When the talk focuses on a race, maybe the 100m or the marathon may come into your puny mind. That’s what an average child comes to identify right from the first sports meet in school. That race is fun to watch, great joy for the winner/s, the losers may wait for the next year — no love lost. Sportsmanship guides athletes. However, the stakes are higher in national or international meets. Hence, doping cases are no mere coincidence. Name, fame and wealth await the person who just rushes ahead of the competitors to cross the final post. But, it is not as easy a proposition to let the other person move a lap in front to deny you the honour.

The race for the plum post via promotion is something else. The race here is business as usual where gains matter, not losses. It’s literally a race as to who can make it to the doors of those who matter in the government, or those who can pull the strings for the puppet show. Well, no one sees the aspirants whizzing away in their shorts in the Dashrath Stadium track, but words fly around of who went where to make the appeal for being the right choice for the promotion. Stories are there of the person with the string getting their petty motives fulfilled by putting the stamp of approval on the back of their favourite horse. The race becomes unfair, yet, jokes apart, that’s the time-tested modus operandi out here.