Abhinav Bindra's Road to Beijing

apologies for the long absence... i think that i just needed to fall off the planet after all the mayhem and recuperate for the gruelling last four years... so as you guys are all probably aware i have been trying my hand at things other than shooting... so have been doing a few commercials, giving speeches, been doing a lot of stuff with my dogs, have been busy in the office with a few projects and it has been amazing been staying away from the shooting range...

Over the last couple of days I have been saddenned reading and hearing things about me.  I am not the type of person who likes controversy and being ungrateful to anyone or getting success & fame into my head is the last thing on my mind.  Setting the record straight I am grateful to every organisation /association who supported me.  I know there were plenty of people in the system who believed in me - i am really thankful to them, also there were plenty of people in the system who never believed in my abililties- A bigger thank you to them - cos its they who gave me a lot of motivation to show what i was capable of.  So i hope with this i have covered every possible person  to thank and i hope we can put an end to the controversy and focus on far more subjects in hand and that is the development of indian olympic sport.

have tried (unsuccessfully) for the last couple of weeks to cut myself off the phone/internet/television and really introspect and actually rest up after a hectic first half of my life. So would like apologize to my readers for sporadic posts and really being missing but i am in a weird frame of mind lately with so many things on my plate adn really not knowing where to start....
for starters I am now trying to focus on giving back to shooting and actually doing some assessments on what is really required and best to go about doing things that will be most beneficial to our shooters. The most important thing to winning a medal is to have the right plan and right vision and hopefully when i give these someone will listen.

sorry again for the sporadic posts but have been really busy. so i am the guest editor for the Times of India today and i have really laid out some of the problems that plague indian sport... the point is that i don't want to sound like this griping old man but truly believe that we NEED TO CHANGE NOW!!!!!
The point is that only us sports lovers and people who really care for the country can make this happen so am open to all my readers offering various solutions and how we can proceed forward. we need to do this together and is something that will make this country a better place not only for sportsmen but everyone. So lets all put our heads together and really figure out how we can make this happen.

The show is over!! the closing ceremony was magnificent and i enjoyed watching it on tv. It was amazing to see all the athletes so relaxed and enjoying themselves. Performing at the top level always isnt really fun!! there is so much pressure to perform, expectations to live upto , facing your fears and doubts and yet one has to find a way out!! 

i would like to respond today to a few of the questions in my comments(i do read this section :)) and i know that will not be able to respond to each and every comment and so i apologize for that. Firstly i would like to say how overwhelmed i am that i have so many well wishers and supporters who are just as happy and proud of the gold medal as i am. I never expected such a turn out and i am really touched by such a huge and gracious turn out.
Which leads me to my next point... in my last posting i had posted the question of "what next?" and there have been lots of comments on that and i would like to dedicate an entire post on that in the coming days. However i would like to say that i want to use this time now when people are willing to listen to my opinion for the greater good of indian sport and actually go out there and make a difference.
I think it is important that we do this in a team effort where the more the merrier and only when we all join hands can there be a change for the better in the Indian system. So i am in the process of starting off with a shooting plan and i will also write more about this once it is finalized.
the truth is that everyone can do something to help indian sport... it doesn't have to be monitory and even someones support behind an athlete gives a big and much needed boost. So if we all do our bit, even the smallest gesture makes a big difference in the long and winding journey to the top.

well life is really returning back to normal and i am now faced with a dilemma as to "what next?"