Imagine the cricket World Cup or Olympic final between India and Pakistan. There will be unprecedented hostility with pent-up emotions. The media plays its role to the hilt, apparently to raise the TRP ratings. The entire subcontinent goes into “collective hostile paranoia”. It is no less than a war.
Late night Thursday competition for the Olympic javelin gold between India and Pakistan turned out to be an exception. India’s Neeraj Chopra, the holding Olympic champion, competed with Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan. It was a repeat of the Tokyo Olympics. In Tokyo, Neeraj won the gold, while Arshad won the silver.
Till now, it was always Neeraj, who remained ahead of Arshad. This time, however, it turned the other way around. Arshad won the gold, while Neeraj won the silver. Not that Neeraj did not perform his best, only because Arshad did much better than him (Neeraj) and he clinched the gold.
Neeraj, like he was gracious in victory in Tokyo, where he encouraged Arshad, he was equally gracious in defeat as well. He said it was Arshad’s day. He shook hands with him and the two posed for photographs together.
Added to that was the reaction of Neeraj’s mother, Saroj Devi, back home in Haryana, India. She did not express any remorse that her son had lost the Gold and won Silver only. She said she was very happy, and it was quite visible on her face, with her son winning the silver. She went further to say that the boy who won the Gold was also her son. And that won a billion hearts across the subcontinent.
Social media went crazy. Saroj Devi’s brief interview with a television channel was shared millions of times across the subcontinent. This drew positive reactions from Pakistan also. Ace Pakistani fast bowler of yesteryears Shoaib Akhtar while quoting Saroj Devi saying, “Gold jis ka hai, wo bhi hamara hai ladka hai”, said, “yeh baat sirf aik maa he keh sakti hai…amazing” (only a mother can say such a thing”.
It was not a momentary off-the-cuff remark by Neeraj’s mother. In fact Neeraj has always been encouraging Arshad, without bothering that he was his competitor and could one day outplay him, which he did in the Olympics yesterday.
Neeraj and Arshad’s association started in 2016 when the two participated together in the South Asian Games in Guwahati. Since then they have participated together in several games, including the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 followed by two World Athletics Championships in 2022 and 2023. Neeraj was always ahead of Arshad till yesterday.
Arshad always considered Neeraj as his inspiration. When in March this year, while preparing for the Olympics, Arshad was struggling for funds as he could not even afford to buy a new javelin, which would cost just Rs 85000, Neeraj came to his support, saying, “it is hard to believe that he has been struggling to get a new javelin…given his credentials, this should not be a big issue at all. Arshad is a top javelin thrower, and I believe that the javelin makers will be more than happy to sponsor him and provide what he needs”. He even appealed to Pakistan authorities to help and support Arshad.
Arshad, as he always considered Neeraj his inspiration, wrote before yesterday’s competition, “it gives me immense joy that there are only two of us from South Asia, myself and Neeraj Bhai, who are performing on the world stage along with the other players who compete with Neeraj”.
“I hope that we continue to perform for our respective countries and make the name of our countries shine bright globally”, he added, without any element of hostile competition.
The gesture, which originally started with Neeraj and his mother Saroj Devi and was duly acknowledged and reciprocated from across the border, should not be like a flash in the pan. The spontaneous outpouring of harmony and bonhomie between the people of the two countries, feels like a breeze of fresh air, in an otherwise highly hostile atmosphere, which becomes more pronounced during sporting events like cricket or hockey.
Javelin proved to be an exception. After all, ‘bhala’ (javelin) originally belonged to the subcontinent only.
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