American Skaters deliver Hot Bollywood delivered on cold ice !
American Skaters in Desi Costume
Olympic Ice Skating pair Meryl Davis and Charlie White is a hot topic of discussions among Indian social circles for their spell-bound performance to the tunes of Bollywood music. Dressed in Desi costumes, the American skaters delivered a spectacular presentation on the ice.
If you have not heard, the same pair received a second place Silver medal in the ‘Mixed Figure Skating’ Olympic competition.
The Indians areproudly passing around the Youtube videos of this performance and claiming a victory of Indian culture of folk music. While the pair basks in the Olympic glory, their performance to the Bollywood tunes is a water-cooler topic of Indian pride and how great the Bollywood music is.
Yes, the pride of Indian folk music deserves the applause, but we forget that it took an American couple to deliver the performance worth the Olympic consideration.
If you think, we have been watching Shammi Kapoor for ages,dancing on the mountains and in the gardens alike, followed by the modern day heroes who are addicted to the on-screen dance – a necessity of Bollywood movies.
No doubt, the Indian dance is a world recognized art and is progressively exposed in the western society. However, one wonders, a country of one billion Indians cannot produce a pair of ice-skaters who can represent India in the winter Olympics. We need an outsider to utilize Indian art – the Indian concept of folk music – to reach the medal podium!
As far as the ideas and concepts go, there is no shortage of those in Indian brains – more than a billion brains full of ideas. For example, in this case, an Indian dancing pair could have done so much with the desi folk dance – only if they could imagine the possibilities….
Let us indulge for a second, think about mixing the classical dance moves with the ice-skating, or a number based on Punjabi Bhangra…whatever the case may be or whatever your heart desire, there is no shortage of ideas. However, materializing an idea is totally a different story….it needs planning, hard-work and a desire to change the ideas into actions.
The Winter Olympic 2010 received a team of only 3 athletes from India, who came without uniform, ill-prepared and without much ambition for victory. According the local Canadian reporting, the NRI community helped them with team uniform at the last minute, including the flag they carried for the opening ceremony. Forget the Gold, or Silver medals – India is not at par with the international competition when it comes to general Olympic games or other sporting events
India is no longer a poor country, it never was in fact. We cannot really blame the lack of Olympic spirits on the finances anymore – even though someone needs to allocate the federal and local funds for all kinds of different sports, sports other than cricket. 
We also don’t have culture that encourages our kids toward sports, as much as we encourage them for academic achievements. Or, may be because India is a warmer country with not much environment for wintery games, but we don’t do much better in the summer Olympics either.
Coming back to the Bollywood and the ice-skating, we may be over enthused about American team’s performance, just because they used Bollywood music. It still was a western dance combined with some Bollywood moves, if you look closely. They made it work, kudos to them.
The Western society is always looking for new ideas, they are so good at taking an ideas from others and making it work for them. Take the practices of Yoga, for example. India gave the concept, but the real popularity of Yoga is outside India. You can find similar examples in so many different walks of life abroad.
We, Indians, are full of ideas and new inventions, but the buck stops there. We don’t have the same enthusiasm to follow-up and materialize the ideas into actions
May be for once, India should start focusing on using all these Indian concepts and ideas. India has a booming economy; we can afford all the resources to materialize the ideas and concepts, only if we try, only if we dare!
It is about time for India to diversify outside the concentration of IT profession, politics of religion and the game of cricket. It is about time to join rest of the developed countries and show to the world, that we have a much bigger variety of ideas and concepts; ideas and concepts that we can use and develop into actions.
Thanks to Meryl Davis and Charlie White for reminding us the obvious:
While we admire the west for their global reach, Indians should also materialize its own desi ideas into actions that speak for themselves; actions that don’t need a foreign hand to succeed.
umm..Jai Hind!
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#1 by We Cognize on February 28, 2010 - 11:55 AM
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This is really sad and frustrating, I agree. But it has always been like this in almost all walks of life.
I too am sure that Indians can generate better ideas and better results.And, Money is not the hurdle every time ! We lack the desire may be and the enthusiasm.
#2 by RatnaM on March 8, 2010 - 11:46 AM
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Mera Bharat mahaan
we love to brag and talk.
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