When Jeev was �€˜Bindra-ed�€™

For its size, Chandigarh packs quite a punch. Take a couple of recent examples. A young shooter literally fires the hearts and minds of a nation with his performance at the Beijing Games. And at the same time, halfway across the world in Michigan, a not-as-young man accomplishes what no other Indian golfer has done before. Both men happen to be Chandigarh-ites. You could argue, and perhaps correctly, that in terms of achievement, Abhinav Bindra’s Olympic gold ranks a couple of notches higher than Jeev Milkha Singh’s top 10 at a golfing major.

One had successfully climbed to the top of the heap in his chosen field, while the other had forced his peers to sit up and acknowledge that he was among the best. In a frenzied reaction—something this country is slowly getting accustomed to—the media, especially the TV channels, went to town on Bindra and anybody and everybody who had anything to do with him. Even the family dogs got their moment under the sun. Picture this: “So, what do you think about your master’s shooting abilities?” “Woof, woof!” Camera cuts to happy wagging of tails. Impossible? Don’t think so. With complete pandemonium breaking around him, the man at the centre of it all was a picture of calm.

He had this bemused look of somebody who couldn’t quite understand what the fuss was all about. In what must rank as one of the biggest understatements of all time, Bindra said that it just happened to be his day. Another day and it could have been somebody else. Thanks a billion, pal! Here are your brethren, chomping on their tethers, waiting for a cue from you to break into joyous jigs and you come up with a line like that. What a party pooper! But then, in all probability, it is this placid temperament that got Bindra through those nervecrunching moments when he found the bullseye with his air rifle. Dispatches of Jeev’s achievement were in stark contrast. His showing just drowned in the ink spent on Bindra.

Take nothing away from Bindra, and he should get all the good things that come his way, but Jeev deserved better. Here was another first for the man of many firsts—a top 10 at the PGA Championship, one of golf’s four majors, is one hell of an achievement. The majors are where the world’s best golfers gather and try to beat each other and a golf course that is purposely set up to try and make them look stupid on TV. After all, outside the four big ones, where else will you see guys who are supposed to be at the top of their games doing things like putting off the green, whiffing the ball in the rough, chunking their chips, etc.? Jeev led the field after the first day and became the first Indian to contend in a major.

And he did this with a bad ankle. The pain got to a point where he was popping more than half a dozen painkillers just to complete his round. What’s with golfers and injuries this season? Tiger Woods wins the US Open with a damaged knee. Padraig Harrington takes the British Open with a bad wrist and then, Jeev comes close to clinching the PGA with a dubious ankle. Who said golf was a ‘soft’ sport?