India has a population of approximately 960 million people and everything about it is extreme. That certainly includes the temperature, the amazing variety of costume, the amazing variety of sects and religions and the extraordinary difficulty of organising such a huge number of interests which are sometimes in conflict.

Thus the success which crowned Dr. Raj Yadav's organisational efforts to get this, which was really the first proper Transplant Games held in India (although historically the third) deserves our congratulations and admiration. A total of 200 athletes took part in the Games. Many of them travelling hundreds and hundreds of miles under difficult conditions despite Government help with reduced railway fares. Sadly, at the last minute, a team from Pakistan were forced to regretfully cancel their appearance.

I was much reminded of 1978 in Portsmouth when our Games first started because of the cheerful and make-do atmosphere which pervaded it. Results were good but not outstanding, but the enthusiasm of the competitors was phenomenal. Of course, the great prize was hoping to represent the Indian team in the World Transplant Games in Sydney in September 1997 and to this end, serious training was earnestly being planned and discussed.

A successful Games is always a team effort and the All India Games were no exception. Surrounding Dr. Yadav was a group of surgeons, physicians and other helpers who had clearly worked very hard to organise a complex and happy event. Conferences were held in which earnest discussion about the enormous problem of organ donation in a country which has only recently passed regulations which make illegal non-related commercial kidney donation. The successfully transplanted athletes that were there all felt that they were the lucky few and exhibited a determination to share their good fortune with the thousands and thousands of patients on dialysis throughout India. Liver transplantation is being performed as is heart transplatation. The sleeping giant is slowly awakening.

Perhaps the most vivid memory of all is the colourful military band, fully accoutered in their brilliant uniforms, slowly overheating with temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit as they played enthusiastically the theme from McLean's Siberian epic, a theme which most of us vividly asociate with Julie Christie trudging through dense snowstorms. We congratulate the Indian Transplant Sports' Association on a brilliant beginning. I have every confidence that they will continue and flourish.

 

Last modified: 11 May 2000