Outlook's Soumitra Bose had a candid chat with Pullela Gopichand, Boria Majumdar and Nalin Mehta. Majumdar and Mehta, authors of the book "Dreams of A Billion India and The Olympic Games," spoke about the future of Indian Olympics and challenges they faced while writing the book.
#PullelaGopichand #Bibliofile #BoriaMajumdar #NalinMehta #DreamsOfABillion
#PullelaGopichand #Bibliofile #BoriaMajumdar #NalinMehta #DreamsOfABillion
Category
đ
NewsTranscript
00:00 Hello and welcome to another special edition of Outlook Bibliophile. I have two very well
00:10 known gentlemen with me today. To my extreme left is Boria Mazumdar. He is a sports historian
00:17 and a very dear friend. And this gentleman in the middle needs no introduction. He is
00:22 India's Chief Badminton National Coach, Guru Gopichand. Boria, welcome to the show. Gopi,
00:31 as usual, you've always been very supportive of Outlook and thanks for joining us. We are
00:38 talking about Boria's and Nalin Mehta's book called The Dreams of a Billion, India and
00:46 the Olympic Games. Extremely well-timed book. You're just five months away from the Games.
00:52 What made you write this book?
00:53 See, it was waiting to be done. I mean, as you said, in terms of timing, we wake up to
00:59 an Olympic Games every four years. Unfortunately, that's the reality. And Gopi and I have been
01:03 talking about it for ages. Nalin, in 2005-2006, in two consecutive years, Nalin and I went
01:10 to the Lausanne archives and we practically catalogued the Indian material there. And
01:16 between the two of us, I think I got 75 hours of Gopi on tape between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m.
01:21 in the morning. So this was something that was waiting to be done. And both of us, Nalin
01:26 and I, were pushing each other. Let's get to doing it. This is a hard book to write,
01:30 Shomitra. You know that because there is no archive. There is no material. So there is
01:34 no archive to walk into and do research like we academics are trained to do. So in that
01:38 sense, it's storytelling. It is storytelling from being backstage with athletes like him
01:42 and to represent the real story in front of people. So it was supposed to be done. It's
01:48 not the complete story. There can never be a perfect history. Having said that, I think
01:51 this will spur many more people to take up the subject. 75 hours of Gopi Chand. Minimum.
01:57 Minimum. I have tried to interview Gopi many times. Just wanting five quotes and it takes
02:04 five days to reply. How was it possible to give him 75 hours of footage? That's because
02:10 you don't push enough. No, I think I told him because the days for me start off at 5
02:18 and I said the only way I'm going to spend time with you is if you're able to get up
02:23 in the morning and we start talking at 4 a.m. in the morning. And he was always on time
02:30 and that's how I was able to take out time because once the day starts, then there's
02:34 so much of coaching happening and that's when I find time very difficult. But at 4 a.m.
02:39 in the morning, it is easy for me because that's the time I get up and I'm ready. So
02:43 luckily he was able to find time and that's how we could manage it. It's no surprise,
02:47 Boria, that Gopi has got the reward, IOC reward for the honor, the honor for first ever Indian
02:56 coach for the kind of dedication that he has given and very rightly so you have devoted
03:01 an entire chapter on Guru Gopichand. I mean, what prompted you to choose Gopi and no other
03:07 coach? He is phenomenal. I mean, let's face it this way and then no two qualms. The fact
03:12 that he's sitting with me doesn't really make a difference to me and people who know
03:16 me will know. This man is an absolute rock star. If there's one gentleman who's done
03:20 wonders for Indian sport, it's this man. If there's one person you have to look up to,
03:24 I'll tell you an anecdote. It was around 9 p.m. and one day before Sindhu's semi-final
03:30 in Rio and I was right outside the Olympic Village and Gopi was standing there looking
03:35 at nobody. He was just standing. So I happened to just sort of bump into him. He looks at
03:39 me even before I start talking. He says, "No interviews today. Don't ask me anything."
03:44 And he's actually rambling. He said, "You know, I'm tired of coming forth. I really
03:47 don't want to come forth. Abhinav again forth, Deepak again forth. Our country, we really
03:51 need to win this. Nothing today." And I'm just looking at him. And he said, "You ask
03:55 me tomorrow after Sindhu makes the final, I will go with you to Christ the Redeemer
03:59 and do whatever you want. Not today." So he lost 10 kilos, you know, between January
04:03 and August of 2016. He went to his house and told Lakshmi that, "Look, it has always been
04:09 about Gayatri and Vishnu in their house, food and everything else." He said, "For the next
04:13 eight months, it's about me." As in him. Why? Because he doesn't need to fall ill.
04:16 If he falls ill, Sindhu's training goes. This is incredible dedication. Mother having
04:21 cancer, putting the house on mortgage, raising funds to build an academy and then to do what
04:26 this man has done. Unbelievable.
04:28 Now it's finally Gopi that IOC has recognized your contribution towards this sport. But
04:35 my first meeting with you as a journalist, of course, we heard a lot about you. I was
04:39 from Calcutta. Calcutta had a very rich badminton culture. You had a lot of friends there. But
04:44 the first time I saw him in action as a coach was in the 2012 London Olympics. I used to
04:50 work for a television company which had the rights and I was absolutely ringside. So the
04:54 first interview that Sainani Wall gave after she won the bronze medal was with me. And
05:00 then, of course, you were besieged by the media in the mixed zone and you were giving.
05:05 But never forever, you were always emotional or there was an outburst of emotions. I never
05:12 saw that in you. But this book has several lines and quotes from you, which we never
05:19 thought would ever come out from your mouth, especially on your relationship with Saina
05:24 when she left your academy in 2014. It actually shows a very different side of Gopichand.
05:31 I think for me it's a tough journey because as a coach, much of the success is because
05:39 you own the players. And you have to own the players and believe that they are very dear
05:46 to you, they are part of you and you give everything what you have. And when you do
05:50 something like that and when something on the negative side happens, you kind of have
05:55 repercussions on the emotional side. Of course, I am not somebody to share it and I think
06:00 Burya has been a close friend. So he's been able to get out things which were I was probably
06:06 thinking that he'll come back to me and show the entire script and I will say cut this,
06:11 but he didn't show me the script. But yeah, I think yes, it's a very, it is a tough job
06:22 to be a coach and especially on the emotional side because you put it all you have and then
06:29 sometimes when things don't plan out the way you would want to, then of course it hurts.
06:36 But I think it's all part of the game and I see it that it's been a learning experience
06:42 for me as well. And I'm so happy that we've been able to, when you look back, well, I
06:48 think there was more time after Saina left to work with Sindhu and probably all happened
06:53 for a good reason.
06:54 Well, having said that, what's the state now right now because Saina is going through some
06:59 injury rehab, Sindhu has lost a lot, needs to win again and just five months away from
07:06 the Olympics. How do you see both of them shaping up?
07:09 As I've said, I think Sindhu definitely is a prospect for a medal at the Tokyo Games
07:17 and Saina, well, the qualification is what is putting her pressure, especially when you
07:23 are an athlete who has spent maybe 15 years on the circuit. You're not greatest playing
07:31 back-to-back tournaments and the qualification demands that you play so many tournaments.
07:37 But once she qualifies and once she gets the good three months, which is May, June, July
07:42 of training, I think she's definitely capable of producing some good results at the Olympics
07:47 is what I truly believe.
07:49 Well, Borea, your book has a 14-page introduction. Normally, books don't have such long introductions,
07:57 but to tell you what, it's extremely informative. There's one particular paragraph that I found
08:03 it very intriguing. It's the amount of money the Indian government spent after Sakshi Malik
08:12 and Sindhu and Jhajjari won medals there, the kind of money they spent. Gopi has also
08:21 made some comments about money being spent by the government, whether they're in the
08:25 right direction, the wrong direction. As an author point of view, do you think we sometimes
08:30 try to go over the top and try this small little, huge amount of money, that is it worth
08:37 spent?
08:38 It is. I mean, if you actually see, even that amount of money doesn't really compare to
08:42 the amounts of money spent by the UK or the US. Yes, you can compare our economic status
08:47 and stuff like that. But see, money is not an index in the sense, if you take the case
08:52 of Jamaica, Jamaica is economically not half as well off as India, but they're producing
08:57 Olympic champions. That's a different story. But if somebody today comes and tells you,
09:01 oh, you know what, Shoumitra Dutta, we don't have money, hence we don't produce champions.
09:05 That's wrong. We have enough and more money in the system. There needed to be accountability,
09:09 something that Gopi constantly talks about. The money needs to go to the right people.
09:15 That's something he speaks about. He says not only the top player, not only number one,
09:19 but also two, three, four. So let that money go to the right people. If you see the chapter
09:24 on shooting that Nalin and I are very proud of, money wasn't misspent. There was money
09:30 even before Rio. The money was given as part of the top team. The shooters who had qualified
09:35 did not spend it well. I don't want to take any names here. Having said that, there has
09:40 been a change now. So there is accountability. People now know how that money is being spent.
09:45 So there is money and there is accountability, which is what gives me hope about India. What
09:51 we see around you and me, Shoumitra Dutta, every morning is negativity. We see communal
09:55 disharmony. We see violence. We see problems. We see division. We see religious animosity.
10:00 The only thing that gives me hope is these people. Sport, whether it's an Olympic Games,
10:05 whether it's the Paralympic Games. You know what? I'm very proud of the fact that we've
10:09 also been able to include two chapters in Paralympics. To be able to do that in the
10:13 same book as the Olympic Games, to say that able-bodied athletes and para-athletes are
10:18 the same, it was tough for us. Whether it will fly, how will it be treated? We are making
10:23 a claim, Nalin and I, we will win 15 medals in Tokyo in Paralympics. If that happens,
10:29 that is revolution of the highest order. More money to them. Some people have already said
10:33 five crores or something, some chief ministers. Let it be any amount. Because when Devendra
10:37 Jhajariya tells you, I did not have a theraband and I took a axe, sir. I took an axe and started
10:42 cutting trees and I got exercise. And Manoj Sarkar tells you that my mother used to make
10:46 bidi. You know bidi better than I do. So I used to make bidi and buy a badminton racket
10:51 for 10 rupees. Come on. Let there be as much money in the Indian system as possible.
10:56 Gopi, my next question to you, I mean, Borea's book essentially is on Olympians and the Olympic
11:01 movement of India. But he also does mention Kapil Dev as an icon that actually transformed
11:08 Indian cricket after the 1983 victory. Do you at any stage feel that, you know, Indian
11:14 sports and Olympic sports lack icons and really there is no one to motivate?
11:19 Yeah, I mean, Borea writes that Avinash Bindra is one in a billion. I think it's such a very
11:24 negative comment. You should have more Avinash Bindra.
11:27 Of course. Do you agree?
11:28 I think it's the way you look at it. Because for me, when Karna Malishwari won the medal,
11:37 I was waiting for morning to happen because I just wanted to see the medal. And I was
11:41 like 6.30 in the morning. I somehow brought the courage out to knock on the door and say
11:46 I want to see the medal. And as somebody who was maybe 26 years old, 25 years old then,
11:53 to actually go out there and say I haven't won it, but still I want to have a look at
11:58 the medal and want to be. And that was a big enough inspiration. And a bronze medal then.
12:04 Somebody like Abhinav, of course, is a huge, huge motivation. And sports revive, sports
12:11 culture revives in the country. And then people after seeing, say a Saina or a Sindhu have
12:16 started saying my kids can play, my kids can play well. And if there is a girl in the family,
12:23 I want her to take sport. And that's such a big revolution for so many communities in
12:28 our country. So I think sports as a motivation, as role models, as people, as icons, I think
12:35 is huge. And for me, I think the book not only is about the champions and the people
12:42 of this times, but it also talks about, and for me, this is the best chapters of the book
12:47 where you talk about India's Olympics in the 1920s and how people, how proud they were,
12:58 how people had pride in sending the team there, how proud they felt about representing the
13:04 country. And that for me is the biggest chapter of the book.
13:07 If Gauria's book does not have history, then it's not a book, because he's a champion.
13:12 I mean, we've done many episodes with him and he could rattle off history just like
13:17 anything. Oh my God. But anyway, coming back to the way Indian sports movement, he has
13:23 a chapter, Tokyo and beyond. And that's been the narrative of the present government. They're
13:29 not looking at Tokyo. They're looking at 2024 and 2028. So how do you see, I mean, eight
13:37 years, I mean, you know, narratives keep changing with governments. I mean, can you really have
13:44 a 2028 vision and do things right now? That's one part of my question. And the second part
13:51 of the question, we've suddenly seen this Hello India movement. Is it a step in the
13:55 right direction?
13:56 So one, I think, I'm sure many fields will say that, but as a sports person, I would
14:02 say that sports is a long term vision. And the narrative has to be consistent. And I'm
14:07 very, very happy that the last few years have had great government support, right from say
14:13 2008. And now it's almost been that people are talking about it in the right direction
14:19 in the sense they're not saying, OK, 2020 is OK, because we've always spoken about the
14:24 next Olympics and the next Olympics is already just already late. So just to talk this 2028
14:32 language and 32 languages, the right language to speak to because sports is long term and
14:38 you cannot have governments which have a four year or a five year term talk about it only
14:45 for that period of time. So it's very, very important. And for me, all of these steps,
14:50 whether you call it the Hello India, the games of the Hello India, the Hello India University
14:56 Games, the Fit India movement, the sports culture which is being spoken about by the
15:01 PM, I think these are huge steps in the right direction. And the PM said some things which
15:06 are very, very good in the sense one is about the scholarships. He talks about coaches and
15:11 how improvement of coaches at the various levels is very important. And he also talks
15:15 about it at Fit India and how even if you don't win a medal, it's OK, but giving your
15:21 best is what's important. This was his message after Rio where we actually made less number
15:26 of medals. But I think that's been a positive input from the PM because that's what helped,
15:33 I would say, India do well in the 18 Commonwealth and the Asian Games.
15:39 Thank you, Gopal for being with us and really appreciate the time you've spent with us.
15:45 And I'm sure with all your inputs in Borea's book, Borea's book will be a flyer.
15:50 Thank you.
15:51 We're joined by Nalin Mehta, who is a co-author with Borea Mazumdar in this beautiful book
15:56 called The Dreams of a Billion India and the Olympic Games. Nalin, you're a journalist.
16:03 How is it like, you know, tying up with a sports historian writing this book? I'm sure
16:08 you would have a lot of kind of contradictions, a lot of arguments over writing the chapters.
16:13 Well, I'm a journalist, but I'm also a political scientist. We went to the archives
16:19 together, separately and together in the Lausanne archives. Borea found a lot of material there
16:24 at the IOC. Then I went, I found a lot of material there and then we collaborated. In
16:28 terms of arguments, I think Borea and I have been arguing for 15 years now. When we first
16:33 started looking at this material from 2007 onwards, Borea, it's been more than 2005,
16:38 so it's been 15 years. So in fact, right till the end of the day, right till the day
16:43 when it went to press, we were arguing. Because when two people, see we have very similar
16:48 sensibilities. We both have one aim to write about, we believe in the idea of sport. We
16:53 believe in the idea of sport as a cultural practice. We believe that it's really important
16:58 as a nation for India to play sport and do well in sport. Now, obviously we are two different
17:03 people, we have different points of view on some things. But we also trust each other
17:07 enough I think to do a book together and to come to agree to disagree.
17:11 In fact, this is a very unique production when you have two guys not agreeing but agreeing
17:16 to write a book. It obviously brings out a very good production.
17:19 I think it makes it better because what happens is that in this, any creative process of writing
17:25 is subjective, right? So when you argue it out, you question your own assumptions a lot
17:29 more. And therefore I think this is the best book we could have written.
17:33 Bore, I was telling Nalin that this is not a book. It has stories, it has data, it has
17:42 a lot of opinion which you have made, very rightly so. And it has a lot of observations
17:48 which are very pertinent to India's future as far as a sporting nation. But having seen
17:55 a lot of the world, you've seen a lot of the world. Do you think, my first question
18:00 to you, that India really has a sporting future?
18:05 Sporting future, yes. Culture, no. I mean even at this point in time do we have a sporting
18:08 culture? No. We are getting there. We still are in search of that elusive sporting system
18:14 that Nalin and I talk about. Are we getting there? Yes. For example, in shooting we now
18:19 have a structure. We do. And that is the fundamental change since Rio that we are seeing. As a
18:23 result you are seeing Indian shooting do so well. There is a structure at the junior level,
18:27 proper coaching, proper accountability, sports science. What do I mean by a structure? A
18:32 structure means proper coaching, sports science, nutrition. It's a total holistic structure
18:38 that I am talking about here. Other sports don't. You know if you actually see a lot
18:42 of the other sports, the federations are mired in contradiction. They are fighting with each
18:46 other. There are five different federations claiming I am the right federation. So there
18:49 is a lot wrong there. Having said that, some sports we have got it right. There is a Gopi
18:54 in badminton. There is a Raninder Singh in shooting who has got the structure right.
18:58 There is, irrespective of the structure, boxing has now sort of evolved quite a bit. So the
19:04 answer is yes, we have a sporting future. Big time. Because when I see Somitra Dutta,
19:09 3000 people participating in a badminton competition where there were 150 people some years back,
19:14 it gives me hope. When I see 55,000 people participate in the Mumbai marathon, nobody
19:19 asking what religion, what caste, what economic background, it gives me hope. So yes, the
19:23 answer is I am a born optimist. I always will see the glasses half full rather than half
19:28 empty. I have a very interesting question for you. You run a very important digital
19:33 platform followed by billions, not billions, billions. You love the word billions, don't
19:38 you? So when it comes to digital and when you look at trends, don't you feel that when
19:49 he talks about the structure, when he talks about shooting getting there, but all the
19:55 page views are taken away by a bullock cart racer. How does it feel?
20:00 Look, like Borea said, I think we are optimists. The point of the thing is that it doesn't
20:06 matter whether you are interested in sport or not. When the Olympics come, every Indian
20:11 asks this question, where are the medals coming from, right? Almost all Indians ask that question.
20:15 The point is for a lot of people, sport is much more than, for sports people and those
20:21 interested in sport, it's about the craft. For most of the rest of the country, it's
20:24 about nationalism, it's about identity. Now when the bullock cart thing happens, that
20:29 represents actually the yearning of a country to get some kind of success. So there is a
20:33 desperation around that. That's why that happens. Now if that generates some interest
20:38 in sport, well, we'll take it as it comes.
20:41 But compare it with Hussain Borea.
20:44 I thought Shobit Suda, and I've written about it, I thought it was the greatest disservice
20:48 done to that man. Because that man is independently talented.
20:52 But Borea, I must stop you there. In fact, he had more sensibilities.
20:55 He said he did not want to go out.
20:58 I said that. I wrote that. The fellow actually came out as the most sane voice in the school
21:04 narrative. It is our problem. You know, someone did this and this whole thing caught out with
21:09 our media that he's being compared to Hussain Bolt. Hussain Bolt is once in a hundred years.
21:15 So let's give credit to Hussain Bolt, and let's give credit to this man also. Let's
21:20 treat him as an independent, talented man coming out of rural India.
21:25 In his own craft.
21:26 In his own craft. And India has many such.
21:28 And he's been working on it, training for it since he was a child. He gets paid for
21:32 it.
21:33 So the fact of the matter is, he and I have done this. We had once done an issue for an
21:37 Australian news portal. This only happens in India, you remember? This actually only
21:42 happens in India.
21:43 Somebody comes and I was, and you know what? My fear is, and this you will agree with me,
21:48 if today we actually go and say that by comparing this man with Bolt, you've done a disservice,
21:53 somebody will see you're anti-national.
21:55 Goodness gracious me, whoever that fellow who has compared with Bolt is an idiot. Is
22:03 doing, somebody compared Hima Das to win an Olympic gold. You have ultimately done disservice
22:08 to Hima Das.
22:09 And I wrote about it for his page. What we ended up doing was, we screwed up Hima Das's
22:14 head.
22:15 A 21 year old formative athlete, the races she had won was E and F categories. She was
22:22 ranked 87 in the world, we were saying Olympic gold.
22:25 I think in a country we need to have perspective.
22:28 Correct, that's what we lack.
22:29 We need to have perspective and a sense of balance.
22:31 And that what happens is sometimes we just go over the top.
22:33 Absolutely.
22:34 And that happens more often than not.
22:35 Yes, in fact, my other question is, since you've been in the media, Borea, I think Borea
22:43 has done more cricket interviews and stories than Olympic stories, if I'm not wrong.
22:48 Equally I would say now, because I've done a lot of Olympic stuff.
22:51 But it is totally skewed towards cricket. And I was imagining, if cricket was an Olympic
22:57 sport, how would you have written this book?
23:00 Firstly, cricket was in 1900.
23:04 Yes.
23:05 I'm saying in the recent times.
23:07 We would have, Nalin and I, in fact that's a great question. Maybe the next edition should
23:11 start with the chapter why cricket isn't and how the VCCI will make sure that it is
23:15 an Olympic sport.
23:16 We probably should. In fact, that's why we made it a point to call it India and the
23:18 Olympic Games. We could have called it the history of Indian sport and then had something
23:21 on cricket here. But we didn't because we made it a point to write about Olympic sport
23:24 which are not, which are often ignored in this country except for that once in four
23:28 years.
23:29 I'm going through the very personal thing. I've done cricket for donkey's years. If
23:33 somebody asks me to watch a cricket World Cup and an Olympic Games, an Olympic Games
23:37 will win 10 times out of 10. There's no comparison. A cricket World Cup will be number 11 to number
23:43 20. Olympics is 1 to 10. That whole vision of an Olympic Games, 28 different sports,
23:51 is something extraordinary.
23:52 It's amazing. It gives you an entire age of 15.
23:54 An Abhinav's line that Olympic Games is not every four years, it's every day, that
23:59 defines this book.
24:00 Absolutely.
24:01 He's got that in his centre and it comes every day.
24:04 I have one question for you. Why haven't we succeeded in team sports?
24:10 See one of the reasons why, we've got this in the book, one of the reasons why India
24:14 was a hockey superpower when the hockey team was doing very well is because there was no
24:18 parochialism and factionalism in those teams in that period. Hockey starts declining, everyone
24:24 says because of AstroTurf. What we've documented is not just because of AstroTurf but also
24:27 because of a North-South serious divide in this country in the administration of the
24:32 game. And once the team falls off the rails, it's very difficult to bring it back together.
24:36 Part of the issue I think in team games is, unless you have a professional structure in
24:40 place which allows, look, teams will rise and fall, even the best of structures will
24:45 sometimes lead to a bad team.
24:46 It has happened with the Dutch football team.
24:48 But, you look at Indian cricket now, once you have a relatively much more professional
24:52 structure in place, you have a far greater chance of doing well in team sport than otherwise.
24:57 And again, I don't think success has been there in any sport consistently. If you actually,
25:02 Olympic sport.
25:03 Yes.
25:04 So if you take a look at shooting for example, it went up with Rathore and Abhinav and Gagan.
25:10 And in 2012 it fell.
25:11 And then it fell. Rio we all thought 12 shooters, multiple medals. It fell. 20 again we will
25:17 win. I mean, Olympic sport with all the pressures, we should win. That's what you and I will
25:22 say as rational optimists.
25:24 So in Indian sport, where is that consistent graph? No sport. Maybe with Gopi in badminton
25:29 we are seeing, okay, 2008 quarter finals, 2012 bronze, 2016 silver, so maybe 2020.
25:35 You look at boxing, I mean, you had in Beijing and then after that things have just fallen
25:41 off.
25:42 I mean, the best example is 2012, 6 medals and 6 months later your Indian Olympic Association
25:45 gets disqualified because of corruption and mismanagement.
25:48 Yes.
25:49 What more do you want?
25:50 I have my last questions for you, Borea, in context of your book. Realistically speaking,
25:56 there are a lot of stories of inspiration in this book. But inspiration does not translate
26:01 into medals. They are two different facts of life. Realistically speaking, if you were
26:07 to write this book after the Tokyo Games, how would you write this?
26:12 I think we have debated this to the T. I think realistically, sitting today in JAN, keeping
26:22 in mind athletes' fitness, performance, their graph over the last few years, mental ability,
26:27 potential to take pressure, we stand to win anywhere between 7 and 9 medals in Tokyo.
26:33 And I will give you the breakdown. 4 to 5 in shooting because we qualified 15 shooters,
26:38 21 events, at least 4 because there are mixed events also. So there are multiple events.
26:43 So Apoorvi and Saurav, and Manu and, so pistol and rifle. So Apoorvi, sorry, Apoorvi and
26:50 Deepak and Manu and Saurav. And gold chances, not other medals. So 4 to 5 realistically.
26:56 I am taking 2 in wrestling. I am taking one from Vinesh or one of the girls.
27:00 Bajrang.
27:01 I am taking one from Bajrang or Deepak or Ravi. So I am taking one from boxing. I am
27:07 going with one with Amit and maybe Manish or someone else. I am going one. I am going
27:12 conservative. I am going one from Gopi's table. Satyajit Chirag or Sindhu. I am going
27:16 one. So that gives you 8. And I am going, so that's my vision. So Neeraj has a chance,
27:21 X has a chance, Y has a chance. So between 7 and 9.
27:23 7 and 9 and roughly around 15 in Paralympic sport. Let's not forget that at all. That's
27:28 absolutely crucial.
27:29 Maybe even 20.
27:30 Possibly.
27:31 Maybe even 20 in Paralympics. Rio we had 4. That, show me through that, will be a revolution.
27:37 Thank you Bore and Alin for being with us and my hearty thanks from Outlook and may
27:42 your book do well.
27:43 Thank you sir.
27:43 Thank you sir.
27:45 Thank you sir.
27:48 Thank you.
27:50 (gentle music)
27:52 (gentle music)