jigrrr...

Hey there. I happen to have a privelege pass and ring side seat to watch the events of CYG. Well no, not the sporting events but the more interesting backround rumblings that have resulted in the IOC, MCB, XYZ (and other faceless organisations relying on acronyms to assert their power) giving man birth to the phenomenon we call CYG. The child they gave birth to turned out to be malnourished, underweight and retarded. But everyone's relieved that atleast it managed to burst through and stare into the midwife's eyes(unless it's blind too). In the ensuing relief, all the 'minor' fallacies of the baby have been overlooked. And I am a fully paid member of the faction that professes relief and showers praise on the acronyms that made it possible(somewhat). You see for a city like Pune to get off it's haunches and launch into rapid action is something stupendous. Don't go cribbing about the fact that they did nothing for a year and a half! They mobilised their generally lethargic arses into severe action and managed a job in two months. The roads, for instance, were nothing short of a miracle. They hastily smashed bordering structures( read: buildings, shops etc) and managed to widen roads, lay the tarmac, put in the dividers and throw in a few flowerpots and flags for the beatufication bit. All this in two months. Never mind what the road users went through for those two months. Suddenly the vehicle owners found their suspension bits acting up and their vehicles aging faster than their fat arsed wives. Two wheeler riders found they needed a new spine and pedestrians...well they just stopped travelling without gas masks. But that is a small price to pay for the elysian roads which now await those same users. Until the next monsoon atleast. And the poor things try not to take credit for it...modesty forbids such travesty. Just a couple of hundred posters with their mugshots on it posted at strategic points which just happen to constantly remind you of who's trying to hog the limelight. Besides, it's kinda nice to have their ugly mugs splattered across your field of vision every hundred meters or so. It makes you feel good about your own profile. Thoughtful touch that. How can you criticise such noble intentions? Also, the stadium ticket fiasco. Everywhere you go, tickets are sold out. That would have been ok, had the stadii not been as empty as a sixtyfive year old whore's client list. Camera pan shots showed the different coloured seats, which would be fine, again, but the problem happened to be that events were on and the only people s\cheering were the contestants themselves. This infuriated Kalmadi(president of an acronym) and he started letting people in gratis. School kids were forcefully brought in to add to the body count. Letting people in free is fine, but this was exasperating for people who had paid hundred, five hundred and even five grand to watch the events. Poor chumps. They over estimated the enthusaism of our amazingly responsive public. Unfortunately, this was no Bollywood dance show and the masses of people expected to flood the arenas, never showed. Instead locals and school kids tried to replicate the vociferousness of a crowd of thousand...and failed miserably. Tennis refs had a hard time cos the local saps didn't think it necessary to let the opponent serve by shutting up. Constant shouts of a Wimbledonesque "Quiet please" were clearly lost on a crowd bent on some sort of gladiatorial display. They probably wanted the opponents to sock each other with the rackets. Oh and they were all cheering for their one and only hero Shivaji Maharaj, though i can't figure out which event he was taking part in.
People cried about bad organising and shoddy volunteering work and other uncomplimentary things. But living here has taught me one thing-we should be thankful that despite all the best efforts of all the officails involved to scupper up the event, it still took off and has been going quite soundly. An unwritten law states that the number of officials involved is directly proportional to the probability of event failure. And to budget overruns. We have been taught amd trained to live in a state of constant compromise. Compromise that tries to compensate for the absloute inadequacy of our administrative bodies. Their slipshod, last minute job has been largely ignored because of the sheer relief of the people for having got to witness the event.
There are talks of Delhi wanting to host a formula 1 grandprix in three years time. It can be done. Eliminate all bureacratic interludes and hand the job over to professionals. Not to people who can't even figure out where their own backsides are and who're out there only for a rapid windfall. Bastards all...