London 2012: In true spirit and style



London 2012 is a tribute to the city's indomitable spirit

I still vividly remember my aborted journey to work on 7 July 2005 - undoubtedly one of the saddest days for London. We were stuck at Earls Court, and the steamy atmosphere inside the underground carriage coupled with the confusion, because of no public announcement, was only making us restless. It was an awful experience to start your day and we were blaming it on London's broken public transport system.                                                                 

Only the day before, London had pipped Paris by four votes to bag the 2012 Olympic Games, unprecedented in the history of what is termed as the greatest show on earth. With millions of people assembled at a sunny Trafalgar Square, the whole nation rejoiced London's success only to find the city brought to a standstill the next morning.

Arguing the case for London in Singapore, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair was all praise for the city, and here we were stuck in the Piccadilly Line the very next morning. Many of us were pouring our hearts out only to call the bluff of the people running London. Little did we know then that one of the most vibrant cities of the world was under a severe terrorist attack, but London's public transport system never regained the faith of many over the past seven years.

Since then, till the very last day - 26 July 2012, I had my doubts about the possibility of any success of London 2012. Over the years the public facilities have crumbled in London causing huge discomfort for the residents and visitors. The cuts in public finances made London the melting pot of protests throwing the city into chaos and disarray. The tough negotiations that followed between the government and the trade unions cast further doubts over the smooth sailing of London 2012.

In the end though, I must admit, London 2012 has been a huge success. As the terrorists who masterminded the attacks of 7 July 2005 failed to undermine the indomitable spirit of the Londoners, similarly all those who questioned London's potential, including myself, to host a successful Olympics were proved wrong. All the doubts and apprehensions were thrown out of the window as life in London, during the Games, was reasonably normal.

Volunteers can take pride in making the Games a success 

Those who were witness to the Sydney Olympics or to the Games in Barcelona confided that London was much better prepared and very well controlled to cope with the millions who gathered at this great city for an equally great event. The comparison with Beijing was pointless as London provided an air of freedom which the Chinese capital can't even dream of delivering.

As I was watching the spectacular closing ceremony of London 2012, I was trying to figure out the real heroes of the Games. Undoubtedly, the athletes and the other participants, irrespective of how they performed, provided the necessary life to the Games. All those who worked so hard over the past seven years to make London 2012 a success deserve to be duly credited for what they have delivered. The members of the armed forces, the transport workers, the security staff, the people working in food stalls and thousands of others in airports, train stations and in many other places,  all have made valuable contributions to the success of London 2012.

Yet for me the real heroes were the thousands of volunteers who provided their service without the  expectation of any reward other than the personal satisfaction of being associated with this great Games. Clad in magenta tabards, these volunteers always retained their smile and maintained their cool wherever they were at whatever time of the day. Their motto, as a 60-year-old volunteer told me at the Excel Arena, was to uphold the true spirit of London of being friendly and helpful.

On a personal note, the legacy of London 2012 has been the opportunity of being part, even if it was only as a spectator, of this truly global event, which was indeed a unique experience for me. Never before did I feel so proud to be a Londoner, especially after the ease with which London managed the Games.

For my eight-year-old daughter, it was a demonstration and celebration of her British identity. Over the past two weeks she was literally glued to the television, apart from the events that we watched at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre and at the Excel Arena. Every time Britain won a medal, she waved the Union Jack with pride and her joy was doubled only to find that the men's 10,000m and 5,000m gold winner, Mo Farah, took to athletics when he was a resident of our London Borough of Hounslow.

For two weeks London was the melting pot of world cultures

Peter Reed, a member of the gold-medal winning British men's rowing team, also hails from the London Borough of Hounslow.

As Britain wakes up on Monday morning after a very successful Olympics, the British economy will still be in double dip recession, yet the nation can take pride in its indomitable spirit, which once withstood the terrorist attacks from making a dent in London, and gather strength in coping with the difficult days ahead with much greater confidence.

And the 70,000 who volunteered in London 2012, will definitely cherish the memory of being part of the greatest show on earth and making valuable contributions to its success.

All comments are personal.
Tirthankar.Bandyopadhyay.Blog@gmail.com

London 2012: Facelift, fiasco and fear

I was pleasantly surprised to have a no-glitch journey to work on Monday, 30 July 2012, the first working day after the opening of the London Olympic Games. The tube was unusually empty, and my journey from  Piccadilly Circus along Regent Street was more like a stroll rather than a brisk walk interrupted by the usual stream of visitors. 

  Volunteers had all the time to pose
for the camera 

In the tube, I was seated next to two London 2012 volunteers who were saying how lucky they were to be part of this great event. It is indeed a special moment for the youth in this country to have the flavour of a high profile work experience, especially at a time when jobs are few and far between.

However, not everybody  is interested to be part of the great experience. The G4S fiasco speaks not only of the inefficiency of the organisation assigned with the responsibility of providing the necessary security for the London games, but also about the apathy of a section of the youth to excel themselves. 
                                           

Oxford Circus, London's celebrated
shopping district was unusually quiet

The armed forces have saved the British politicians from a major embarrassment, but it needs to be seen if any under the table deal shaped the involvement of the security firm G4S with London 2012. One thing is for sure, if such a fiasco would have unfolded in any other country, especially in the developing world, Team GB would have been the first to back out citing security concerns.

People at the helm of affairs in Britain are yet to come to terms with the geo-political reality that their heydays are over and British history is no longer synonymous to the phenomenal changes taking place all around the world. Notwithstanding their tall claims, Britain in particular and Europe in general are the biggest losers in the socio-economic upheaval that is shaping the world today as a fall out of the current phase of globalisation.

Shops are even hiring models
 to lure customers 

The economic fulcrum has tilted to the East, and coupled with the demographic dividends that the oriental countries are reaping, they have rendered Britain and Europe forces of the past.

Performers often ensure their superiority and success by the way they manage human emotions, which is intrinsically linked to the societal changes that take place around the world, and Danny Boyle is no exception. That Britain is now a backbencher in the global arena - both politically and economically, probably tempted him to rely on the golden days of the past rather than the harsh reality of the present.

I must admit that initially I was overwhelmed by the opening ceremony of London 2012 - its treatment of the trajectory of the modern civilisation and synchronising it with that of Britain, the cerebral component, the suave and sophisticated approach rather than a blatant exhibition of national might, as was demonstrated four years ago in Beijing.

The Dutch tourists tried to boost
themselves up

However, since Saturday morning, Friday night's euphoria evaporated and gave way to a more realistic assessment of things.

If China exhibited the national might of the present, Britain tried to showcase why it was ahead of others in the past. Moreover, Boyle and his advisors were so sipped into the glory of Britannia of the past that they probably overlooked that Olympics after all is an organic - not archaic - global event and the world has moved a long distance away from the period which epitomises the heydays of Britain.

Despite the best of efforts to portray an acrobatic Queen, accompanied by an iconic on screen James Bond, probably to demonstrate an interface of a monolithic monarchy and its dwindling empire (receding influence of Britain in geo-politics) with a fast changing moment of time, yet her grumpy face often scripted with gestures of disinterest - like surveying the nails of her fingers, extremely dull peach attire and an out of fashion hair-do were symbolic of the fact that 2012 was not a time to cheer for Britain.

Activities to drum up the spirit haven't
had much success so far

The empty seats in the games venues, an exceptionally quiet afternoon in the heart of London on the first working day of London 2012 were stark reminders that the best of Britain was over.

Prime Minister David Cameron and his spin doctors may be trumpeting that London 2012 will lift Britain from the miseries of a double dip recession, but as the latest figures show, the socio-economic woes are much deep-rooted and profound than it catches a politician's eye.

If the thin crowd at the Piccadilly Circus or the empty shops at Regent Street are any indication, the worst for Britain is not over yet.

All comments are personal.

Tirthankar.Bandyopadhyay.Blog@gmail.com