Opinion The ‘beautiful’ Games

“Excellent!”

Not so her pronunciation. She called Christian,Christine — so when a man surfaced,we mistook him/her for Begum Nawazish Ali from the Bigg Boss household. The Indian commentary team was having such a lovely time,they forgot to give us any information about the swimmers,their records or the contest. So they were replaced by international commentators who gave us all the statistics but no adjectives. Watching the swimming was a lose-lose situation: the foreign accent was difficult to comprehend,the Indian commentary was difficult to listen to. May as well have had no commentary at all — the telecast was beautiful without it.

Nowhere near as beautiful as the opening ceremony,though. That was spectacular — why,the foreign media said so. The Aerostat lifted the Games out of the debris of the last few months and we were off to flying start. Before that moment,everyone was looking down in the dumps — in the VIP stands,in the stadium,at DD’s studio. Anchors Charu Sharma and Mayanti were so stiff they could have been cardboard cut-outs dressed in black,so we were not prepared for the colourful extravaganza that followed. If they had sported T-shirts with CWG logos,they would have looked the part rather than resembling TV news anchors.

Speaking of TV anchors,on Tuesday they discussed and dissected the opening ceremony the way they do Ayodhya,Kashmir or the Maoists. DD News,Headlines Today,Times Now and CNN-IBN had lengthy evening discussions: “Should we forget about corruption because of the opening?”,“India wows the world,” but where was Bollywood (in Mumbai?). Here’s what; the news may be as good as it gets but TV will still find bad things to say. Cultural impresario Rajeev Sethi (CNN-IBN) ranted more than he raved about the ceremony. You wondered whether he had watched the same event. We watched Incredible India,he saw Incompetent India.

He obviously hadn’t watched it on DD-HD (high definition). That was “a startling performance” as the Times Now reporter described Sania Mirza’s game in her first doubles match with Leander Paes. The ceremony was a Hindi blockbuster film — four hours and paisa vasool — on account of the many commercial breaks to accommodate PSU ads we have never seen before,and probably will never see hereafter: chuk-chuk Indian Railways,Central Bank of India,Air India,Reserve Bank of India,SAIL.

There were other reasons to “enjoy”. This was “traditional arts in a modern look”,according to Bharat Bala whose beautiful mind had conceived the spectacle. Maybe a little more of new India could have shown up,but Keshava & Co left us with a beautiful feeling about our country,especially when the Indian contingent walked in. The parade of athletes was long. However,be positive: here was a chance to learn the names of unheard places for the next time you play “Atlas” or plan a holiday to an unknown spot: Niue,Tuvalu,Vanuatu,Anguilla,here we come. The commentators were clueless about them,lost instead in admiration for the lovely sarees worn by the women leading in the teams.

When the train chugged in,we thought Republic Day had arrived four months early. Then A.R. Rehman sang “Jiyo,utho badho,jeeto.” Jai Ho.

shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com