Five from a strength of 27 lakhs Rising against the odds
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 06, 2012 -

The sparkle amid the gloom.

This perhaps best sums up the five Olympians from Manipur at London.

A much misunderstood place, a place which does not register in the consciousness of 'mainland India', a place which is connected to the rest of the country through the proverbial 'chicken neck', a place ravaged by all the conceivable ills and the fact that five athletes from a place of only 27 or so lakhs of people, in a country of 1.2 billion people, are representing the country at the Olympics becomes all that more significant.

MC Mary Kom, L Devendro, L Bombayla, Ng Sonia Chanu and Kh Kothajit come from a place which gave the world the July 15, 2004 nude protest at the gate of Kangla, a place which has redefined 'protest by fast' courtesy Irom Chanu Sharmila who is into her 12th year of fast, a place which unfailingly manages to revisit scenes from WW II when people spend the night over at the petrol pumps in serpentine queues during one of the economic blockades as well as a place ravaged by corruption, AIDS, militarisation of the civil space and decades of armed conflict.

Even as the rest of the world tuned in to their TVs to see their sons and daughters performing in the Olympic, half the State's population could not turn on their TV sets when L Devendro Singh stormed into the quarter finals or when MC Mary Kom bested her opponent on the first day of her bout, due to the load shedding.

It is from this background that the five athletes have emerged and made the cut to compete with the world's best and Manipur may just have managed to redefine grit, determination and rising against all odds.

L Devendro and MC Mary Kom are today amongst the few athletes from India who are still keeping the hopes of adding more silverware to the three already won, alive.

Not bad going at all.

The dichotomy is amazing.

Two athletes from Manipur amongst the few from India keeping the flag of the country flying amid the all round poor showing while the rest of their compatriots have to produce their identity cards in places like Delhi to prove that they are bonafide citizens of the land tells a story which is hard to put to ink.

Champions or in the mould of champions while the place from where they come continues to survive on a daily dose of 8/9 hours of power supply in a day of 24 hours.

Down the years the people of Manipur have unfailingly demonstrated to the rest of the world that they have it in them to come out on top of any travesty, mainly man made travesties but the rot continues.

True sportsmen emerging from a place where a Government job carries a price tag of anything from Rs 5 to 20 lakhs depending on the type of employment.

A place which can be condemned to remain cut off from the rest of the world for more than 100 days without the bare necessities of life and surviving Manipur is not just a term coined by some imaginative people but is a damning reality.

It is against this backdrop that the five athletes have emerged to compete with the best in the world and the sense of solidarity that the people here have extended to them does not come as too big a surprise.

A case of rejoicing the success of one of their tribes.