India’s Jubilation over the London 2012 Olympics

Usually, in the Indian annual felicitation ceremony for sports, only one person is awarded the National Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award by the President, but this year the condition has been relaxed as per the original scheme of the award since both the awardees- Yogeshwar Dutt (wrestling) and Vijay Kumar (pistol shooting) won Olympic medals.

As for the Arjuna Awards-- not more than 15 awards are given in any calendar year but this time around, 25 people were awarded exception as a result of the Olympics. 

India’s triumphant bag of 6 medals in the London 2012 Olympics has been, in many ways, a proud moment for the country. Although some people still choose to go on about how India might have done better in its performance, most citizens are overjoyed and are more than eager to extend their praise for the winners.

This fact has been made obvious by the recent felicitation of the medal winners and participants of the Olympics by the Haryana government, along with the sheer numbers of awardees in the months following the event.

The list of awardees for the Arjuna Awards consisted of:  Deepika Kumari (archery), Laishram Bombayla Devi (archery), Sudha Singh (athletics), Kavita Ramdas Raut (athletics), Ashwani Ponnappa (badminton), Parupalli Kashyap (badminton), Aditya S Mehta (billiards and Snooker), Vikas Krishan (boxing), Yuvraj Singh (cricket), Sardar Singh (hockey),  Yashpal Solanki (judo), Anup Kumar (kabaddi), Samir Suhag (polo), Annu Raj Singh (shooting), Omkar Singh (shooting), Joydeep Karmakar (shooting), Deepika Pallikal (squash), Sandeep Sejwal (swimming), Ng. Sonia Chanu (weight-lifting), Narsingh Yadav (wrestling), Rajinder Kumar (wrestling), Geeta Phogat (wrestling), M. Bimoljit Singh (wushu), Deepa Mallick (athletics, Paralympics), and  Ramkaran Singh(athletics, Paralympics).

Mary Kom’s Rise to Glory, and win of Indian hearts

Before the London Olympics, (when ‘Mary Kom’ practically became a household name and won million of hearts), she was a five-time World Boxing Champion who never left a fight without clutching a gold medal in hand.

But what made her win so many of her countrymen’s hearts even when she won bronze instead of gold at the London was a realization that dawned upon them:  here was an ordinary woman, from not so ordinary a place in India—one that evoked the image of controversy, and in spite of it all, even when she hailed from a poor family, she excelled at something that was viewed as something purely meant for men;  “...When I tried boxing (as a child), the boys were laughing because it was only ‘men’ boxing, you know? Boxing was a boy’s game. Not a woman’s game. So I tell youngsters- ‘Challenge me.’ ‘Learn from me’. If Mary Kom can do it, why can't they do it?"

Even her being a wife, and the mother of two boys never stopped her, and she went on to box her way to the Olympics."I think I was unlucky (in London)," said Mary. "I was playing in the 51 kg category. My opponents were heavier and taller than me. I had to face a tough Polish opponent (Karolina Michalczuk) in the quareter-finals. She is a strong girl, almost made of iron.

All this, and more had not only made MC Mary Kom someone that the youth of today look up to, but also every Indian woman’s idol. So much so that recently the Government of Manipur named a road in the state after her and Bollywood has set sights on a biopic about the boxer!

“Here's a person so splendid, so inspiring, so wonderful,” said Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who directed the film ‘Devdas’ in 2002. “Her story needs to be told to the world. It's a wonderful story of a fighter in life.”  Bhansali is working on the biopic with Omung Kumar, who incidentally worked with Bhansali before as the art director for 'Black' and 'Saawariya’.

The mother of twin boys famous for her go-getter attitude feels that Bhansali's film (which is scheduled for release sometime next year) will help fix relations between the northeast and the rest of the country. “Our people look different but they are Indians. We have the same passions when the country is involved,” she says. Recently, the clash between Bodo tribes and Muslims in the north-eastern state of Assam caused an exodus of north-eastern people from the cities of Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.

But will the film be screened in the boxer’s own state where Manipur’s separist rebels have imposed a ban on all Bollywood films? 

Only time will tell. As for Mary Kom, she hopes “nobody will object to a film if it centers on my life story, my struggles to become a boxer.”

ONGC - Fuels India's hopes

ONGC, the leading Oil & Natural Gas company of the nation has lend its support to the Indian Olympics contingent. As a principal sponsor of the Indian team, ONGC has declared lucartive awards to medalist, irrespective of whether they are ONGC employees or not.

The company came forward to give a warm send off to Indian Olympic hopefuls, namely, Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee, Tarundeep Rai, Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro as well as two badminton players in Ashwini Ponapaa and V Diju. We at IOS thank ONGC for fueling India's hope through this warm felicitation!