Friday, August 15, 2008

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN..... IT IS THE AKHIL KUMAR SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes it is independence day and yes the others all had some tough luck so it was left up to my boy to keep the indian flag and more importantly spirit flying high....
And he did that in style... he was up against world champion russian boxer but that didn't matter because akhil has a mammoth heart and that in the end pulled him through.
I actually managed to muster up the courage and go and watch because akhil made me promise him that i would come and he told me this morning i had nothing to be nervous about.... Gosh darn it...wish i had listened to him and not been so nervous all day...
All credit to him and i have no doubt he will keep this going....
On another note, one of my closest friends lost today and he said he played his heart out so had no regrets... what is of note here is that even after he was so disappointed he came straight to support akhil at the boxing... He has been my friend, supporter, critic and means the world to me...but today he taught me that the meaning of patriotism that is sometimes forgotten by us in the individual sport world.... The man is Mahesh Bhupathi and the love he shares for his country and other athletes really has no bounds.

2 comments:

Preeti Parthasarathy said...

Dear Manisha, hope you remember me from our phone conversation in June (I was in Mumbai and you were in Dehli, I am from California...). I am so thrilled with Bindra's victory that I am still at a loss for words after a full 5 days. I watched the YouTube medal ceremony over and over again and never before has our National Anthem sounded sweeter! On another note, I would love to get in touch with you once you are back from Beijing. Sitting in the Bay area that has sent a 100 athletes for Team USA, I am confident that this is the place to train. I want to talk to you about some ideas in my head including sending the swimmers to Undergrad here (Auburn Univ, Stanford Univ, Univ of Michigan etc) where they will have undivided attention and focus. Let's talk more when you are back in India...I am so fired up and ready to GO! I have talked about MCT's work and our conversation to a bunch of my friends and colleagues here who are all waiting to support our athletes when they arrive here for training.

Cheering on for Akhil, Jitender and Vijender and the rest of the track and field athletes...

GO INDIA!

Best wishes always!
Preeti :o)

Manisha Malhotra said...

thanks preeti,
ofcourse i remember you... keep praying lets get the boxers through the next couple of days