5 reasons why India should host the Olympics

the-olympic-rings-3169743_1280Yet another Olympics comes to an end and one realizes that the largest democracy in the world is yet to host one. India got Independence in 1947 and even in 2016 doesn’t look like hosting an Olympics any time soon.

India is one of the oldest existing countries in the world, and was around in some form when the Ancient Olympics began in the Before Common Era (BCE). We are number two in population and the seventh largest by size. Most of the major countries have hosted the Olympics once at least.

But there are many reasons why India should host the Olympics…

1. Imagine a New Delhi 3.0: India got Independence in 1947 and in 1951 we hosted the first Asian Games. We stumbled and delayed the games by a year, but it really helped a new capital city get a foothold in connecting with other countries.

But the real upgrade happened in the 1982 Asiads. New roads were built, an Asiad village came up and Maharashtra used the Olympic coaches for a unique “Asiad bus service”.  The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium that was constructed then is a hit well into 2016.

The Siri Fort area used to be a swampy ground and was transformed as the capital got a taste of flyovers thanks to the infrastructure upgrade that took place for the games. There was even an increase in the number of phones in the city.

Doordarshan was relaunched with a record number of TV sets being bought all over India to watch the games. Entertainment serials mushroomed a few years later and that eventually led to the satellite TV revolution.

The second New Delhi upgrade took place during the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Here also we had new roads, flyovers, power augmentation, another Games Village, Delhi Metro work speedup and an upgrade of Indira Gandhi International Airport.

One can only imagine what a third upgrade will do to New Delhi if and when it hosts the Olympics.

2. The Olympics is big business and we are ready to capitalize: It’s not just the infrastructure of New Delhi that will get a boost. The Rio Olympics took place in 4 other Brazilian cities and all of them got business too.

Olympics are multi-billion dollar affairs. There are mega sponsorships related to various sports and games. The tourism industry also gets a fillip. Millions of people visit a country for an Olympics and they will also visit other cities and give a boost to the tourism and hospitality industry.

India is developing at a fast pace and is poised to take economic and business advantage from mega events like the Olympics. It is also a big brand building exercise for any country.

3. The home advantage for our sportspersons: Expect a huge boost in the medals tally if India hosts the Olympics. That’s always the case with any home country. Brazil came out with its best ever performance of 7 golds and 19 total medals at Rio.

But the best example is South Korea. From 1948 to the 1976 Olympics it got a total of only one Gold medal. They became serious about hosting the Olympics after that and won 6 in 1984. When they finally hosted it in 1988, they doubled that tally and have maintained or neared that in most Olympics since then.

India is really short of Olympic medals and hosting them will be a golden chance to get a record tally for India and upping the game for subsequent Olympics.

4. A big step in becoming a sporting nation: It is desirable to become a big sporting nation. It is very important for school and college students to participate in sports for character building and physical fitness. You can’t just focus on academics. You can attract the youth for all games only if we are doing well in all the games.

The business of sports is also big and it forms a big part of both the sponsorship and entertainment industries. There is too much focus on cricket in India. It is time we broadened the horizon. The Olympics cover a huge number of sporting events and it will give a fillip to all of them.

Bagging the Olympics may also lead us to host other international tournaments like the FIFA World Cup. Who knows? For example the Rio badminton final featuring PV Sindhu may have been the most watched Indian badminton match of all time!

5. We can introduce sports like cricket and kabaddi: There was no way Tests could be introduced into the Olympics and even ODIs would have been difficult. T20s are a different case altogether.

If India hosts the Olympics then we could include T20s too and maybe even something like kabaddi and kho kho. At worst, all these can be introduced as exhibition games.

Mission 2028

Tokyo will host the 2020 Olympics (again!) and India has already ruled itself out of the bidding process for the 2024 games. It is high time we launched a Mission 2028. Olympics are usually really long-term projects.

We should start campaigning for the 2028 Olympics immediately and hope to bag them in 2021 when the vote takes place. That will give us seven years to transform the sporting infrastructure of the country.

It is amazing that a country of one billion plus has such little sporting achievements and hosting an Olympics will go a long way in rectifying that.

#RioOlympics2016 musings…

rio-1585738_640Badminton champion gets Rs 10+ crore for getting our only Olympics woman silver in 100+ years.
Daughter of badminton champion gets Rs 10+ crore for every film, hit or flop.

‪#‎Irony‬
Shobhaa De trolled the India Olympics contingent really gracelessly.
Instead those who outed her are being called trolls.

#Ind Post-1947.
6 #Olympics Gold medals.
3 cricket World Cups.
1 hockey World Cup.
All under Congress Prime Ministers. 100%.
#Replug

Most politically incorrect song from Bobby during the #Olympics
Na chahoon Sona Chandi…
Ye mere kis kaam ke…
Ye to hain bas naam ke!

I think they should award a fourth place “Pewter Medal” in the Olympics for the benefit of countries like India.
‪#‎Rio2016‬

Other countries…
You don’t win a silver, you lose a gold.
India…
You don’t lose a bronze, you win a fourth place.
‪‪#‎Reality‬

‪#‎BetiBachaoBetiPadhao‬
should be officially changed to
‪#‎BetiPadhaoBetiKhilao‬

Shobhaa De should make a few more nonsensical statements.
A couple more Indian women will end up winning ‪#‎Olympics‬ medals.

These versions by Sunil Rajguru

Kejri and his parallel universe…

Other people take a break when they work too much.
Kejri takes a break when he Tweets/alleges too much.
‪#‎Vipassana‬

Modi is so frustrated that he can have me killed.
Translation—I am so supremely frustrated and desperate that I just thought that up!
‪#‎Kejri‬

In Hollywood’s Wag the Dog, they create a fake war.
In Bollywood-style India, Kejri has made a complete fake universe around himself.

Modi may kill me: Kejri.
Kejri may kill me: Asim.
‪#‎AAPception‬ (AAP + Inception + Deception)

After blasting AAP, Sidhu can still join with his head held high because he is already part of two industries: Entertainment and politics.

If an AAP leader sets off a nuclear bomb in Delhi and is arrested, Kejri will Tweet…
Modi just arrested AAP man.
He’s not letting us work.

Not just ‪#‎Sidhu‬.
‪#‎Churchill‬ was a party hopper.
So is ‪#‎Trump‬.
And about half of India’s Prime Ministers too.

Why blame ‪#‎Sidhu‬?
About half of India’s Prime Ministers were party hoppers.
‪#‎Morarji‬ ‪#‎Charan‬ ‪#‎VPSingh‬ ‪#‎ChandraShekhar‬ ‪#‎Gujral‬ ‪#‎Gowda‬

These versions by Sunil Rajguru

US Presidential election musings…

Advisor 1: If Hillary becomes Prez, First Lady will become what?
Advisor 2: Ask Bill.
Advisor 1: Sir, First Lady?
Bill: LOL! First Lady? I am on my 2000th Lady!

Democrat: If our system was perfect, then Trump would never have been nominated.
Republican: If our system was perfect, then Hillary would be in jail by now.

For media, liberals, intellectuals, Leftists, seculars and DNC, Hillary is the messiah and Trump is an anti-Christ.

If you are perplexed at how Modi won and Trump is winning, it means you read/watch too much of mainstream media.
Social media trends are rarely wrong.

For those still thinking that Trump is “fringe” and “pariah”, know that 14 million people have already voted for him!
‪#‎RepublicanPrimaries‬

Bill’s charisma pushed her to the Senate.
Barack made her Secretary of State (out of guilt?).
DNC made her a Presidential candidate.
Self-made?

Democ(linton)rats.

In a fair election, Sanders may have beaten Hillary.
By settling with a DNC apology and endorsing Hillary—he’s betraying his own supporters.

These versions by Sunil Rajguru

The never ending Indian political musings…

1000 crimes in WB—Yawn!!!
1000 crimes in Bihar—I love Lalu!!!
1000 crimes in UP—Ignore till Dadri.
1 crime in Modi’s BJP-ruled State—This is Sparta!!!

Student: Bharat tere tukde!
Liberal: Wah wah! Maja aa gaya!
Citizen: Bharat Mata ki Jai!
Liberal: Sanghi! Bigot!
Arnab: India first!
Liberal: Pathetic journalism!

#‎SleepingBeautyRahul‬
Ye bechaara kaam ka maara, ise chaahiye chhutkaara.
Congress: Par hum denge ise party President ka tiara.

Advisor: Apologize or we will have a lengthy court case.
Pappu: Suits me. I have nothing to do. Ye sab accha time pass hai!
‪#‎RSSCase‬

In 2009 the BJP was done and dusted.
Social Media biggest factor in its revival.
If BJP cracks down on Social Media, backlash will be colossal.

Log poochte hain ki Modi sahab videsh main itna khush kyun rahate hai.
Arre bhai Bharat main to kucch log unko 24X7 gaali dete hai, to kaise khush rahe?

These versions by Sunil Rajguru

July 2016 Status Updates

All-in-one Indian cities.
Venice during rains.
Celebrating Earth Hour during power cuts.
Ghost towns in the night.
War zones during the day.

(July 29)

Q: So what are your priorities after the coup?
Erdogan: Infrastructure.
Q: ?
Erdogan: Jails. I need many more jails. I don’t know where to put all these people!

(July 28)

#‎BangaloreStudents‬
April-May: Summer Vacations.
October: Dussehra Vacations.
December: Christmas Vacations.
July: Transport Bandh Vacations.

(July 27)

Being Human is totally incorrect.
On screen he’s Superhuman.
Off screen he’s Inhuman.
‪#‎Bhai‬

(July 25)

Christopher Nolan can still make Inception 2 and claim that Inception 1 was all a dream and the sequel is the real world movie.

Listen to a talk or interview and count to the number of times a person says “You know!”
It’s an epidemic.

(July 20)

#‎TerrorAxe‬
‪#‎TerrorTruck‬
‪#‎TerrorCar‬
‪#‎TerrorPlane‬
‪#‎TerrorCycle‬
‪#‎TerrorBelt‬
‪#‎TerrorShoe‬
‪#‎TerrorSuitcase‬
‪#‎TerrorUnderwear‬
‪#‎TerrorChildren‬

(July 19)

2004: Masti.
2013: Grand Masti.
2016: Great Grand Masti.
2018: Super Great Grand Masti?

Cook can break Sachin’s Test records.
Kohli/Amla can break Sachin’s ODI records.
Nobody can breaks Hobbs’ record of 61,760 First Class runs.

(July 16)

Why the 3 Khans never age…
Salman
1989 bachelor—Maine Par Kiya
2016 bachelor—Sultan
Aamir
1984 student—Holi
2009 student—3 Idiots
SRK
1996 Major—Army
2012 Major—Jab Tak Hain Jaan

(July 12)

The irony…
A living Saddam leads to tens of thousands of deaths.
A dead Saddam leads to hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Breaking the eardrums.
Breaking all logic.
Breaking the country.
Breaking the peace.
Breaking each other’s necks.
Anything but breaking news.

(July 11)

What if a lab finds more fat content in certain Indian foods than burgers and pizzas?
‪#‎KeralaFatTax‬

(July 9)

These versions by Sunil Rajguru