Incredible India!!

Enhancing India’s glory, with its success story... The opening and closing ceremony marks
the success of any occasion, the ceremony in the Nehru Stadium was a sensation with
sprawling 60000 audiences there and billions of television viewers like us. The vibes in the
air glass cased as India being ‘The Golden Bird’ as when the aura was jammed with golden
hues. Athlete’s village was covered with more than 6700 athletes from 71 different countries
making Delhi Commonwealth Games the biggest ever. With the shimmering and stunning
explosives in the sky, the 70 crore aerostat escalated 25 metres high, reflecting the radiance
and shades of the rostrum as an indication of the opening of the games. The Rajasthani
puppets drooped from the vivid aerostat as greetings to its excited spectators. It seemed that
the field was filled with every blend of RGB, the three basic colours exhibiting India’s
diverse culture and traditions and its fiscal position. 1000 drummers from places like Ladakh,
Punjab, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka heralded the occasion
with a bang. The eager crowd was then addressed by the dignitaries present. The howl of the
mass gave optimistic energy to the OC(Organising Committee). Every criticism went
missing, and people were all over keyed up for their nation’s pride. Former President Dr A P
J Kalaam was greeted most heartily and Kalmaadi was booed at the most. PM Man Mohan
Singh welcomed everyone and wished to establish a bond of unity. And then, the awaiting,
Prince Charles who was representing the royal family and thus Queen Elizabeth (who is the
head of the CWG); read the Queen’s message and declared the Games owpen. On behalf of
Delhi and the nation, President Pratibha Patil concluded her speech by announcing “The 2010
Commonwealth Games in Delhi are now open. Let the Games begin”. That was the
moment of pride and pleasure with the heart throbbing for the nation; and the
thunderous multitude’s roar hailed for the country. The Queen’s baton had been handed
over just a year ago at London's Buckingham Palace and was carried through relay runners
through all the countries and territories of the Commonwealth. This baton was carried by the
sporting champions; to start with was the handsome Olympics bronze medallist boxer
Vijender Singh and was handed over to the Prince of Wales by the wrestler Sushil Kumar.
Then various march pasts hit the path with grandeur; numerous men carried the flags of
different nations with celebrated India leading the way! Pakistan was applauded
extraordinarily like we make the best of friends! Then the Games flag was hoisted when the
well-groomed and dashing Indian captain, Abhinav Bindra(Olympic gold medallist), on
behalf of all the athletes took the oath and carried our esteemed tri colour. The sight was then
an azure in the aerostat and a booming and dazzling of the fireworks which was a striking
view. The drapes dropped inaugurating the 5000 years of Indian culture with the Guru
Shishya parampara of imparting gen with the background tune of ‘budhham sharnam
gachhaami’. Blue of the spaceship aerostat turned green and a newness bloomed the vision.
Classical dances from different states in myriad shades of orange, green, blue, white,green
show cased the various climates; all tapping in unison to their own steps on the same music
presenting the basic of India’s heritage ‘unity in diversity’. Krishna and Gopiyaan played
raasleela on enchanting songs and vibrant dresses...with the music tatdhoom dhoom! Then the
secular India came into view with the Yogic poses of people in lighted heads. The aerostat
descended to emerge the knowledge tree which was an enlightening man with emerging
powers. Technology drove the glittering spirals in the human. It portrayed the shakti of a man


which takes energy from all the Gods. Next on the melody of ‘chaiyaan chaiyaan’ came the
country’s glory, Indian railways with Hussain hailing on the engine of the train to explore the
nation. It was the ‘vividh sanskriti ki jhalak’ with the common man, the
politicians, ‘jhoomar’, large turban and a but obvious ‘nimboo mirchi’ to shield the games
from bad lucks, our village was portrayed. The harmonious ‘vaishno jan to tene kahiye’ was
played and the Father of the nation was recalled through sand paintings on the historic dandi
march. The knowledge tree turned to the image of Mahatma Gandhi. Prince Charles and his
wife were intensely absorbed by the magnificence of the event. So he termed it
an “experience of lifetime”! It really was! We wished Bapu were here! Now the vibrancy
with colours came and dances from several states with greeting flowers came with the stirring
music of ‘dhol baaje ...dhol..ki dham dham baaje dhol..’ Then came the most awaited ‘theme
song’ of the CWG by A.R. Rehmaan.. it came like..”Jeeyo, utho, Badho, Jeeto Tera mera
jahaan Lets go!” which enthralled the whole stadium. An added electrifying music was the
song “Jai ho!” which jammed the earth by deafening howls which then marked the end of the
opening ceremony.


So this was the start of our CWG inspite of so many criticisms. One can imagine what can be




its travel through, and we wish for a successful closing ceremony for the spectacular game
event. Wish you all the luck!!


shambhavi