Here is how it will unfold.
One of our Indian athletes will win a medal. Doesn't matter which athlete or which medal. That is when it will begin.
The deluge of tweets, hashtags, FB posts and messages. Every one of us Indians who is on social media will be posting words of pride on one of our own winning at the world's biggest sporting event.
The most annoying posts will be of those morons on FB who feel they have to have an update on everything that is trending -- their posts will be worded as if they are childhood friends of the athlete. You know who you are.
Then there will be the articles with titles such as "Bollywood shows support for xyz athlete". An article such as this will comprise a series of tweets copy-pasted from the Twitter accounts of Bollywood stars expressing their appreciation of the athlete. A similar article will be "written" on how cricketers have shown their support.
Then the Olympics will be over and the athlete will be forgotten till 2020.
Barring Mary Kom, whose story inspired a film, most Indians will not be able to identify Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang in a line-up. Yet most people in India will be able to identify Sakshi Dhoni and Anjali Tendulkar.
Most Indians will not be able to identify Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang in a line-up.
I'm willing to put myself on the line that most Indians won't know what sport bronze medal winner Yogeshwar Dutt represented India in at the London Olympics 2012. In case you are wondering it is shooting. Just kidding, it's archery, or wait a second, is it boxing? See, I've confused you already.
Don't be lazy – just try googling his name.
Of course, it's possible that we won't win any medals at all. That's when the "I can't believe that in a country of 1.2 billion people we can't find one athlete...blah blah blah." This being the scenario insults and curses will be aimed and sport federations and ministers and once the Olympics are over it will all be forgotten.
At this stage, an Olympic athlete will accept whatever adoration they can get. Neglected by their associations, denied the recognition they deserve, some of the athletes going to Rio are already due some bouquets from us.