(S.Ravi Seshu)
Winning is not everything, participation matters.
We, as kids, must have come across this inspiring quote but the most famous Indian columnist and novelist, who is known as ‘Jackie Collins of India’ for her depiction of socialites and sex in her works, Shobhaa De, strongly feels that mere participation is not enough.
Venting out her frustration over India’s poor performance in the first four days of Rio Olympics, Shobhaa put the following in her twitter handle:
Goal of Team India at the Olympics: Rio jao. Selfies lo. Khaali haat wapas aao. What a waste of money and opportunity.
— Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) August 8, 2016
Goal of Team India at the Olympics: Rio jao. Selfies lo. Khaali haat wapas aao. What a waste of money and opportunity.
This tweet got 465 likes and 395 retweets. Given the abysmal facilities and lack of encouragement from governments, reaching the level of Olympics is a very big deal for any sports personality in India. It is true that India won only dozen medals in the last five Olympics and half of them we bagged in the last edition of Olympics in London. We shouldn’t consider this as a waste of money. As all books can’t be sold, all sportive efforts won’t yield results.
An author of 18 books surprisingly failed to put her frustration in 140 characters. Instead of saying that she is not happy with Indian athletes performance, she gave an impression that our players go to Olympics to take selfies rather than winning. It seems words failed one of the greatest, good-looking author of our times.
Only hope? Dependable Abhinav Bindra. Aim for gold, champion!
— Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) August 8, 2016
A five-time Olympian, Abhinav Bhindra, who brought India’s first ever individual Olympic gold in the 10m Air Rifle in Beijing Olympics in 2008, gave her back in simple words. “That’s a tad unfair. You should be proud of your athletes perusing human excellence against the whole world,” he observed, rightly.
The Hyderabad-based Badminton star Jwala Gutta made a potshot at Shobhaa’s attitude. “Maybe things will change when the attitude of people like urself change!!!!????,” she said.
Actor Gul Panag raised a pertinent point of lack of “institutional support” and “sporting culture” in India that is a stumbling block in getting medals.
A parody tweet to Shobhaa’s provocative tweet reads as: “Porn books likho. Twitter pe bakwas pelo. Faltu oxygen ko carbondioxide main badlo. what a waste of space and human life.”
