Bye Olympics. See you in 2016! Doordarshan's Shoddy Coverage

I was amazed to see Anupam Gulati anchoring Doordharshan's coverage of the Olympics. The man has grown old and I wouldn't have recognised him if it wasn't for his accent. He looked like a mummified form of himself from his old days at the news channel. Is he on an extension or something? And supporting him were other anchors who imitated his style to the 'T' stiff upper lip and all. And then there was the peripatetic and very cliched Charu Sharma in London. Charu and Anupam hogged all the limelight between them and the other correspondents must have been told, "Mind your business, attend the functions and enjoy the shopping." Okay, nearly the truth of what must have transpired. Because apart from an overly apologetic gentleman, I saw no other correspondents with Charu taking over the screen completely. The coverage was so dull that I had to stick to Star Sports and BBC for some lively commentary. 

Now compare it with the BBC coverage. All their reporters were on the venue and had something to say and were obviously excited about it. They also had exclusives from the athletes, their thoughts and their reactions. How did they do it and what happened to the Indian reporters? We hardly could hear anything from the mouths of Mary Kom, Sushil Kumar, Vijender, etc. A complete flop show it turned out to be. Only a job done and nothing special about it.

A few thoughts on the organisation of the Olympics. Note how everything went so smoothly, thanks to British efficiency. They have a knack of doing things right. The opening ceremony, the well organised events, the discipline, all were a mark of a better organised people. Kudos to the organising team led but Sebastian Coe. And David Beckam was seen being a good games ambassador, posing with the soldiers who did security duty. And we screwed royally on a just a Commonwealth Games! Imagines toilet rolls for Rs 400 a piece. As Anthonybhai would say, "Those guys must be nuts, men."

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