Olympic Gold Medallist Blogs, Yes, He Does!

Guess what? Don’t ask: guess what, what? Abhinav Bindra, India’s first individual Gold Medal winner in the Olympics is a blogger, and, what kicks me even more, he blogs on blogspot.

Here’s his shoot-from-the-lips post about how the gormint babus gave him “Z” plus security (See, how they rush to ingratiate you after you have proved your merit?), when he returned to India.

Now, friend Anthonybhai from Marol village has a long lament shooting his flabby and, often, uncontrollable lips. He is a shooter himself, but his gun is his fingers and his bullets are his marbles. He is a good marksman, and has quite a good collection of marbles which he hoards in his house. Some of what he says goes like this: “That begger Abhinav, men, what, kya re, he done us proud, no? So much we all wanting gold, gold, gold, no, and not getting only, no? What he shoots, men, solid only. Yeah, I know him from his look only, one day he is going to win gold.”

Says this article in New Strait Times:

“His industrialist father has afforded him a shooting range in the backyard of his sprawling house, complete with a computerised target transportation system. He has seven rifles, top-of-the-line ammunition and other shooting gear on which he spends Rs10 million annually. How many Indians can afford this?”

Abhinav (I don't know if the above should prejudice me, I mean well for him), can expect a windfall of sponsors – soaps, credit cards, suitings, aerated drinks, even ghutkas and pan masalas – to queue up with bundles of cash outside his home. The same article also gives this grim reminder:

“Also add a tragic reminder that K.D. Jadhav, the first Indian to win a[n] [Olympic] bronze in 1952, died in penury. It speaks of a low priority [that India gives] to sports and sportsmen.”

Obviously, there weren't any sponsorships back then. You have done us proud, Abhinav, now let yourself be the poster boy for thousands of youths across India who would like to follow in your footsteps.