Pakistan Team's loss to China in the Semi-Final reminded me of a long play on PTV that I saw as a very young child, I wish I could recall the name but I dont. It was about Pak-China ties and the building of the Silk Route in which Pakistan benefitted greatly from the expertise of Chinese Engineers juxtaposed with a Chinese man struggling to learn Hockey from his Pakistani counterparts. As a young child I remember it affecting me deeply and being the Milli-Naghma singing, Taleem-o-Tarbiat and Ishtiaq Ahmed reading patriot that I was Pak-Cheen dostee waang soay stuff was really ingrained in me. Fast forward to my two months in Peking University, China, as a 14 year old with the 1992 Barcelona Olympics going on at that time and a bay-zubaan friendship with a Chinese boy and I recall China were still nowhere in the Hockey picture but today they are playing for an Asian Games Gold Medal. Really goes to show how much China wants to dominate the world stage in every possible direction.
I recall how every single day my Chinese friend would come up to me and recount China's Gold medal tally. He didnt know how to say 'Gold medal' in English, so all he would say was China #1s--34, #2s--46 and #3s--52 a count that would grow every single day sending him into peels of teasing laughter, informing me with regularity 'Pakistan' and then showing me his two twiddling thumbs. I would try to salvage my country's injured pride by firmly holding an imaginary hockey in the air, doing some quick footed dribbling moves and defiantly declaring 'Pakistan #1'(and desperately trying to convey a sense of, 'you just wait and see'). Well, they might not have won Gold but just like these Asian Games managed to bag the Bronze.
An interesting bit of possibility to look out for is China's determied foray into the world of cricket. Be afraid. Be very very afraid.
Not only is China's leaps and bounds progress in Hockey notable since those Olympics or the days of that PTV long play but India also seems to have come a long way from being even w
orse off than Pakistan at Barcelona, suffering the ignonimity of not winning a medal at all. Their Asian Games standing is quite dazzling and yesterday's mixed double match that saw Sania Mirza and Leander Paes winning gold for them resonated in several different ways. India's coming into its own as a global economic player which invariably spills over in Sports performances, the electric atmosphere in the stadium as Paes hugged Mirza in their moment of victory and a more iconic image for India's secular persona than any falsely created one by the Indian media, Muslim Sania and Christian Paes singing 'Jann gann mann adhinaayak jayaa hay, Bhaarat bhaagya vidhaata' (thanks sidhusaheb) as the Indian flag slowly perched itself above any other in the stadium.
1 comments:
Good thing the Pakistan hockey team has already qualified for the Olympics...but its too bad that both the Indian and Pakistani teams have been left far behind by other teams...Hope they will regain their past glory on the hockey field very soon!
While I was reading all that you've written about hockey, I was thinking about a news report I saw recently about the beginning that the Chinese have made in cricket. You pre-empted me on that! I agree with you that all cricketing nations should take serious note of this development.
It was good to see the Paes-Mirza combine win in mixed doubles, but I was following the progress of the Paes-Bhupathi team in the men's mixed doubles and it was quite a relief when they didn't let all the acrimony between them off the field come in the way of a gold-winning performance. I suppose you would recall that they have been world-beaters at one point of time and, in better times, won three grand-slam titles in a single year. Then they had a fall-out on the personal front and now do not play as a team, except for the country.
Meanwhile,...er...ahem...the anthem actually goes like "Jann gann mann adhinaayak jayaa hay, Bhaarat bhaagya vidhaata..."
:)
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