Falling Beds, Missing Chairs And Brazilian Jugaad

Things have reached such a stage in Rio that it’s impossible not to compare the 2016 games with the Commonwealth Games (CWG) of Delhi in 2010. Six years ago, just a few days before the opening ceremony of CWG, an Indian boxer, Akhil Kumar, checked into an apartment in the games village and the moment he sat on a bed to take rest, the bed collapsed. Apparently, in their hurry to prepare the room, the housekeeping staff had put a bed sheet over a bed frame. To his astonishment, the boxer found that there was no bed, actually. It was all jugaad and it didn’t work.  

And it’s not working in Brazil too. The Chinese athletes are having sleepless nights in Rio’s Olympic village as they are afraid that their bed may collapse any time. “Basin falls while washing @Rio2016 Media Village. Bed is possible to collapse while in sleep. No electricity in room,” tweeted a Chinese athlete on Tuesday.

Just 10 days back, the city mayor had accepted that almost 60 percent of the apartments were not ready. But as teams began to arrive, the organisers probably resorted to jugaad Brazilian style. In fact, in Brazil they have a word for it. It’s called jeitinho, and it has the same meaning as the Indian word jugaad that is to make things work in whatever way you can, generally by cutting corners.

Ironically, it’s the Indian team too that has fallen to Brazilian jeitinho. It seems the Indian hockey team have been put into rooms with no furniture and television.  Members of Indian hockey federation have posted photos of some team members sitting on bean bags in their empty rooms with bare walls.  Indian hockey officials have been shooting emails and posting photos on social media for the past couple of days, but they are still waiting for chairs and TV sets in their rooms.

While Indian hockey team has been pretty upset with the condition of their living quarters, other athletes, including tennis star Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna, seem quite satisfied with the village. The players met members of the Indian community in Rio on Tuesday and posed for photos with several families who went to the Olympic village to greet them.