Lightning strikes twice

They say, lightning never strikes twice at the same place. The Bird's nest in Beijing begs to differ as a second bolt struck tonight.

A little while ago I made a not so good critique of the opening ceremony. The ceremony might have lacked energy but the Games sure didn't. The tumbling of records by Phelps and Bolt have truly made this edition the most spectacular ever.

Add in a dash of patriotism in Bindra's Gold and Sushil's Bronze and you have a recipe of pure joy to the Indian Sports fan.

Wishing lots of luck to the India boxers. Picture abhi baaki hai.

Fireworks Do Not, A Ceremony Make!!

Boy, do the Chinese have a sense of Grandeur!! The Magnum Opus that was, was truly a remarkable spectacle. The Chinese government pulled out all the stops in their attempt to make a ceremony to remember and kudos to them.

And that's done with the positives. This critique of the Beijing opening ceremony is being written before I read any other review. I am sometimes swayed with the public opinion and so let me record my honest view before I read the newspaper tomorrow and start agreeing with the reporter that this was indeed the greatest of all time.(I have noticed that people often rate every new opening ceremony as the best ever). That honor truly belongs to the Sydney games.

Now, I myself have a relatively small memory and I honestly do not recollect the Sydney games in their entirety, but what I do remember is the immense joy I felt when I was watching the opening ceremony. It was magic and the energy I felt in the performance was awesome. In contrast, the energy at Beijing was oddly subdued.

To be fair, Beijing was grand. It was colorful and it was Magnificent but it was BORING.
I thought the paper scroll with the Chinese history and the performances and the art was truly genius. And the 100000++ drummers in sync was just sweet. All good, but for me, not good enough.

BTW, Doordarshan has the worst possible commentators on the planet. The Hindi commentator in particular was pathetic. For god's sake (note: I am an agnostic and I don't exactly believe in God. It is just a phrase) Doordarshan, next time you are looking for someone to cover such events, give me a call. I honestly believe I can do a better job.

LONDON, the yardstick is still SYDNEY!



ps: It was very disappointing to see the very small Indian contingent. A small country like Czech republic seemed to have a bigger contingent. And the response we got(or rather, the lack of it) was very sad.
pps: I have this huge fetish for straight, shiny black hair (the kind Chinese and the Japanese have) and it was wonderful to see so much on display. :P :D
ppps: I need to find out who the flag bearer for Jordan was. I developed a big crush on her.
pppps: Just found out on google news that some Tibetan monks attacked the Chinese embassy in India. That is really a sad act on the part of the monks of a peace loving religion. More on that in a future post.
ppppps: I think this is the last of the postscripts.
pppppps: Unless this is the last one.

ppppppps: Or maybe this :)