After the spectacular opening of the Olympics, while all other countries had headlines next day about their athletes, and the medals expected, Indian newspapers only talked about a girl in red who walked along with the sporting contingent and stole a march as far as eyeballs were concerned over the rest of our rather dull and drab looking sportspeople.
Thank God for the girl in red, she was sure a blessing. Because that’s all the country is talking about today:
“Did you see the opening ceremony?”
“Yes, how audacious of that girl to walk with us Indians!”
“Maybe she was an Indian!”
“Nah!”
“She looked Indian, only we wear red tops and jeans!”
“Nah, I’ve seen Mexicans and South Americans also wearing red tops and blue jeans, why once in Peru, my husband spoke to one of them dressed like that, he spoke in Hindi, and she turned out to be a Peruvian!”
“It must have very embarrassing?”
“No, they are very sporting!”
“Maybe that’s what our sportsmen should have done, they should have spoken to her in Hindi, and if she couldn’t answer then they should have called the cops!”
“And those London bobbies are very strict!”
“They would have pulled her out of the march past and given her proper!”
“But why did she want to march with our Indians? Why not with some other country? She could have marched along with the Japanese or Chinese or the Bangladeshi sportspeople?”
“Arrey now we are world power no?”
“World power?”
“We are becoming world number one. Soon we will beat USA and China and become super power!”
“You think that is why she marched with us?”
“Of course, when you start winning all the world marches with you, when you lose all the world leaves you. You have not heard that saying?”
“So we are winning!”
“World number one! Super power!”
“How many medals we winners have won till now?”
And so thankfully, the girl in red will be the focus of conversation in India, for many days, weeks and months in the future as the rest of the Olympic world keep counting their gold, silver and bronze.
The girl in red, a blessing for sure..!