Chapter 5: It can all get over in 6 minutes
These are definitely not the words any woman might be impressed by, but men certainly love more action packed into shorter duration. This is why something like an IPL with a 20 over format has men going gaga. Now let me roll back time by a few
Trending
years to this land perched in between Asia and Europe called Turkey. The UEFA Champions League final between ‘The Reds’ and Milan was being held at Istanbul and I being a huge fan Steve G, rooted for Liverpool FC. My dad on the other hand has always been a colossal supporter of anything to do with Italian Soccer as he first watched Paolo Rossi and his brigade take the world cup in 1982. The match began and AC Milan dominated the proceedings like a hag wife against a hen-pecked husband. By half time I almost turned deaf from all the whistling hurled at me from my dad’s end of the bed. The 15 minutes during the break was nerve-wracking for me, but you could say that there was no hope left inside of me and I had begun searching for excuses to defend my side. My mother is the one being who would just take my side with all other facts and details being rendered immaterial, and here she was fighting against my dad’s idiosyncrasies. It was around the 54th minute and Steven Gerrard like a true leader, leaped in the air and completed a deft header. 6 minutes later, the score-line, was 3-3. I am sure all you people remember this moment and it was surreal to say the least. The rest as they say is history. With regards to my dad’s incessant yelling and trash-talking, it was brought down to ground zero like the twin towers.
Lesson for Life: Why do we fall?… So that we can learn to pick ourselves up
Chapter 6: Forget the bending, think about the ending!!
Now you may bend it all you want like the great David Beckham, but if you can end it like Wiltord then that is priceless. This
The fat lady can sing now!!
was the final of the Euro 2000 played between the Italians and World Champions France. The Azzuri were in their usual style and mode of play where they got an early lead and then decided to ‘park the bus’. We were watching the match and this time my dad had another friend of mine on his side and they were literally having a party even before the match got over because it looked like Italy had gotten the trophy in the bag. It was the 90th minute and the Italian players had gathered up at the sidelines waiting to rush into the field in celebratory joy. I was just happy that the game would finally end and so would all the boisterous cheering and romping from my dad and friends. But things took a dramatic turn, as Sylvain Wiltord, equalized in the dying seconds and I returned from a comatose situation into one of drunken revelry. It was the sheer determination and relentless nature of the Frenchmen which took them to European glory.
Lesson for Life: Just don’t ever quit… always keep your eyes on the prize!!!!
Chapter 7: When the Rainbow nation beckons, dark clouds don’t matter
When I was doing my MBA in 2006, I and my football frenzy friend (alliteration unintended) decided that we go to South
I came, I saw, It conquered!!!
Africa for the 2010 world cup. Now as we all know we men make so many statements which we seldom mean. My other friend was also drunk that night and that would enhance the triviality of the commitment we made to ourselves (of course I was sober that night, just like any other time). So when 2010 arrived I had made up mind on heading towards the ‘dark continent’. The parts where South Africa was involved like getting the tickets online, things were very organized and smooth. However I really had to run the gauntlet with my passport having expired a year back, and the renewal taking more than 2 months. Things were typical of a red tape and days were getting tense as I seriously started having doubts about the trip. But it was that desire to see Messi and Maradona that drove me to try harder. Thanks to the support of a few friends and family, I was able to make it and to this day those two hours, in a minus 5 degree chilly afternoon at the Soccer City Stadium watching two of the greatest footballers to have ever played the game, are the most treasured 120 minutes of my life thus far.
Lesson for Life: When you want something real bad, it’s impossible not to get it!!!
