Coaching 101

Viva Espana ...

Success is sweet, particularly for Luis Aragones who has come a long way since taking over the coaching reins after a disastrous Euro '04 campaign. After being vilified in the press for being a racist, for a lame exit at the FIFA World Cup '06, for hiccups during the Euro '08 qualifying campaign and for leaving out the talismanic Raul from the final squad, Aragones stuck to his guns and put an end to Spain's 44 year trophyless drought.

But what stands out even more is the manner in which it was achieved. Spain put on an entertaining display of sublime passing and attacking football coupled with a team spirit that was rivalled only by Turkey. At the start of the tournament one could easily see that the Spanish team had the depth and the talent to go all the way. But, would they be able to put aside their Basque and Catalan roots (so very prevalent at the club level), play together as a team and deliver on the big stage ? Aragones had no qualms in leaving out and substituting his star players from the playing 11. He always put out players who would play well together as a unit and deliver thereby putting the country first, not the player. This reminds me of a dialogue from the movie GOAL, where the coach tells the protagonist "The name on the front of the jersey is more important than the one on the back" ... very true.

Maybe Fabio Capello and the English football team can take a page out of the Aragones coaching manual. Come to think of it, the Indian cricket team could do with one as well.

Vedi, Veni, Visa

Vedi, Veni, Vici - I came, I saw, I conquered ... Julius Caesar (for more of Caesar's classic latin quotes, refer to the Asterix comic series)

I had gone to Mauritius for a 8 day sojourn in mid-2007. This was my first overseas trip as far as holidaying was concerned. Had planned this one to the last detail as I was being accompanied by milady. As we embarked our flight, I was in high spirits; probably like Caesar when he embarked on his conquest; and was looking forward to a few peaceful days away from the troubles & strifes of everyday life.

The idea was to do a little bit of sightseeing and just chill-out at the hotel the remaining time. Upon arrival at our hotel I was greeted by the site of white sandy beaches and turquoise blue waters. The days went by exploring various parts of the island punctuated by sumptuous breakfasts, afternoon naps and walks on the beach.

As far as shopping went, all i had planned was to get a few souvenirs but the wife had other ideas. And there we were - scouting, window-shopping, bargaining (very important in Mauritius as everybody is out to rip-u-off) and actual shopping whenever the tour guides allowed us to. Not in our favor was the fact that public sector hours in Mauritius are from 9 am - 4 pm (how I wish that were the case with the IT industry in India). Shopkeepers just don't give a damn after 5 pm and its shutters down ... even if customers are jostling to get into shops. As a result we were not able to complete all things on the shopping agenda.

I had no choice but to dip into one of the reserve (read chill-out) days for this mission. So, instead of lying on the white sandy beach sipping bottomless margaritas, we were on our way to Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, in a local bus akin to our beloved PMT. Off and running we went, ticking items off our list (prepared meticulously by the wife) till we were finally done and wiped-out at the end of it.

While packing our bags that night, I realized that I had conquered it ... the shopping district I mean ... Vedi, Vini, Visa - I came, I saw, I shopped.

PS: Mauritius, by the way, is like a paradise on earth. Worth visiting once in your life.

Carpe Diem

Carpe Diem - phrase from a Latin poem by Horace which means "seize the day". A good motto to live by as one doesn't know what tomorrow may bring. But what if, by seizing and making most of today, u become immortal tomorrow ? Impossible in today's world, people would say, but which was rendered possible by Michael Schumacher on 22 October 2006 at Interalgos, Brazil.

Statistically, Michael Schumacher will be remembered as one of the greates drivers to have graced the sport for Formula 1 racing. 7 world championships, 91 grand prix wins, most race wins in a season (2004: 13/18), most race wins with a team (Ferrari: 72), so on an so forth. But then again, statistics alone dont define a sportsman; its the manner in which those statistics were compiled. Schumacher's driving style was impeccable and he was always calm under pressure, a master of bad weather conditions and a shrewd tactician. Despite being dogged by on-track controversies many times in his career, Schumacher persevered and kept on winning, breaking and setting records and collecting laurels.

Schumacher had already announced his retirement from the sport after the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. Coming into the last race at Interlagos, he was trailing Renault's Fernando Alonso by 10 points and needed to win the race followed by Alonso not scoring any points. A near impossible task given Alonso's performance throughout the year. The task looked surely impossible after Alonso qualified 4th and Schumacher 10th, following an engine blowout. The tension on raceday was one u could cut with a knife. Following a good start, Schumacher climbed to 5th place in 2 laps but his progress was curtailed by the safety car which came on after an accident between 2 other drivers. After the debris was cleared, the race resumed with Schumacher hot on the heels of Giancarlo Fisichella. An audacious overtaking move went wrong resulting in his left rear tyre getting punctured (later confirmed to be bcoz of debris). It was a different Schumacher that came out of the pits with new tyres, a full tank, a different strategy and a whole lot of attitude. Though he was a full lap behind race leader Felipse Massa, he persevered, as always, and started gobbling up one driver after another, as if they weren't there at all and suddenly it looked like Game On (if Alonso faltered). With 20 laps remaining, Schumacher was in 7th and pressing hard. Unfortunately, laps ran out and Schumacher could manage only the 4th position. But what a drive from the master esp his overtaking move on Raikkonen - vintage stuff !

Though Alonso and Renault won the drivers and constructors championship respectively, the race would be remembered for Schumacher's spellbinding drive and Massa winning his home grand prix. Believe me, I have nothing against Alonso and I think he was a deserving winner but Schumi's final drive left an indelible mark on the sport and its fans, including me. I count myself among the fortunate ones who saw Schumi live in action and win, not once but twice, at the 2003 & 2004 United States Grand Prix in Indianpolis. That is an experience I will cherish forever.

The only reason is supported Ferrari was because of Michael Schumacher. I sincerely hope that Massa & Raikkonen continue the winning tradition and do justice the the Ferrari flag hanging in my bedroom.

Adios Andre

The end of an era - is what i felt when Andre Agassi played his last professional tennis match in the 3rd round of this year's US Open. It was inevitable, having already announced his retirement well before the tournament, but nobody was prepared for it - not me, not all the people watching on television, not the capacity crowd at Arthur Ashe stadium, not even Agassi himself. Everyone thought, or rather hoped, that he would stay to fight another day.

In order to maintain an active interest in tennis over the years, every fan needs a favorite player to follow. For me, that player was Agassi ... whom I first saw play during the '90 French Open final - a long haired, ear-ringed, spandex shorted, racket rippin rebel who managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of vicory against veteran Andres Gomez. That time i thought he was just some wannabe who would crash & burn soon after. How wrong was I ... He continued his trend of losing matches he seemed easily in control of for a couple more years which also included 2 grand slam final defeats. Then at Wimbledon '92, of all places (he refused to play Wimbledon till '90 as the dress code did not cater to his "Image is Everything" motto), he overcame ace blaster Ivanisevic in an enthralling final to claim his maiden grand slam title. Since then, he has been my unconditional favorite (2 of my high school buddies can vouch for that).

A change in attitude followed Wimbledon 1992 and "Image is everything" was replaced by "Winning is everything". The loss to Sampras (@$&*%) in the 1995 US Open final seemed to break his bubble and this along with some personal travails resulted in derailing his career once again. But, his rigorous fitness regime, hard work, perseverance and desire to win saw him storm back with a vengeance in '98 (sporting a completely bald look), which he started ranked 141 playing challenger level tournaments and ended ranked 6 ... the Las Vegas showman was back. He epitomized "there is no substitute for hard work" and it was this quality that endeared him to me. Now, he was more humble and gracious in victory as well as defeat. From '98-'05, he played the best tennis of his career & reached 8 grand slam finals winning 5 and also completed the career grand slam by winning all 4 majors, the only player in the open era to do so ... those were good times for me. He finished 2005 ranked in the top-ten for a record 16th time.

Though he did not have a booming serve and played mostly baseline, his short backswing, superb hand-eye coordination & physcial endurance made him a very difficult customer. During this time, he also turned philanthropist and helped many charitable organizations as well as starting a few of his own. He became a role model - younger players looked up to him, not just bcoz of his game, victories and attitude on court, but also off it.

And so, it all came to an end on Sep 3, 2006. That day, I saw a 36 year old man cry before the whole world - tears of joy for what was an amazing journey, tears of sorrow as he bid adieu and tears of hope for tomorrow and the years to come. He exits the game as one of its eldest torchbearers and leaves behind a lifetime of memories for his legion of fans.

Indigenous Dubbing

Weekend ... I'm in my room, taking it easy & listening to Eminem's "Cleaning Out My Closet" when my mom pops her head in tells me that I need to tidy-up my room ... dad's orders. Sighing, I get up and just as Eminem is done cleaning his, I start with mine and come across some old audio cassettes in one of the drawers. One of these contains the title songs of yesteryear tv serials ... Street Hawk, Duck Tales, Talespin, Alice in Wonderland, Potli Baba Ki so on and so forth. I forgot I even had something like this which by the looks of, had survived my dad's numerous attempts at cleaning out and discarding my closet ( i am a collector, u see). I stick it in the 2-in-1 and suddenly, I am back in pre-primary school, it is a Sunday, I am up early all set for my fav tv shows ... Potli Baba Ki, Gucche, Gaayab Aaya, Jungle Book, Duck Tales, Talespin, Alice in Wonderland etc.

Potli Baba Ki depicted a wizened old man who could hardly walk, let alone speak, travelling from town to town sharing his stories. The title song was penned by none other than Gulzaar and went "Potli me hari bhari, pariyo ke par; Mandiro ki ghantiya, khalisao ka baag; Aaya aaya jhenu wali jhunnu ka baba ..." He also contributed towards those for Gucche "Guccha hai bhai guccha hai kahaniyon ka guccha hai, kahani lelo; Bin daato ki daadi amma, kopan mooh ki naani lelo ..." & everybody's all time fav Jungle Book - "Ek parinda hoy sharminda, tha woh nangaa; Bhai isse to ande ke andar tha woh changaa; Arre soch rahaa hai baahar akhir kyon niklaa hai; Chaddi pahan ki phool khila hai, phool khila hai; Jungle jungle pataa chala hai, chaddi pehen ki phool khila hai ..."

Not far behind was Alice in Wonderland with "Tap tap topi topi tap, tap tap topi topi tap; Tap tap topi topi top me jo doobe, Far far farmaishee dekhe hai ajoobe; Ulat palat ralat salat sai, jubilee chinak jaai ..." Now what Alice or for that matter Wonderland has got to do with this i dunno, and i doubt Lewis Carroll would have been able to shed light on this either.

Two of the best dubbed cartoons were Talespin which went "Ghumao, ba ba ba ba baba ba ba ba ba baba ba; Oiye talespin, oiyo talespin; Dosti hamari hain jaan se pyari chal sune kahani; Oiye talespin, oiyo talespin, jo bhi kahani hai saath, museebat nahi laati ..." & Duck Tales with "Zindagi toofani hain, jahaan hain Duckburg; Gaadiyan, lasers, hawai-jahaaj, yeh hain Duckburg; Rahasya suljhao, itihaas banao, duck tales woo hoo hoo ..."

And so it goes on for half an hour till I'm done listening to my collection. Even though most of them make no sense whatsoever & i watched these more than a decade ago, I still remember the lyrics & recall them fondly- a window into my childhood, i guess.

Back in the present, I dust the cassette, clean the case and tuck it back neatly in my drawer.

Club Football

I am a football fanatic ...

... the beginnings of which can be traced back to when I was 10 years old and stayed up late to watch the Germany-Argentina final during Italia '90. Uptil France '98, the football I saw was mainly international. After that, ESPN & Star Sports started beaming the UEFA Champions League (CL) which gave me my first taste of club football. I found it to be tremendously exciting, fast paced and lively. Initially, I started out by following Manchester United after their injury time blitz of Bayern Munich in the '99 final. That probably will be one of the all time best finishes to a soccer game. They created history that year by winning the treble - CL, English Premier League (EPL) and the FA cup and their manager Alex Ferguson was knighted for his services. The following two years, in the CL, Valencia from the Spanish Primera Liga reached the finals courtesy of their counter-attack philosophy fashioned by the then manager Héctor Cúper. Though they lost out both times, their style of play made them very entertaining to watch. Those two seasons, I watched nearly all of the CL knockout stage games (they began at 12 midnight and went on till 2:30 in the am) and was convinced that club football is "the" football. Soon after, ESPN & Star Sports started showing premiership games regularly.

Those years, I followed all there was to follow in football - games, player transfers, new signings and just like that, football became a religion for me. In mid '01, I left India to pursue higher studies in the US and that put the brakes on my football following with the Americans preferring baseball, american football, ice hockey and basketball. Inspite of this, i managed to catch the WC held in Japan/Korea '02 and Euro held in Portugal '04.

I returned back to India last May and before i joined my new job, I had a month in which to watch the knockout games of the CL as well as the final few games of the EPL. The CL final proved again that club football is where all the excitement is with Liverpool coming back form a 3-0 first half deficit against AC Milan to win in a penalty shootout. For some reason, playing for their club brings out the best in players which sadly is not always true when they play for their countries. Also, the multi-cultural medley added by foreign players and managers brings out a unique flavor.

With the Germany '06 said and done (which was a disappointing experience overall), I am all set for the forthcoming EPL and CL seasons. I think the EPL has become very competitve off late with players of international repute like Gerrard, Lampard, Essien, Crespo, Drogba, Rooney, Cech, Van der Sar, van Nistelrooij, Owen and so on plying their trades with Ballack, Shevchenko, Rosicky etc following in their footsteps. Should make for a very interesting season.

Long live club football !!!

Sein Language

Sein Language refers to the dialogues & catchphrases from one of the most popular TV sitcoms of all times, SEINFELD. Basically, Seinfeld was a sitcom about "nothing" - there was no central theme to the show; just regular-joe characters going about their everyday lives. Surprisingly, it was this "nothing" that made the show a pop culture icon.

The show focussed mainly on the lives of 4 people; Jerry Seinfeld - a "fastidious & overly confident stand up comedian" living in a New York City apartment frequented by his cohort of eccentric friends which include the "short favors asking" Elaine Benes, the "neighbour mooching, ankle length pants" Cosmo Kramer & the "neurotic, ever complaing, alter-egoed" George Constanza. Other interesting & recurring characters include the "high fiving, face painting mechanic" David Puddy & Newman, the "portly, Seinfeld despising postman".

Many of the dialogues & catchphrases were drawn on Seinfeld's own experiences as a stand-up comedian. These seem more hilarious because of the context or situations they are used in. The well known ones include Master of ur domain, George is getting upset, Seinfeld's numerous references to different types of superheroes, the contemptuous manner in which Seinfeld & Newman address one another "Hello, Newman" & "Hello, Jerry", Festivus, Serenity now etc. These and moreso the characters themselves, leave the viewer in splits. The cast always seems in-sync with their characters, never uncomfortable or burdened. Unlike other sitcoms, one never tires of viewing the same episodes over and over again. I think this is perfect tonic for someone, who at the end of a grueling day, just wants to keep the brain aside and take it easy.

In the words of Jerry Seinfeld himself -

When you enjoy something, you must never let logic get too much in the way. Like the villains in all the James Bond movies. Whenever Bond breaks into the complex: 'Ah, Mr. Bond, welcome, come in. Let me show you my entire evil plan and then put you in a death machine that doesn't work'.