It’s just the beginning

God is invisible but omnipresent. There are permanent non- believers, though each one of us have moments of scepticism about the almighty, especially when we are at the receiving end. But I must admit that there are certain inexplicable events that cannot be explained without the existence of an omnipresent and omnipotent superpower.

This is the season of sports as olympics have just ended in Tokyo and our Indian contingent has returned with the best ever medal tally comprising an individual gold in athletics, one silver each in weight lifting and wrestling and one bronze each in badminton. Boxing, hockey and wrestling. While P V Sindhu was already a household name and a proven achiever, we suddenly have new icons- Mirabai Chanu, Ravi Dahiya, Bajrang Punia, Lovlina Borgohain, Manpreet, Rani Rampal, Aditi Ashok and of course, super darling of the entire nation, Neeraj Chopra.

India’s best ever performance, super show by our daughters, revival of hockey and first ever individual gold in athletics, an achievement that fulfilled a long standing wish of the Flying Sikh, albeit posthumously, deserve a dedicated blog. My readers must be wondering the connection between the first two paras of the blog viz. Omnipresent god and India’s super show in olympics!

The reason is the thought that I came across as I passed Mahim church that read – “ If god propels your spear, you can win a gold. Congratulations Neeraj”. As in the worst of times, we cannot but remember the almighty at the peak of success too. After all, what’s there to choose between the winner and the runners up and the loser – a fraction of a second or a few centimetres or few grams! Efforts are must, because we all have been told that God helps those who help themselves. And we cannot take away even an inch from all the above winners who put in untiring effort in attaining the excellence. But the thought of the omnipotent and omnipresent power automatically comes to our mind. In fact, Neeraj has been humble enough in acknowledging his success. He has been very charitable towards other competitors, including the Pakistani athlete, who also showed sparks of brilliance.

This also brings to my memory another famous incident that the sports enthusiast would readily recall – “ Maradona attributing the World Cup winning goal to the hand of god.” Man proposes and God disposes is therefore something that we end up believing in spite of any amount of scepticism.

Well done Indian lion hearts! Work hard for next olympics and the medal rally can be much larger than this! If we work hard with honesty and sincerity then God will be there to propel our spears, strengthen our legs and shoulders, magnetise our hockey sticks, pack power in our punches and bestow confidence in our hearts!