Okay - it has to be THE gold medal!

Am absolutely thrilled. You would think I won the darn medal. No, it was Abhinav Bindra who won my medal in the Olympics....and though I might have done a better job of showing my emotions (!), he deserves it more! :-D

It was exhilarating....like a colleague (a sports coordinator and former athlete himself) said," I can die now! I never thought I would see this in my lifetime!" Can't put it better. It was such an amazing experience to see the Indian flag rise and the anthem play. Okay, most of the time the darn commentators spoke through the anthem, but we know it by now. So many people shed tears that day - were it not for the salt content, the water table would have benefited.

I hope with the Mittals getting into sports, others will make as big of a splash and begin identifying athletes at a younger age. That way, the talented kids with middle to lower middle class backgrounds would still be able to continue on, if they show talent and the intent to work hard for the sport. Our kids at Dream A Dream (and who am I kidding - my own brats!) might have a fair chance of making it too!

In the meantime, my feet are up, remote stuck on the Olympics (yep, even though it is only DD showing it.....desperate times need desperate measures!) and I am learning more about sports than I ever thought I would. Even when the Indian does not make it, I am glad to see the Indian flag appearing in more heats than ever. Rehan Jehangir Poncha was a hero in our household, with two kids and I waving a plastic flag, shouting "Poncha, PONCHA!" to egg him on. Yes, before you say anything, am sure he heard....and maybe was slower than he should have been. He was second in the heats but ended up not making it because of the time he took - we don't care. The event was won by the Phelps bulldozer, so we didn't have a chance in the first place. That someone even made it to the pool and went to the Olympic heats (a Bangalore boy at that!) was enough for this time around.

Akhil Kumar in boxing (by the way, what is the point of the sport? We have enough of that happening in J&K - if only we could do a quick location switch for medal number 2!), Saina Nehwal in badminton, the Indian-kind-of-over-the-hill-but-trying-hard duo of Lee and Hesh.....we are watching you and cheering hard. Yes, please win that medal before my neighbour complains and I am evicted from my home! :-D

Way to go, Abhinav......you belong to a great nation and we are proud of you in return! :-D

Yayyyyyy........fade into incoherence!