Can you pull the chain please? I want to jump onto the bandwagon

Why is it , that when something 'good' happens,
everyone wants to take credit for it, everyone wants to write about it
and pretty much the whole world wants to be associated with it?
But the minute there's something wrong, it's someone else’s
problem, and 'we' had nothing to do with it.

Take our very own star boy-Abhinav Bindra.
Not to take away from what he's achieved from the country or anything, it’s fantastic that its happened, and I'm very proud, as an Indian.
While you're busy dreaming up how many golds the country can achieve, what this means for us and what strengths must lie in our population, just take a minute.

Take a minute, to think about how , the minute he won, he was catapulted to stardom- in just seconds. Every news channel carried his story , his name was all over websites, forwards were being sent, via sms.

He was pretty much everywhere
Half an hour after his victory was announced, one news channel even flashed
a promo ad for an ''Achiever Special- The Story of Abhinav Bindra- Tonight at 8 pm.''
Graphics on channels continuously flashed that sweet, school boy face and anchors rambled on...

Hold it! Just one second!

Up until then, did anyone know:
Who was Abhinav Bindra?
Which city was he from?
When did he start training?
How many competitions has he won before the gold?

Where was all this information before the Olympics? Who made up India's contingent? How many sports are we taking part in? For how long did these people train? Where did they train? Did they receive anything from the government?
Why was India's contingent not up there, with the Bollywood stars? Corny as it might sound, aren't they the Shahrukh Khans and Kareena Kapoors of shooting, boxing and athletics?

If a news channel is able to create a story, within a few hours of Bindra winning the gold then why didn't they do it before?
Why does everyone want to jump on the bandwagon only if its gold plated and has cushioned seats? Doesn't anyone see any prospects before that? Maybe they are busy on another wagon (It must have air conditioning)
Why is it a story only when there's a positive connotation? Whatever happened to plain ol' information?

Everyone wanted to cash in on the action while it was going on. The next day, papers were full of ads that read -'Congratulations Bindra, you have done us all proud.. .’

It’s been a few days since the gold now, and the hype seems to have died down.
Headlines are back to' Misfired again' and 'Knockout for India'.
Stories have gone back to the staid, 'India has no infrastructure and therefore no winners', 'So many people , so few medals' and, my personal favourite, ' The Government's attitude to sports...'
The minute the success stories stop , the advertisers pull out, the 'Specials at 8' cover something else and brands associate themselves with India's newest and latest .

In a country of 1.13 billion, what does it take to be recognised and splashed across the papers?
Why does everyone want to jump onto the same bandwagon, at the same time?

Hold that thought while I catch the latest bandwagon.
Here it comes,
It's called Indian Independence.

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