Saturday, August 9, 2008

The opening ceremony

Accolades are being lavished on the opening ceremony - I too found it creative, culturally interesting, spectacular and befitting of the event. It reminded me of one difference I found between IPL closing ceremony and this one. The former had an overdose of bollywood and the remaining were imported performances while the latter kept it essentially Chinese. The lighting of the torch (a la Akshay Kumar) was brilliant. I however kept worrying that the flame would be put out by the wind when the athlete was 'flying' (will they have a re-ignite switch in case it went out (just checking...)? I have also always wondered what happens if it rains during the next twenty odd days - how is the flame kept going?

However I have one major grouse - at nearly 4 hours, it was too long. I wanted to see team India, Federer, Nadal, Phelps, Bolt, Powell, Messi, Ronaldinho, etc. and did not catch many them. First it was not alphabetically presented - so you had no idea who was coming next (how was the order determined?). Second, I had dinner and came back, athletes were walking. I went out and came back, athletes were still strolling... So for the 2012 London games, please expend some of your creative energy in introducing the athletes/teams and reduce the time taken . Maybe have them be seated and introduce them by asking only that country to rise with the flag bearers strolling around the stadium?

Let the games begin!

19 comments:

Viswanathan said...

RS,

It was in Chinese alphabetical order.

I liked the IPL opening ceremony better, it was short and sweet with enough cheesecake to keep me interested.:)

RS said...

Ah - I thought it might be the Chinese alphabet - but all the "i's " did not come together - so was hard to fathom.

this could have been crisper (even the pre-athlete portion). I did not catch the IPL opening ceremony due to work - saw the closing only).

straight point said...

the opening ceremony was superb, spectacular and would have humbled some overrated 'great' nations...

i guess china got carried away in order to mark this occasion to make his presence felt on international stage...specially after doubts were raised regarding tibet...

but boy they did it style and in doing so raised the benchmark enough that it will be tough to match...

it just goes to show that when nation and government in particular is inspired enough they can put on a show to remember...

i also heard rumors that india will be hosting commonwealth games? huh...

Viswanathan said...

Pan,

Yes we are hosting the commonwealth games. If I am not mistaken that is why Mani Shankar Iyer lost his job.

straight point said...

you missed the humor OTT...

i just wanted to highlight how well we are preparing for CWGs... :)

Viswanathan said...

Apologize for taking you literally.

RS said...

The ceremony made its impact - but looking back it was extravagant.

With regard to the commonwealth games, why are we hosting it? For the image :) Then we better get going on the prep otherwise we will give an uncomplimentary image...

I don't think we need to host any major games until we get 5 medals in one Olympics or send 200 athletes.

Preeti Parthasarathy said...

RS, I agree with you. India should concentrate on winning more medals before hosting more Games even if its the CWG. Man oh Man, my husband and I were absolutely glued to the TV from 8 pm to midnight local time for the Opening Ceremony and although we were proud to see the Indian Contingent make an entry, their passing was insignificant to the numbers shown by China. We cannot agree more with the NBC commentator who could compare only our populations and nothing about sports backgrounds. I don't even think India should be compared to China anymore in any respect. They are a league apart! We need more 'Indian' run corporations to support the Olympic cause. Mittal is just the beginning, our other big sponsor is Korean company Samsung...where are the Wipros, Infosyss, Reliances and Kingfishers? They are busy buying F-1 teams and European Soccer teams while they can easily be making an "investment" in Indian talent! I am still confident that we will be getting more than just 1 medal in Beijing 2008. Thank you!

RS said...

Preeti,
Champia (archer) did very well on the first day - hopefully he will continue to do well, and will have to wait for some of the other shooters and boxers :)

RS said...

by the way, Rathore has an Hero Honda ad (glad to see atleast something for an Olympian) And I agree with you on the other corporates :-)

Viswanathan said...

RS,

Just some info. The defense services do not permit their men to make money privately while still in service.

They made an exception in Rathore's case.

To me this speaks of nepotism as why others ( who serve in the army)who won laurels for India in other games were not favorably looked at.

RS said...

ottayan,

Then the exception is worrying from defense services point of view (beyond the nepotism). It is catch 22 situation. I want the athletes to be rewarded, but not at a cost of a defense policy. What are solutions?

Anonymous said...

>wanted to see team India, Federer, >Nadal, Phelps, Bolt, Powell, Messi, >Ronaldinho, etc.

I live in California. Our telecast NBC did focus the camera on Federer (hard not to miss him as he carried the flag), Nadal, Asafa. However even I couldn't spot Ronaldinho & Messi.
FYI: Folks such as Phelps didn't make it to the ceremony as they had to compete the very next day. They had to conserve energy (didn't want to expose themselves to 90' humid climate for hours). Even our Sania wasn't around.

RS said...

anon - I believe Sania was there - though I did not catch her.

Anonymous said...

sorry, my bad!
i meant saina nehwal. she had a match the very next day.
big fan of hers.
sania was marching right next to Bhupathi in the middle of the pack.

RS said...

anon: saina is doing great! She just upset 5th rank player and enter quarter finals. This is the first time I am watching her and have watched 2 matches, and really like her game.

a fan said...

Due to job related travel, i missed opening ceremony completely :(
guess, youtube might be the only way to see it :( :(

i am sure our guys would've started thinking seriously about CWG Opening ceremony now.
Infact, i have heard that India always has a better winning streak in CWG. see this 2006 Medal Tally

That too, it was without Tennis and Archery. So, i think hosting CWG in 2010 is one of the smart moves by India instead of blindly trying to put a bid for Olympics.

RS said...

a fan: It takes a lot of money to host CWG and we are way behind in preparations according to a headlines today report. It will pale in comparison to China's infrastructure and planning.

without China, I am sure everyone's record at CWG will be better:) The issue is why host any game till we can send a decent sized contingent?

Anil Singh said...

ditto,at one time, I was also worrying about the flame. Like, what will happen if it will get put out :)