Tokyo 2021 Diaries: Pinned messages, medals for India

Planting Messages

At every Olympics venue in Tokyo, there are these beautiful plants. Each plant is pinned with multiple messages written on small pieces of paper. While most of the messages are in Japanese, some are in English too. One of the venue managers said that these are from children across Japan wishing the Olympic Games all the success and everyone associated with it good health. A campaign was conducted across schools in the country and students were selected to draw out their designs and write their messages.

Bengalis in Tokyo

It was late into the night. I was waiting for my food to be delivered to the hotel lobby when a volunteer walked up to me and struck up a conversation in Bangla. It was a surprise to say the least. Agomoni Sarkar is one of the many volunteers from India working at the Tokyo Olympics and, in fact, lives in the very next street to mine in Kolkata. She has thoroughly enjoyed her time helping out at the Oi Hockey Arena. She isn’t alone. The liaison officer at the Arena, Anirban, is also a Bengali. He was also the liaison officer to both the Indian men’s and women’s teams. May be the Bengalis brought luck to the teams at the Olympics!

Sleeping with the medal

Had it been a normal Olympics, the men’s hockey team would have celebrated their bronze medal win in style. In 2021, however, nothing of the sort is possible with all the Covid protocols in place. All the players could do after the medal ceremony was to have a good meal in the Games Village, enjoy each-others company, a few media interviews and, most importantly, sleep with the medal! “Waited 21 years for this particular day,” said PR Sreejesh, one of the stalwarts of this team. “I will definitely sleep with the medal by my side,” said the elated goalkeeper.

Silver in pocket, literally!

Ravi Kumar Dahiya had just won his silver medal and had come to speak to the press in the mixed zone. He looked dejected and unhappy. When asked for his reaction on winning the silver, he said he was disappointed at not winning the gold for that’s what he had set out to do. He was not even wearing his medal. When one of the Indian journalists asked him about his medal, Ravi innocently took it out of his pocket and tried to give it to the said journalist. Everyone burst out laughing and requested him to wear it, for in India, a silver medal in wrestling is still the best we have managed at Olympic stage.