Despite the bickering between three local associations involved in organising the event, "it's opened a whole new world and we've proved a point," says Avinash C Kohli, President, Indian Kayaking and Canoeing Association (IKCA).

And, in his own way, he is right. For a paradise that has seen its tourist traffic dip to virtually zero, 350 young men and women -- mostly from the lower middle class -- coming together to a destination as loaded as this is quite a watershed.

In fact, the Andaman and Nicobar team, which has some of the sport's best talent, travelled for nine days -- four by sea,three by train and the final hairpin bends on a rickety bus -- to reach Srinagar. Yet, when they arrived, there wasn't a hint of fatigue, only happy faces all around.

Of course, there were the usual glitches with the J & K Sports Council playing hard to get and parting with the equipment (mostly faulty) at the last moment. But locals like Gurdeep Singh Bakshi and Omer Rafiq helped get on with the show. In fact, according to Kohli, the boats were lying with the J&K Tourism department from almost eight years!

But then, that's only to be expected in a sport so young. Kohli and Co. started the Association only in 1985 and it has taken them this long just to get the numbers. As Kohli quips, he still gets calls from people asking whether it's the `Cooking and Kayaking Association, Sir?' "Once they know how to spell it correctly, only then will the politics start," he adds with a laugh.

Things do seem rather clean so far, for, the odds at stake are most negligible. There is neither sponsorship nor money in thenational championships, only a professionally-run national camp at Allappuzha (Kerala), sponsored by the Malayala Manorama group, with a Hungarian coach, Vladimir Obraztov, to embellish the pretty picture.

There is an Asian Games '94 bronze in the C-2 (canoeing - pairs) event that hints at things to come if all goes well. And the imported coach has, in fact, made a significant difference, well documented at the recently held Services trials near Rourkee. "We are no match for them. They beat us hollow," says a former national camper, now with Bengal Engineers, Rourkee.

But again, it is not exactly Utopia in God's Own Country. There are burning questions all around. Apparently, the elite group of National campers -- who incidentally, did not turn up for the Srinagar championships -- are so few that they simply have no competition. For example, the canoeing team of Siji Kumar Sadanand, Vagaram and Subhash know that they are virtually booked on the flight to Bangkok. Of the three, Siji rows on the leftand "what happens if he is injured," is one question that hasn't yet got a satisfactory answer.

Of course, there is the argument that the campers are so good that anyone who is added to the team now cannot match their timings in a span of two or three months.

But "what about Mahesan (who won silver in the '97 National Games C-2 event) and P. Manoj (who, alongwith A.B Kumar upset the top team of Siji Kumar and Philip Mathew in the National Games 200m," is what many paddlers want to know. After all, the Games were in June last year and the boys would have had a good one and-a-half years to train with the Hungarian coach.

But, GPS Bindra, General Secretary, IKCA says, "We want young blood. These boys, though they are good, are already in their late twenties. They are OK for coaching, or for the national championships but not to compete against other Asian nations."

Anyway, looking at the bright side, it is a wonderful sport, young and apolitical yet. Though Kerala and the Services have the cream now,and swept the medals at Srinagar, Manipur, J&K, and Punjab can change all that, given a few years. Two medals at the Bangkok Asiad is a very realistic target; the sport has just been recognised by the Association of Indian Universities for its annual inter-varsity meets; there's a brand new junior academy coming up at Jhansi and Kohli is confident he can pull off a real coup -- get the world's best coach, another Hungarian, for the Indian team. That then, could well be the turning point.