Jai Ho

After lots of uncertainties, fears and doubts, finally the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi is all set to take off today with a record-breaking number of participants. Things got changed drastically within one week in an unbelievable way. Just two weeks before, I really started doubting whether CWG will really happen or not. The Games village was not ready, many top athletes were withdrawing from the even due to security reasons or so, there were lots of allegations against the organizing committee of corruptions etc etc. But now there is nothing like this. All the participating countries are happy with the arrangements, Games villages seems to be ready as well and most importantly the security in the Delhi seems to be amazing with 1 lakh (0.1 million) security personnel on the streets of Delhi. Anyway, it surprises me whether things can change in a city like Delhi at such a rapid way or may be the media was exaggerating the things too much for their own benefit. I think that's surely the case. Before two weeks I have not seen any good sayings by the media about the games. All they published was about where ceiling collapsed, where bridge collapsed, how much money has been misused, which country is not participating etc etc. But as soon as the media got a much bigger issue to talk about, I mean the Ram Janmabhoomi issue, they have probably stopped attacking the CWG. Although I initially thought the Ram Janmabhoomi verdict came at a wrong time (thinking that it might produce some unrest in the country which can indirectly affect the games also), now it seems that it had one good side. The shifting media attention from CWG to the verdict perhaps made a better image of the games in the country. Now everybody seems to be supporting the even from the core of their hearts. Things were not as bad as media showed us probably, there were couple of good things also about the games preparations which were overlooked. Otherwise things can't change in such a way. Anyway, leaving aside the media exaggeration, the organizing committee as well as the government should also justify the amount of money being spent (where and how much). We can't let a huge amount of money to go into the pockets of some corrupted leaders which could have been used for the millions of starving poor people in the country.

I wish a grand success of this grand event and hope everything goes alright till the end of this mega event. Jai ho!