Adrenaline rush for "the beautiful game"

In India, a country obsessed with cricket, the rise of football is worth noticing. The jerseys of Rooneys, Drogbas and Persies are no more a rare sight. Is it their love for the team and its players or just for fashion, the point is people are getting to know about football and it is no more just about teams like Brazil and Argentina and individuals such as Pele and Maradona.

 I am amazed to see this. Football, the world’s beautiful game, is still looking for a strong foothold in India, apart from places like Bengal and Goa where it is followed like maniacs due to its history and cities like New Delhi and Bangalore, where people are aware of the teams. The small towns of India are still to get to grips with it.

Whenever I sit down to watch football, I sometimes wonder what makes cricket more interesting than this game. A true team sport – this most watched sport over the globe has not gone beyond cricket in India in terms of popularity. Off the context, I am not a cricket critic and I know that throughout my life, I have played more cricket than football but bizarrely, I believe I can analyse and write about football better than cricket.

Football is not cluttered like cricket – a game with different formats of different durations and different players for different formats. Since its advent, this game has been played for 90 minutes between 22 men, fighting for the ball, waiting to hit that kick that will take them to levels of ecstasy compared to none. Each player gets to see the ball for 4-5 minutes on an average per game, the rest of the time they run around and still, with just one kick, they become a hero, a legend, a name that will never be erased from the memory of the fans and the coming generations. When you succeed in football, you become a name for generations to remember and worship. In cricket, the legends are not as influential (unless you are Sachin Tendulkar).

Those sublime one-touch passes that split defences leave you awe-struck, those delightful direct balls that sail over helpless defenders and right at the feet of the striker and the disturbing of the netting behind the man with the gloves. To top it all, the roar of thousands behind you for 90 minutes throughout,  the display of emotions and those unorthodox and trademark celebrations – all are a part of the game. You can change the game and your life with just one touch in the match. The rush of blood for a second clubbed with sheer talent can outsmart the strategies and plans made in the dressing room for hours before the match. An 18 year old can give a seasoned 100 time capped player the blushes with a class display of footballing intelligence he possesses.

This is a game which has maximum scope in terms of creativity and innovation. You can never say this game a typecast. In cricket, chances for innovation are few, now that game has grown. In creativity, it has almost reached a saturation point and may be that is why, innovation in the formats is being brought to make them game interesting.

This is a sport where not only do the scorers matter but those who toil in front of their goal defending the ball are also appreciated. Those hard tackles that bring the opponent to the ground, kissing the lush green grass: nothing satiates a defender more. He derives pleasures in kicking the ball from right under the nose of striker. The slides on the watery outfield in a rainy London night to block the wet, heavy ball, taking blows on body and head throughout and still standing rock solid with the same aggression in every tackle without shivering the least bit – this is what a footballer is made of. Cricketers do not get involved physically. There are no clashes of body and the aggression level is far below. A true gentleman game, isn’t it?

Then there are midfielders who are the most celebrated part of the game. The vision to create goals and assist scorers makes them stand apart. They score, attack and defend and yet are calm about the game. They gather energy and motivation from their passes being converted into prolific goals and are the creative backbone of the team. And then there are the strikers, who have an eye for goal every single time. Passing and dribbling through a crowd of defenders and curling the ball beyond the goalie in the far corner: this is what they play for. Sometimes, the yell of the fans indicates the ball going in before it actually crosses the white line. The cunning dip and sweet curl, and then running to the fans instead of the team-mate who passed you the ball. Nothing makes the adrenaline in a fan’s body run faster. He locks eyes with those who matter to the club the most and screams, screams his heart out, beats his chest and kisses the badge on his shirt. In cricket, this never happens. You rarely celebrate with fans, with those you play for.

And the best part about this game is the uncertainty. Even teams which start as clear favorites and are expected to win by good goal margin could be handed an embarrassing defeat. You do not play this game with reputation and past results; it is about the confidence on that day. The form and display decided the game and not the head-to-head record in previous 10 meetings. In cricket, in a match against a solid and weak team; you know the result, the audience knows the result and the stands are empty. Upsets in cricket take place once in a blue moon.

To quote Arsene Wenger, manager of Arsenal Football Club, “The game of football is like a beautiful woman. You have to keep telling her she is beautiful or she forgets it.”

I couldn’t agree more. This game is meant to be played in a beautiful way, where you do not dive to earn a foul or penalty. You are a footballer, you have to stand strong. Divers can go and dive on the road side, or in pools. The pitch is about the talent you exhibit to repay a fan’s faith in you. Those people who invade your ground week by week are to be obliged by playing the game that they love to see. A good game is what everybody wants: when creativity is unleashed and those moments of spark are the order of the day, when passing of the ball is a treat to watch, when a blistering shot kisses the back of the net, when hard but sensible challenges are made to win the ball; when the game is played in the spirit of the game.

It is disheartening to see Indian football way behind in comparison with peers around the world. What’s more disheartening is that not enough is being done to ensure that the game gets what it deserves. For a population of more than 1.25 billion in this amazing land, watching and playing sports is just not about cricket where you can play close to 400 international matches as are still never remembered for your contribution (like Ajit Agarkar). Agreed, I am no one to compare these two games. Each has their separate merits but it does not matter how hard I try. Cricket can never outscore football in for me.

India, you need to move past cricket. Indulge yourself in this game and in a very short time, you will be able to feel for it. As for cricket, I am sorry mate. It does not matter how popular you become in certain parts of the world. You can never be as beautiful as the game of football.

The god delusion

I was just wondering if god exists. Or rather, whatever was the train of thought that followed can be related to a very simple question 'Does god exist?'. I mean it is one of the questions which can have the train of thought that I had to find a solution. There can be many, but I haven't thought of others.

There are two things that one would say when asked a question 'Does god exist?

1. Yes he does
2. No he does not

Let us consider the first case which is kind of trivial. The triviality can be addressed by people who are reading this post themselves. If I see so many things on this planet and there exists certain relation between these 'many' things. Effectively we see things here. As said before, there is some relation between these things, which I am not able to define satisfactorily. But then, as there exists a relation between things, and by our understanding of time and other dimensions alone, there must have been things before these which lead to the things that exist now. Hence, there have been things before the ones that we are seeing now.

Now for those things to exist, there must have been things before them, so on and so forth. This is an infinite loop, and when we want to see the limit. There must have been 'something' that sprang up everything. That something itself is god.

There by the first case stands true.

Now coming to second case, we say 'God does not exist'. In which case, there must be 'nothing'. So if there exists nothing we can say god does not exist. But for that 'nothing' to exist, there must be 'something' that defines that 'nothing'.

Again we have two train of thoughts:

• I mean, for there to be nothing inside you, you need to be there. Similarly 'nothing' to exist beyond you, your existence is essential. Hence you are that something which exists.

• Similarly, for 'nothing' to exist, there has to be 'something' previous in line with it which was 'nothing'. This again ends up as an infinite loop.

Here the first case we considered an individual and proved that something always exists, and in the second case we considered the infinite loop. Hence we proved that 'something' has to always exist. But the result of the thought process is a contradiction with respect to the assumption. Hence, the assumption is wrong. In which case, god does not 'not exist'. Hence we come to a conclusion that god exists even in the second train of thought.

Hence god does exist.

P.S.: There can be flaws in the theory proposed above. I do not say that it is flawless. I hope that with better realization of things around me, I will someday be able to tell whether god exists or not, and if I am able to do that it would clearly mean that god does exist.

People should learn to shut up!!!

What is it with people and talking? Is talking a basic necessity of life? When I look at some people around me, that is the impression I get. And in most cases, the chat would be about something so insensible, that it's nothing but disgusting. And this happens non-stop, that's why the complaint! But not everybody's non-stop chatter is annoying. It's just these stupid, dumb people. Isn't there a limit to how much a person can take in at a time??

As if this wasn't enough, there are people who move from place to place looking for more such people to talk to. They don't even give a thought to the fact that there are other people around, and they should, at least once in a while, mind their manners. It doesn't occur to them that it's not okay to barge in on someone's privacy. The sad thing is that, they think (like, that's possible!) this silly behaviour of theirs is normal.

It's not just the amount of talking these people do, it's about the level of crap talk they are capable of. They surpass themselves everyday! Most of their tiny little brains don't have control over their crap and their noise levels. They have these black and white brains, with too much of colour concentrated at one point! It's time they learn. But since this seems to be the norm everywhere, they never will.

Looks like schools should have compulsory classes for this - "Know when to shut up"!!! People, please give me a breather!

Advice

Free advice is never valued. The response is always convenience driven.Along the lines of the Joker, never advice if you are not getting paid for it. The lack of it, and subsequently the absence of the results due to its non-implementation might make the individuals realize. If not, then one of the two, advisor and advisee, is a fool. In most cases, both are. Atleast, I always am. I am not getting any richer.

A TRYST WITH DISTRUST........

I have been closely following a set of events, my own life and many other issues. These issues may or may not be relevant to me. But following something closely gives me, a deeper sense of understanding, I firmly believe. At the same time, I also speculate whether one’s understanding of things around are fair or are they biased as a function of other factors in one’s life. I know I am contradicting myself. I do not have a clear mind at times. I have tried to describe the whole process of trying to understand ‘what trust is, and what it means’ in the following few paragraphs. While describing the process, I have tried my best to follow a close outline. This in turn, has helped me to filter my thoughts and classify my feelings in a better fashion. I hope, at the end of it, things are more clear to me. Well, that has always been the intention of me jotting down something. Self realization.

Childhood and growth:

We all are deeply influenced by our parents, guardians, and elder people closely related to us. Well, the time of influence (not the span) is the childhood. We all are still in a state where we can be molded. The message conveyed by the family to the child, again, depends on the background and values of the family in general. Some families may try to inculcate a ‘good values’ system in the kid. The definition of ‘good values’ itself is subjective. What you consider to be good values, need not be approved by me. Hence, the essential difference comes in the childhood itself.

Anyway, I stick to one case, and one case alone. I was taught by my parents and people who influenced me that trust is very important in life. Since I was told by people who were my mentors, I blindly believed it. Ah yes! My father, mother and teachers tell me, trust is an important thing in life. Then it must be true. I need to trust everyone and in turn everyone will trust me. Life is so good. Peace.

Is life so simple?

Maybe.

I grew. I was a teenager. It was time I get influenced by others and other factors. Still, life was good. I was having fun, and loads of it. I never looked beyond a certain dimension. I was innocent. Trust me (Ironical… isn’t it?), innocence is good. Television, Sports(in my case Football), movies, papers, magazines, friends, and family, all play an important role in one’s development during this stage. I was liking it.

Then sometime in my early teenage - Shock. I don’t remember what it was all about. But I did feel it once. That was my first meeting with distrust. I was taken aback. I mean, here I was, with a value system, which tells me that every being on this planet is perfect, and everything happens for the good. I still couldn’t question my value system. Very well, I thought, maybe it was something to be ignored. I went on.

It is funny but I have to mention this now. I was extremely addicted to WWF then. I used to follow every fight and sequence of events that were designed to entertain the viewers and keep them glued till the next session. I remember very vividly, Stone Cold Steve Austin coming on to the ring, creating havoc. More importantly, I remember his punch line: ‘’Never trust anyone’’. I am not sure whether he follows it himself in his off screen life. But it did affect me a lot. I used to go around screaming my guts out. A few people told me that I had gone insane. But most of my friends liked it. And we still had a great trust in one another, which was essentially a result of that screaming. Funny, but true.

As I grew, I realized life wasn’t that easy. I started seeing wrong things happen. It never really disturbed me. But it definitely made me start thinking. Since then, I have been meeting Mr. Distrust quite often. I thought more. Innocence was no more. More thinking.

 Ignorance is a bliss, I have met Mr. Distrust again & no I am not at all hurt I am too much preoccupied with my prior commitments to now worry about people breaking my trust but the lesson I have learnt today is never trust anyone completely, yes I made that mistake & I am not going to repeat my mistake again, for some people honesty has no meaning & they like only manipulators but whatever their need be I believe in myself & my belief, cause this attitude of mine has earned me some of my lifetime friends.....

Learnings:

Life became ugly. But, thinking gave a deeper understanding of things around.

I learnt that an individual has a choice all the time: the choice of doing the wrong thing.

Well, once again, the definition of wrong thing itself is subjective. This degree of freedom is available with every person, and the sanctity of trust lies at the core of this choice. There are people who choose to exercise this freedom, and there are others who do not. Which sect will one appreciate? This choice lies with you. And your choice defines the sect you belong to.

I think now. Has life really become ugly? Maybe not.

   However greatly I distrust the sincerity of those we converse with, yet still I think they tell more truth to me than to anyone else.

Implications:

You can either be happy being naïve, or choose to know that there are other things which will disturb you, but be happy at the same time that you have a better understanding of things.

''To learn something, one has to sacrifice the state of not knowing the same.

sensation, perception, conception

I am having a brilliant train journey today, from Gulbarga to Chennai. Kurt Cobain songs are a wonderful company (miss you kurt) and Ayn Rand kept my mind working most of the time. I felt that this particular paragraph from her book 'For the New Intellectual' has to be put up on my blog. The logic seems just perfect. Though I tried to come up with arguments against the logic and reason that she gives in the paragraph, I couldn’t really help but get convinced by her thoughts.

''Man's consciousness shares with animals the first two stages of its development; sensations and perceptions; but it is the third state, conceptions, that makes him man. Sensations are integrated into perceptions automatically, by the brain of a man or of an animal. But to integrate perceptions into conceptions by a process of abstraction, is a feat that man alone has the power to perform - and he has to perform it by choice. The process of abstraction, and of concept-formation is a process of reason, of thought; it is not automatic nor instinctive nor involuntary nor infallible. Man has to initiate it, to sustain it and to bear responsibility for its results. The pre-conceptual level of consciousness is nonvolitional; volition begins with the first syllogism. Man has the choice to think or to evade - to maintain a state of full awareness or to drift from moment to moment, in a semi-conscious daze, at the mercy of whatever associational whims the unfocused mechanism of his consciousness produces. ''

P.S: I am an animal. I will, very soon, be a man