Sharmistha Gooptu in Paris
As we alighted from our taxi in front of a waterway that stretched before us, and a flight of stairs that led up to a bridge amidst the lush green, we encountered a group of young Indian volunteers, all in India House t-shirts. They were Indian students enrolled at different universities and schools in Paris and who had volunteered to assist with the grand opening of the first-ever India House at any Olympics.
La Villette is the locale that houses several of the hospitality houses of the competing nations and as we climbed the bridge and walked over the waterway in the light drizzle, sounds of a band from one of the country houses — Slovenia, we were told — picked up in the air. India House was vibrant in pink and blue and purple in the distance and we approached to loud cheers from the gathered visitors. A couple of drummers got the beats going and a group bearing a large Tricolour broke into a free-style bhangra.
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Festive mood at #PARIS2024 as India House, the nation’s inaugural country house at the #OlympicGames, is inaugurated amidst much fanfare.@BoriaMajumdar shows you around the fascinating India House, conceptualized by @ril_foundation in association with @WeAreTeamIndia.… pic.twitter.com/CeXLW8BL8T
— RevSportz Global (@RevSportzGlobal) July 27, 2024
India House has been conceptualised and set up by Reliance Foundation in partnership with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and several Indian dignitaries were in attendance, including Mukesh and Nita Ambani with their family members, IOA president P.T. Usha, Randhir Singh (acting president of Olympic Council of Asia), BCCI secretary Jay Shah, Indian shooting legend Abhinav Bindra and a host of international dignitaries and athletes.
The venue showcases Indian handicrafts and artwork, and pays tribute to Indian Olympic legends in its telling of the Olympic story. India House is a legacy project and a venue that the RevSportz team will return to again, as we cover the Olympic Games in Paris. It will be a venue for celebration and gathering each and every time the Indian contingent wins a medal.
The creation of an India House, the first-ever at an Olympic Games, speaks of the country’s growing engagement with Olympic sport, as also its burgeoning soft power on the international stage. India, this time, has serious medal hopes, but over and above that, it was the enthusiasm and eagerness for multi-sport that was telling. India House will be a destination through the duration of the Paris Games but it will create a lineage that will carry forward India’s Olympic story.
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