Going for gold in 'Olympics of Life'

Going for gold in 'Olympics of Life'

JAKARTA (JP): It takes something like the Olympics rolling
around every four years to make one sit up and realize what a
competitive arena the world has become.

Insurmountable challenges and unbelievable obstacles are
overcome and there is constantly someone breaking a record by
just a few hundredths of a seconds, someone lifting or hurling
just a few more kilograms or reaching out for just that tiny bit
more.

Meanwhile, for the more ordinary people caught up in mundane
daily activities, the mere mention of more competition is quite
daunting -- as if there were not enough challenges to be overcome
in our very own, custom-made "Home Olympics".

Life is one big Olympics which requires staunch verve and
every dreg of undiluted patience to meet the unpalatable
challenges that it serves up in steaming hot platefuls every day.

One can find the Olympic spirit of competition right on the
very roads of Jakarta, where traffic congestion and chaos require
one to sharpen the senses and reflexes on par with a judo
competitor, where the singular goal in each one's mind is to get
ahead of the car in front and primarily only to win. Making a U-
turn on Jl. Kelapa Gading requires the skills of a brain surgeon.

There is also the Olympics of the social elite, where a
valorous effort is required to maneuver into social setups and to
be seen with the right people. It is not important whom they see
but whom they are seen with.

Then there are the "Political Olympics", the challenging
competition for those political power. The intoxication of power
is as forceful as a nuclear fissure. Getting ahead of those vying
for the high chair takes more willpower and steadfastness than
those competing in the 10-kilometer run. Any obstacles on the way
need to be met and dealt with as just one goal in sight.

And then there is the Olympiad run by the housewife. She faces
the daunting 100 m hurdle race of making the paycheck stretch for
a whole month. While competing, she has to constantly conjure
innovative and mouthwatering food the family would love to come
home to. The end of the month is the climax -- while an athlete
quickens his pace to break through the winner's ribbon, her
cookery skills are challenged to a point that prompt her to
consider dying the potato cutlets brown and passing them off as
burgers.

The end of the month also sees her getting rid of the
voluminous stack of something she picked up obsessively in a
promotion drive. A friend panicked at the time of the crisis and
shopped for a whole trolley load of egg noodles. "If the world
crashes and supermarkets close down at least we can eat noodles,"
she said.

She was left with the challenge of serving all those noodles
in ingenious and innovative ways or, in other words, getting rid
of them. She learned how to make those cute crunchy fried noodle
baskets. She serves chicken a la noodle baskets, cap cay (stir-
fried vegetables) in noodle baskets, fried rice in noodle baskets
and sometimes noodle baskets with chili sauce.

While the Olympics winners receive a gold, silver and bronze
medal, all the "Home Olympic" medals rightfully to the mother and
full-time housemaid, juggling housework, kids, job, husband and
social obligations in pristine Olympic spirit. However, their
medals are not rotund metal orbs but exist in the form of a
clean-licked casserole dish or dessert bowl and a gurgling
satiated burp after the lights are off.

An Olympic weightlifter closes his eyes in concentration and
stakes every cell in against the heavy weight he is going to lift
above his head. He raises it, with his breath nearly bursting in
his lungs, before dropping it back. On another part of the
playing field is handicapped man whose lungs are bursting from
the effort it has taken to get himself out of the wheelchair and
onto the booth where he works as a ticket collector. But the
crowd does not cheer the relentless effort of this hero.

While keeping an eye on the final medal tally in Sydney, let
us take a minute to appreciate the work of some other heroes in
our lives -- the volunteer workers of the United Nations and the
Red Cross, the paramedics who rush to save accident victims, the
firefighters who brave the flames to save people -- the list of
the heroes is endless. And while acknowledging some of the
frivolous Olympics that people are caught up in, let us not lose
our perspective and forget to applaud those heroes whose life and
work make them the true champions in the "Olympics of Life".

-- Pavan Kapoor