New Delhi: A lump rose in the throat as the Asian Games Flame was extinguished at the GBK Main Stadium on a rainy Sunday evening. As irony would have it, thunder and lightning ushered in the sound and light show to bring the curtain down on the 18th edition of the continental festival of sport; it was just as emotional to watch Rani Rampal carry the Tricolour at the athletes’ parade.

Even as the colourful closing ceremony wound a memorable Games down, the Indians in the audience chose their own freeze-frames to latch on to. From javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra’s truly world class effort and a surprising but well-deserved bronze medals from the table tennis squad headlined the most successful Indian campaign in Asian Games history.

Yet to think of this as an indication of India becoming a sporting nation would be to miss the woods for the trees. There is a lot of work left to be done to achieve that, even if the country has been moving in the direction of its choice. Some have seen this as the emergence of India as a sporting powerhouse. Suffice to say that India is eighth on the Asian Games medals table. The flame was extinguished, but the experience of the Asian Games will have ignited many fires among those who came to Indonesia but missed out on medals. Yet, if the past fortnight has sparked many more dreams among younger Indians, eager to embark on the difficult but endearing journey to excellence, the campaign will have succeeded beyond the 69 medals that India won.