Cricket is a sport in India rest are time pass

Spoiler alert! Answers to the question posed here are below, please do not spoil the fun of the post… Believe me I knew the answers to many of the questions asked below…  This is the first blog in the series of … wait for it… (updated on Jan 2013) Connecting the dots – innovation

1. What is the ATP ranking of an Indian men’s singles player, after recently concluded French Open? (First tell me his name…)
2. Who won the lone medal in Olympics in 2000 for India?
3. What was the score of Abhinav Bindra when he won the Medal in Olympic in China? Well, can you answer when did China Olympic happen?
4. Who are the other two members who won individual medals in Olympics for India (this post was written in 2011 June)?
5. Which games played in international arena are originated in India?

On the contrary if I ask questions on Cricket (which I do not follow that much after 2003 world cup Final defeat of India) –

1. who hit 6 sixes in an over for India some time back, in an international cricket tournament, which was the opposing team? This seems easy to even me to answer. Even there would be people who would tell me name, location, scores of winning and loosing teams and even the run/wicket difference etc etc. which I didnt even ask here.

2. Let me ask little more difficult question. What is the name of one daughter of Lara. Brian Lara named his daughter after name of a city, why? This is kind of difficult, Very difficult question.

Do you have answer for any of the above questions? Well, without the Google Search. Mostly Cricket related questions are answered easily by Indian people. Therefore, I say “Cricket is a sport in India rest are time pass.” No offenses against other sports women/men. How many would agree with me on this statement?

I guess the number of people able to answer the above questions on cricket would be more than the number of people able to answer the question posted in first few lines. Take a random sample. So what is the reason.

Now let me come to the other part which relates to me and I wanted to write about. “Amar Chitra Katha” was started by Uncle Pai on the same premise. He observed that kids participating in a quiz contest were able to answer questions related to Greek mythologies however they were not for Indian mythologies.

There is a saying in Hindi – Ghar ki murgi dal barabar meaning: Self possessions are always undermined and other’s possessions seem better. I think when I am writing this I look like a representative of political faction BUT I AM NOT. We need to learn our own culture better before looking beyond. I love Amar Chitra Katha on which I will write later…

Answers are as follows –
1. Somdev Devvarman ATP ranking 67,
2. Karnam Malleshwari in Weight lifting, medal – Bronze.
3. Find out yourself, now at least Google it 🙂 in case you do not know
4. Leander Paes 1996, Tennis (of course) Bronze Medal Atlanta Olympics 1996 and Major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore doubletrap shooting Silver Medal 2004.

The sports originated in India and played internationally (at least the following two)
1. Chess
2. Badminton (How many of you know the fathers name of a Bollywood actress who won All England Badminton competition) – Prakash Padukone
3. I am not sure on this (and I didnt Google Search it) – Horse Polo is also originated in India

Cricket
1. Yuvraj Singh, Against England in T20 2007.
2. Sydney after scoring 277 runs in Test Match, try Google for the year (at least you can do that)

Answering questions of sports – other than cricket  – by people of India is difficult. And therefore I say “Cricket is a sport in India rest are time pass.” I apologies for the sports people of other sports, this is just an effort to bring this to the notice of WE THE PEOPLE…

Further blogs on – we the people and Amar Chitra Katha…