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'.

One Year Ago

It's been just over a year now that i returned back to "Aaamchi Pune" from Detroit in the US of A. Can't believe that a whole year has gone by. Since returning, i've been busy with something or the other - family n' friends, job interviews, job, engagements n' marriages, job, good food, playing sports, watching sports, job, movies n' television, tekdi ... the list goes on. The job has been the focus of my life since i returned, not that i am complaining. The work culture is relaxed (coffee breaks n' table-tennis), work is very interesting and the compensation is good enuf.

If i compare the above list to my life in Detroit, the only things i can recall are winter n' snow, job, winter n' snow, movies n' television, winter n' snow ... that's it. After a year of the above, one begins to notice the drudgery of everyday life & u long for the good old "grad student" days where u had a bunch of pals to hang around with after the day's work was done. In a nutshell, social life was zilch, nada, ... and frankly, the whole thing sucked ... some american dream (not that i planned to stay there forever). This and the fact that numerous MNC's in my domain of interest had setup shop in Pune was the reasons i decided to leg it.

In retrospect, I can honestly say that returning back was one the best decisions i have ever made. And I heartily agree with Kishorilal (Amrish Puri) in the movie Pardes when he says "Yeh mera India, I love my India !"

Come to think of it, I should have started this blog while i was in the US ... better late than never :)