The aroma of curry is in the air. The tunes of a sitar can be heard, not far from a man bent over an ancient loom. A few meters away, Veena Nagda, the henna queen beloved throughout Bollywood, demonstrates this ancient tradition on the hands of a tourist, amid the humidity of a Parisian summer. Because no, we are not in New Delhi or Calcutta, but in the gardens of La Villette, in 19e district of Paris, where India resides. It is there, in the Park of Nations, that some fifteen foreign delegations have set up their hospitality space, for the duration of the Olympic Games (OG).
It is impossible to miss India House. A temporary pavilion with a candy pink facade, at the entrance of which there are two small elephants in flowers, stretches along the Ourcq canal. Indian history, culture and craftsmanship are celebrated there. National champions are also broadcast on giant screens. This is the first time in the history of the Olympics that India has shown itself like this. And it is not entirely coincidental.
India, the host country for the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games, is on a mission of seduction in Paris. “We are gathered here to open the door to a dream, a dream shared by 1.4 billion Indians. Bringing India to the Olympics and our common dream is to bring the Olympics to India.”said Nita Ambani, at the inauguration of India House on July 27.
MI Ambani has been a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2016; she was re-elected just ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics. She is also the wife of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, the country’s richest man and head of the Reliance conglomerate, whose foundation funds India House, in Paris, and played a key role in supporting the bid for the 2036 Games.
The growth of sports venues in society
India has never hosted the Olympics. It is an oddity for the country, the world’s leading demographic power, to be a dwarf on the Olympic planet. Especially considering its influential neighbor China has hosted twice (the 2008 Summer Games and the 2022 Winter Games). In its hundred years of Olympic participation, India has collected only thirty-five medals – including ten golds –, roughly the same as France’s haul in Tokyo in 2021. And we had to wait until 2008 in Beijing for the first medal of the subcontinent to be crowned in the individual event, Abhinav Bindra in shooting.
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