did they want Standing Committee to join gym classes to make a strong Lokpal?

After such a chaotic situation, we came back where we started the race. After such an intense start, this could have been the biggest National Movement since Independence even surpassing the emergency period. But we lost our lead and we have no one to blame. May be this was the strategy of the Government or the prudence of MP’s that we are still searching reasons behind the failure of the Lokpal bill.