It's home away from home for Indians in London

Vijender Singh sums it up best. "It is a home away from home for us all. We are assured of great support in London, which will be very important at the Olympics," he says.
Interviews with Indians in London indicate that Indian athletes will indeed have tremendous crowd backing during the Games. With close to 700,000 Indians residing in the UK, there's little doubt that the British-born desis, or the non-resident Indians, will come out to offer best wishes to the Indian athletes, particularly Vijender Singh."We don't have tickets to all events the Indians are involved in, but we will surely be there at the Excel arena to cheer Vijender Singh and the boxers. If he can win gold, Southhall will go crazy."
That he is spot on was borne out by speaking to sections of the Indian community in Southhall. "We will also support Sandeep, Sardar and the hockey team. But Vijender has a great chance of winning a medal. He is really good-looking as well," says a young Sikh girl who has tickets to the boxing at the Excel arena, which is hosting five different events at the Olympics.
Randhir Singh, India's IOC member and IOA boss, who is coming into London on July 21, agrees with the assumption that London can be a real watershed in the history of Indian Olympic sport. "We have the best contingent in our sporting history going to London. Fingers crossed we will more than double our Beijing medal count," says Singh.
With a huge Indian media contingent in attendance to report on the achievements of the Indian stars, there's little doubt that Olympics will occupy centerstage in India's national imagination come 27 July. However the growing passion for the Olympics has another side to it as well.
Sania Mirza, before leaving for India for a week at home, put it nicely, "We shouldn't only talk of 'going for gold'. Of course winning the gold medal at the Olympics is the ultimate ambition for any sportsperson. But remember each of the 10,500 athletes will want to win that elusive gold medal. Roger Federer has never won a singles gold at the Olympics. Does it make him a lesser player? I'd say we should hail every medal-winning effort at London with equal zest."
Importantly for the Indian community in London, three of the nation's biggest medal hopes are competing in the first couple of days of competition. Vijender will be in action on 28 July and Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang will compete in their favourite event, the 10m air rifle, on 29 July. And a winning start is capable of galvanizing the entire South Asian diaspora, which will indeed make the Olympic experience a very special one.
Historically, India has always received good support in London. If Lord's was half Indian during the 2011 India versus England Test series, in 2009 the English captain Paul Collingwood was actually booed at cricket's mecca while playing India at the T20 World Cup.
Even in 1948, when the Olympics were last held in London, the Indian hockey team received great support when they played Britain for the gold medal. They won the gold, beating Britain 4-0 and this British defeat on British soil unleashed some of the wildest celebrations Indian hockey has ever known. To give a cricketing analogy, most Indians today remember the delightful Indian invasion at Lord's after the victory at the 1983 World Cup. The images of those celebrations, beamed live on television, are now etched forever in India's public memory.
There were no live cameras to record the landmark 1948 hockey win in London for posterity but contemporary press reports note that the many thousand Indian spectators present were delirious. Amidst spectacular scenes of jubilation, the Indian high commissioner, VK Krishna Menon, ran on to the ground to join the celebrations.
As reminisced by Balbir Singh Senior, the star of the victory, "After the victory, VK Krishna Menon, free India's first high commissioner in London, came running to congratulate us. He joined us for a group photograph. Later, he also gave an official reception at India House, where a big gathering of sports lovers was present."
Needless to say, there will be a far bigger reception at India House or at the Nehru Centre if a few of the Indian athletes emulate the hockey feat of 1948. Such achievements will surely go on to inspire a generation back home in India to stay true to the Olympic spirit. 80-plus Indian athletes a real boost.
"We were there in huge numbers at Lord's last year when the Indian cricket team was here. It was a disaster. This time around we expect it will be different. India has a real chance of winning more than five medals and we will do all we can to support our athletes," says a restaurant owner at Edgware Road in Central London, very close to Lord's.