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Germany will take on hosts China in the tournament opener on Monday and the Indian flag would not be fluttering at the Olympic Green Hockey Centre.
A nation, which once made winning Olympic gold medals a quadrennial habit, would now only watch from distance and try to come to terms with the fact that India, the spiritual home of the game, is just not good enough to compete in Olympics, let alone winning medals.
Not that India's absence went unnoticed. Section of the Chinese media wondered at Indian hockey's riches-to-rag story and how it takes some sheen of the event.
International Hockey Federation (FIH) President Els van Breda Vriesman has also sympathised with India, but she also hinted that they reaped just what they had sowed.
"No one wanted India to see India out of the Olympics but the reality is that the best 12 nations have qualified for Beijing," she said before the Games began.
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Without mighty India, hockey matches in the ongoing Beijing Oly look predictable, usual up and down stuff, physical and with a lot less dimensions and intricacies. We need to start preparing for the next Oly Games in right earnest. Lovers of hockey look forward to Indian participation and victory in the next Olympics.