"Theek hain, sir. Ladd rahi hoon".
"I am alright. I am fighting."
When it comes to Indian sports, being cynical is often the default state for those in the know: such is the institutional apathy (and worse, vindictiveness), such is the sense of 'how will this ever change?'. From Vinesh Phogat's battles with the Wrestling Federation of India to Dev Meena and Kuldeep Yadav (national record holders, pole vault) struggling to arrange transport for their equipment, everything we read and see leads us down this inevitable path. For a decade, we at ESPN India have witnessed this, recorded it, seen through the eyes of the athlete just how hard it can get.
There is, though, an overriding feeling that helps us deal with the cynicism, with the hard-luck stories, with the pettiness. And that's the sheer joy that comes from watching our athletes in the arena, on the field of play, unfettered and allowed to do what they do best: Compete, contest, win or lose but give their all.
They are our inspiration. From multiple international medal-winning, hall-of-fame athletes who never stop fighting to national record-holding trailblazers who show up against all odds, to the anonymous sportsperson who competes for the love of the sport, desperately seeking that one shot of glory... they are Indian sport's great hope: the athletes. For despite it all, they keep shining.
And that's what makes the coming decade so promising for us here at ESPN India and more importantly you, the reader.
Every time you look, a track and field record has fallen, the new age athlete pushing the barrier unlike any before. Neeraj Chopra remains the shining pole star of Indian athletics (sport, really), but behind the great man, the likes of Pooja Singh, Tejaswin Shankar, Gurindervir Singh, Dev Meena are pushing the limits of what Indians believe they can do. The gap between them and the world's elite is being closed down faster than ever.
On the chess board, Gukesh Dommaraju, reigning world champion, leads a group of the most hyper-talented chess generation any nation has seen in modern history. From the siblings R Vaishali and R Praggnanandhaa to Arjun Erigaisi and World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh, the chess world is slowly starting to revolve around India.
Indian shooting has teenage talent cropping up and beating Olympic medallists at every turn. From Esha Singh to Suruchi Phogat, from double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker, still only 24 years old, to Samrat Rana, world beaters are everywhere, and more are signing on at an unprecedented rate. Today's no.1 may be tomorrow's no.15 and in that lies the vast promise of the sport.
India's Paralympians hold a promise that's even bigger, one that is unfathomable almost. Sheetal Devi, 19, is the most amazing sight in world sport, while the only one to have beaten the armless archer in two World Championships is Indian too: quadruple amputee Payal Nag (18). Avani Lekhara's ceiling is as high as she dreams it to be, while Sumit Antil will probably continue to define para-javelin on a global level for the best part of the next decade.
Even as PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy rage against the dying of the light, new badminton stars are cropping up. In Ayush Shetty and Tanvi Sharma and Unnati Hooda, hope burns bright.
Boxers like Minakshi Hooda and Jaismine Lamboria, wrestlers like Antim Panghal and Aman Sehrawat are winning medals internationally and the pipeline remains strong despite all the blockages in the system. Anahat Singh has already wowed a nation usually oblivious to a sport like squash, and she's only just turned 18 -- the coming decade is hers to conquer.
Manisha Kalyan continues to challenge what's possible for Indian football, the first Indian now to ply her trade in South America, Manisha is everything the Indian athlete stands for: brave, ambitious, willing to risk it all to become a better version of themselves. There are so many more like her, bits and pieces glinting in the rough, just waiting to be polished.
The sheer talent on display across sports is staggering - no amount of institutional apathy can hide it. The wish, the dream, remains that sporting federations remember that they exist for (and because of) the athlete, and not vice versa... but nothing can hold back this flood of talent. That the potential is there is certain. It may remain unfulfilled at times (because of the system, the circumstances, any such thing), but the hope that this potential lends us is undeniable.
Over the next ten years, India will witness newer, bigger events come to its shore. The Commonwealth Games in 2030 is set to be the launching platform from which a bid for the 2036 Olympic Games will be made. There are world championships and continental tournaments around the corner, an opportunity for the average Indian fan to witness the best in the business up close, and a chance for this nation's talent to express themselves on familiar ground, with the unrestrained backing of a home crowd.
With so much on the line for the athletes, we - journalists, fans, everyone watching - need to be as pumped up for it as they are.
It's never going to be easy but in sports, as in life. Everything may be crumbling around you, it may feel like the whole world is against you, like you are at an existential low -- but in that instance, close your eyes and remember what Vinesh Phogat told reporters when asked how she's doing (after fighting with the WFI for her inclusion until minutes before the question was put to her):
"Theek hain, sir. Ladd rahi hoon".
"I am alright. I am fighting."