When kids my age were picking up toy cars, I used to buy toy guns.
Sport is an important part of the development of kids, and hence, it should be made a part of their curriculum.
Shooting is very challenging because 10 metre air rifle you have different rules, short gun you have different rules.
Sporting culture is needed where marks are given to students for sports in schools, jobs are assured for sportsperson, and sponsors are willing to support them through rough times.
Now I know the difference between a rousing reception and a pat on the back. Now I know the difference between a gold in Commonwealth Games and a bronze in Olympics.
Cricket pays well, so a lot of people are naturally drawn towards the game. But to carve a niche in non-cricket sports is not easy. So state governments need to be proactive. Indians need to be made aware of the power of an Olympic medal. It should be treated at par with an Oscars or a Nobel Prize.
To compare Olympic sport with cricket would not be fair. Years back, cricket was a sport only for the classes, and we will also have to make other sports masses from classes like cricket.
All of world's eyes are trained on the Games. So winning at that stage is heroic. It is a different feeling altogether and cannot be explained in words.
I am glad. I am now an Olympic medallist.
For your friends and family, you are always a champion, but for the media and sponsors, not until you show a spark. Making a champ is more important than celebrating one. I want to be there for youngsters and help them do their best.
Not much is done to promote non-cricket sports in India. There is a lot of talk about how sports needs to reach the grassroots and how it should be introduced as a subject in school, but nothing has been done to that effect.
I think country needs to have a sporting culture. I think if sports were taken as curriculum in school and are encouraged in right way like government of Maharashtra and Haryana have done given Marks for Sports and encouraging them with good jobs.
People need to take as much interest in other sports as they take in cricket, and that's where we come across a vicious cycle of performance, sponsorship, recognition, jobs and TV visibility. It's a typical chicken-and-egg story; each one is directly related to the other without an answer for what comes first.
