Commonwealth Games

No blog about India would be complete without a post on the Commonwealth Games, being held in Delhi. Today is Day 5 of the games, which last through the 14th of this month.

I remember riding around Delhi at numerous points over the last year, looking at all the construction; Tyler and I talking about how there's absolutely NO way that preparations will be completed in time for the games. And of course, right up until opening ceremony, all the newspapers (domestic and international alike) were a flurry of articles, photographs, and accusations about how ill-prepared Delhi is. The BBC showed photos of the Athletes' Village, complete with floods inside rooms and muddy dog paws staining the beds. Part of the roof of the weight-lifting complex fell. A pedestrian footbridge collapsed. An Australian reporter was able to bring materials to make an explosive through security. And so on, and so on, and so on...

While none of this was good news, of course, I guiltily exhibited a sense of schadenfreude, for in a way, it was good for all the corruption, shoddy practices, and sub-quality output to be displayed -- although perhaps embarrassingly so (especially compared to China and the Olympics).

So in a way, it has shocked me that since Opening Ceremonies this past Sunday, all news has been good news. International press has called the ceremonies "India's coming out." And indeed, Delhi was at its best Sunday night. Roads were empty of traffic, and the nearby market displayed the ceremonies on a giant outdoor big screen television. Tons of people crowded around to watch, some sitting on top of their cars across the street. From Tyler's apartment, we could hear the roar of the crowd and the flurry of fireworks ending the event.

Our friend Tomo went to the Opening Ceremony and said it was pretty impressive. He took some incredible photographs of the event, worthy of a media kit (click here).

And while I want to be riding the wave of Indian pride and patriotism, it all feels bitter-sweet. Perhaps it might just be the media I'm reading, but it's almost as though all the shoddiness and corruption has been tossed aside, given that the games themselves have been a hit.

And there's also the darker side of "Delhi at its best." The flip side of having no beggars come tugging at you at traffic lights is that the city has literally thrown out all these people. Beggars, itinerants, and slum dwellers have all been forcibly moved in the weeks leading up to the games.

These images from Boston.com's picture slideshow show a slum dweller standing on the spot where his hut was demolished, while the next photo shows slum children searching for their belongings amidst the demolished slums in Gurgaon.

They are scenes straight out of A Fine Balance, except of course, that this is not fiction (Rohinton Mistry would however likely say that while his book is technically fiction, it is actually all true). I'm reminded of the core of the book -- the challenge of maintaining a fine balance between hope and despair.

And I suppose that's my problem with the Games right now: that there's no balance... at first it was all horrible and corrupt, and now it's all amazing and patriotic.

We could all use finer shades of grey.