Can we just fast forward 5 days?

‘Can we just fast forward 5 days?’

- Riyaz Usman

The wait is almost over.

An awesome World Cup calendar – by Team, Group, Venue and Date.

An Interactive World (Cup) Map – from Washington Post.

The Ultimate Graphics and Data resources guide – from Inspiredm.

And anytime, you want a much simpler schedule or calendar, just Google. Fifa.com provides a simple match schedule, in your time zone, a calendar and a printable pdf (SA Time only, I guess).

Note: I heard Malappuram has virtually turned into Latin America for one month. I’m sad I’m not in Kerala this season.

PS: My friend Ashwin wants N. Korea to win. I can’t agree more. While you’re impatiently waiting for Friday, read about the world cup strategies of many countries, including that of India.

I have all the time with Me

My Dad stopped using a wrist watch ever since he started using a pager, and later mobile. For him it was an unnecessary accessory since the gadget offered more sophisticated service. My brother followed the suit. I wanted to do the same, but it was a habit I was so used to, so I couldn’t.

I was using a Titan wrist watch since my college, once the Casio days were over. I thought, I’ll not buy one after this. I keep loosing a lot of stuffs (mostly my spectacles and wallets, the other two indispensable things), but never the wrist watch. Couple of times I forgot them, it came back to me promptly.

Then I got married. Oh, before that – around a month before the wedding, I got a watch as a gift from my organization. Not a bad one. I gave it to my Dad and asked him to give it away to someone he wants to.

Then I got married. I had a kind of wish list for the gifts, but ended up getting 4 wrist watches as gifts, all pretty good ones. A customary one I got from my wife’s cousins (I never gave one to my Bro-in-law, just in case. I offered my sister to take one from my stockpile for him, but she just gave me the looks, you know.), One my friends at work gifted, Two my cousins gifted. Since all of them were gifts, I couldn’t gave it away immediately to anyone in family. Total watch count – 5.

A few months later I won a contest at my grocery home, and the gift was… as you would’ve guessed it by now, a Wrist watch! I checked my B’Day calendar and used it on the immediate next B’Day on the list.

Today, I bought a new phone for my wife from Univercell, and Bingo! They gave me a Reebok watch free with that. Yeah! Bring it on!

Mahindra United: The End

With today’s I-League match at Cooperage Ground, Mumbai, one 48 year old legacy will turn history. With not many good things to cherish, Indian Football faces another blow, as Mahindra United (India’s MU, as fans call them) will be disbanded after the current I-League. They will play their last match against JCT Mills. They are currently place at forth place in the league.

Born as Mahindra and Mahindra Allied sports club in 1962, backed by the Mahindra group, this club represents the golder age of Indian football. One of the few strong teams outside the Bengal/Kerala/Goa, they had won almost all coveted football trophies in India – Durand Cup, Harwood League, NFL, Federation Cup, IFA Shield, to name a few. Rechristened as Mahindra United in 2000, the club had a pretty good run in all football leagues since then.

The disbanding of Mahindra United is latest nail in the coffin of Indian football (Remember FC Kochi, Kerala Police, ITI, BSF) . I seriously hope not many clubs will follow this path.

Lisen, Aarcee..

This is a real friendly conversation happened between one Mr. Riyaz and a Police constable on road, checking random vehicles.

Note that the policeman is on proper uniform and with a big gun. Riyaz is driving home in his RE Bullet.

Riyaz: Yes… can I help you?

PC: License, RC, Pollution and Insurance.

Takes out the wallet and hands over the License and RC. PC after closely inspecting the RC for sometime.

PC: Sir, are you from Income Tax Dept?

Well, it seems that he handed out his PAN Card instead of RC. Damn!

PC: Pollution and Insurance too, Sir.

Riyaz: Before that, can I see an ID, please?

PC: ID, what ID? No ID.

Riyaz: So, how can I make sure that you’re a real police man?

PC: So, you can’t make out that from the uniform?

Riyaz: Well, I myself have acted as police in couple of plays. Very easy to get.

PC: How about the gun then?

Riyaz: Terrorists and Maoists seems to have better guns with them.

PC: So, you’re saying that we’re four terrorists who checks people’s vehicle documents. That guy over there is an SI terrorist.

Riyaz looks around. Oh, there were four of them. All with big guns. Damn, again. Hands over the remaining documents.

Riyaz: So, why do you do this? This checking. I’m sure you’re not a part of regular Traffic loot Dept.

PC: Security Sir. Aren’t you reading papers?

Riyaz: Yes. What security? As usual I find news about ‘Aam Aadmi’ getting killed everywhere, despite your ‘Security’. One of you were killed the day before. It’s quite evident that you can’t stop them with these kind of shows.

PC: “Jeene Do Saab”. I’m also a part of that ‘Aam Aadmi’. What should I do. We are just following orders. BTW, ‘Kitna Mileage deta hoon Saab’?

Riyaz: Yes, do continue your duty please. And ‘they’ will do what they want to. It gives 30. Thanks and Bye.

PC smiles.

PS: Did I mention that this happened on 18th May 2010, on third anniversary of Mecca Masjid Bombing?

*RC – Registration Certificate, RE – Royal Enfield, PAN – Permanent Account Number, SI – Sub Inspector.
** Jeene Do Saab – Let me live, Sir.
** Aam Aadmi – Common Public
*** Kitna Mileage deta hoon Saab – How much is the mileage?

PS: The conversation happened in Hindi/Telugu. Rough translation provided. Try elsewhere at your risk.

Once in Four Years…

Cricket World Cup 1992 the first sporting event I can remember, didn’t leave much of good memories to me, and most of the kids in my family at the same age group. I was 9 then. Not only that our elder cousins and uncles wanted to watch TV all the time, one of them decided to get the Finals recorded using the newly owned VCR. Since they couldn’t find/afford a new blank Video Cassette, they decided to use one of the existing useless ones lying around. Who cares if it was us kid’s favourite Popoye or Tom & Jerry?

Then we started getting more physical into organized sports, And you didn’t had much of a choice then. Football was the de facto national sports of Kerala. To much of our rejoice, Kerala team won the Santosh Trophy in 1992, almost 18 years after their maiden win, and after losing out 4 times in a row in finals. They retained their title in 1993, and the Kerala Football team became our heroes. With the likes of C. V. Pappachan, I. M. Vijayan and V. P. Satyan, that was the golder era of Football in Kerala. Who can forget the lone goal Pappachan scored against Hungary in the 1991 Nehru cup. There were many urban legend stories about these players spread by word of mouth. Pappachan-Vijayan was our own Ro-Ro, and Satyan was our Roberto Carlos.

Almost all of us Malayalees were heartbroken when Vijayan and Satyan decided to play for Mohan Bagan instead of Kerala Police. As kids, we just couldn’t understand why one should go behind just money, ditching their home team. When Kerala lost 1994 Santhosh trophy to Bengal, it was the nail on the coffin for us. Vijayan was almost tagged a traitor. We dreamt about Kerala Police defeating a Mohan Bagan team including Vijayan.

The Seven’s format was very strong in the small towns on Kerala then, especially the Malabar area. Almost all of our evenings were spent on the temporary galleries built on those small grounds. It was just the battle display of your physical stamina, above football skills. The sheer joy and excitement of fast paced football was just enough. Many of these will end up in physical assault, normally between players, viewers, and in some instances referees. One of the major criterion to become a referee for a seven’s tournament, is your sprinting skills, in case of a fight. There used to be more than 500 Sevens Football tournaments organized every summer season.

Sevens tournaments is one of the two things that I miss every summer now – the other being the number of Pooram festivals.

Then came the best thing of my life – 1994 FIFA World Cup USA. There was absolutely no reason not be a fan of Brazil then, even though we were largely unheard of any of the international teams then. There are many images I captured during the event, still afresh. Roberto Baggio’s pony tail, who single handedly carried his team till finals, almost became a national icon – till he missed the penalty on the finals. Andres Escobar, the tragedy of the World Cup. Diego Maradona‘s career end, after failing the drug test. The unbelievable Hristo Stoichkov. Saeed Al-Owairan‘s goal of the World Cup. And of course, best of all, the best player of all times – Romario.

I had been a Brazil loyalist since then. A lot of people like me were outraged since Romario wasn’t considered for 1998 and 2002 World Cup, especially we missed the Ro-Ro attack. Since Romario largely played for South American clubs since then, I never get to see him play again. I still believe Romario not playing again for Brazil was the worst thing happened to Brazilian football. Ever.

While there were good moments to cherish in the three world cups that followed (I fondly remember Nwanko Kanu and Davor Suker), 1994 remains the best World Cup of my life. And FIFA World Cup remains the best sporting event for me.

Yet another World Cup is around the corner. So what’s my color? Yellow, again.