The Magic

Another long poem - only the second one though;)

With the football fever on, just can't miss out writing on it. But this time central theme is shared with another topic. So hold your breath and read on to find out which topic shares the centre stage with football.

The Magic

Image

There in the dug-out he waited

For his chance to play

On the world's biggest stage

In front of the millions

Today he wanted to play
Not for the crowds
But for his childhood love
A thousand miles away

To honor the promise

Their childhood hearts had made

For that was the last time

They saw each other

And he was sure today

That she will be watching

Just like she used to

Before that fateful day

Waiting for his run with  the ball

Enduring the rain and the sun

Only to see him dribble the ball

For this spark started their love

The coach barked - You are on

He jogged on the pitch knowing

A magic he will weave for whenever

She watched, the magic was on

The ball touched his feet

Snuggling around his feet

Like a dog snuggling around its master

Moving around him in circles

Playing with the defender he was

Yet waiting like a hunter he was

For the time was not yet right

And the magic happens only once

Then the moment came, the magic started

The defense frozen in shock

Like a breeze he went through

With ball leading its master

Looking up he saw

The only man still unfazed

But today was his day

His magic will beat him today

And he unleashed his pet

The ball rose moving away

Then curved and dipped

Leaving the unfazed stunned

And he knew it, she knew it

The magic had never scored

For though it produced the spark

It always doused the fire - their love...

 

There it is. This blog has been moving into unchartered waters for some time now. So do throw up some light on the way with your feedback. :)

On a different note, the upsets on Spain and Germany and a listless England, the world cup would miss out the attacking talent these teams have and a whole lot of goals. Hope they tighten their games and we have a great rounds of football ahead!

The beautiful game!

With the football fever on, so thought of putting some thoughts into words....

Image

The national anthem

The whistle

The passes

Running with the ball

The defense

The tackle

The foul and

The faking of the foul

The yellow card

The red card

The adamant referee

And the innocent players

The crowd

Jeering

And cheering

For every move made

The off-side trap

The free kick

The wall

The ball kissing the cross-bar

The shot saved

The goal-kick
Nervous defense

Fending off the swarming attackers

The corner

The header

The top-corner

And the goal

The ecstasy

The celebration

The shaken opposition

And the roaring crowd

The extra-time

The substitution

An all-out attempt

For the elusive goal

The hope

The despair

The frustration

Of a missed chance

The goal-keeper's smile

For a lucky break he got

The shouting coach

And finally an own goal

The brilliant footwork

The mistake

The lost chance

And finally the penalty kicks

Each shot scored

Each shot blocked

Becomes a nail driven

Into each others heart

The nervous team

The million hopes

This is it

The world stage

The striker

The kick

The goal-keeper's dive

And the goal

That was luck

Detractors would say

But only he and the goal-keeper know

It was - the beautiful game....

 

 

Rooting for Brazil as every time - love the way they make the game beautiful to watch.... :)

The First Month of the Decade!

The first month of the decade just flew by and interesting is the only word that I could conjure up to describe it. Jan 2010 courted controversy - the bread and butter for folks like me who are always on the look-out for interesting stuff.

A disclaimer - This post contains material that may not appeal to sensitivities of all people. So exercise caution and if you feel, you are sensitive, you are advised in your best interests to stop reading further.

Here goes the snippets of month gone by -

Tiger Tiger. burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye.
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire? - William Blake

1. Tiger Woods - No explanations needed here. The saddest part was the media. What Tiger Woods does in his personal life is his personal life. Media instead went all guns blazing... Latest reports coming in - John Terry - Chelsea defender - is not far behind


2. Aman ki Asha - A commendable initiative by Times of India to bring peace between India and Pakistan. A lot of people laugh at this initiative (myself included) especially after 26/11 and thereafter. However, we have fought to resolve for more than 50 years. Why not give peace that much time?


3. No Pakistani players were bought in IPL auction-3. This is exactly what we do not want and what the extremists want. As a journalist said, the Indo-Pak politics is the barometer of the cricket ties. I would put the blame for the fiasco on Hand-of-God.(read government)


4. Indian Hockey Players - No pay, no play. Another low for Indian sports just before the Hockey World Cup. Hockey players were never given their dues citing no funds. Funds started coming in from everywhere to help them. Yet the federation simply gave them the choice - nation or pay. Ironically yet expected, federation was more bothered about the upcoming elections rather than world cup.


5. Global Warming - Happening or another money making machine. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) goofed up big time in its report on Himalayan glaciers. Surprisingly Michael Crichton's State of Fear also talks about the manipulation of data by the NGOs working on Climate Change to divert funds. So what about Global Warming - Author's take - "In this world, there is enough for everybody's need but not enough for anybody's greed." - Mahatma Gandhi. Efficient and effective utilization of natural resources with minimal wastage and afforestation. In the long run an holistic approach towards development without exploitation of natural resources may well be the trump card for sustainable growth.


6. Pakistan cricket team - "You need to be a superman to lead Pakistan." Geoffrey Boycott on cricinfo. Its sad to see a bunch of such talented cricketers under-performing. Bad for Pakistan and bad for cricket. Probably a cricket series with India can help them ;). Cricket is the only secular religion both countries follow religiously.


7. Sensex - It started on a high note but then just went southwards. This was despite the fact that 2010 would be better. Sensex always prove one thing right. Whatever the level of maturity, people still are moody and have wild mood swings. Another, observation - when sensex, you read the business page of newspaper, you will see profits of companies going up and when it goes down, most company reporting results will be showing loss or less than expected growth. Is it something psychological or am just selectively seeing???
   
8. Telangana - a call for separate statehood or is it a call for development by the marginalised portion of Indian society. Government have simply tried to diffuse it by creating a committee. Author's take - Seeing the development of the newly forged states does make sense to have smaller states. However, the manageability of a state should be the criteria and not the others. Else there is a danger of turning the entire country into small states - much like the small kingdoms that ruled before the Britishers coming in.


9. Meghalaya - A tale of two CMs. Since its inception, only two chief ministers could last out their entire 5-year term. This is other end of spectrum when state size is concerned. To quell instability, a decision has been made to create two CMs. Indian democracy performing wonders. A lot to come on this front.


10. The Hottest - Bal Thackeray - A saffron-clad lunatic commanding such power who may not be even fit to read this entire post is the most feared person in Bombay (Mumbai to be politically correct) even when people have voted him out. Such is the intricacies of Indian democracy. Probably he has read Dylan Thomas' poem - Do not go gentle into that good night, so he is making noises. Cricket, bollywood, industry - everything is suffering. But the noises have taken out the fizzle out of Raj Thackeray. Poor guy is now busy defining who a Marthi-manoos is. Salute to SRK, AK, MA here. They haven't bowed before him. Or have they? SRK has not. That's a good sign. We need somebody to stand up to lunatics. Sadly people in power don't think it is their responsibility. Again the Shiv Sainiks were arrested when they marched towards AK's residence. Nobody touched the Tiger. You can read an Unposted letter to him here


11. FedEx pockets his 16th Grand Slam title beating Andy Murray. It was perfection personified. Its a privilege to see him play. Frankly only Nadal can test the perseverance of perfection in Federer. Else nobody can beat him on current form. Good news for Indian fans too. Leander Paes wins his 11th career grand slam title in doubles, catching up with Mahesh Bhupathi.


12. Apple launches I-Pad. Was not much impressed by its features. It has all the features of IPhone minus the phone and plus the e-book reader. Probably once it comes into the market and reviews from early adopters may fuel.


13. Google threatens to quit from China after some of the accounts of human rights activists were hacked by Chinese hackers and remove censorships by the Chinese government. The red-dragon has derived its power by blocking everything which is uncomfortable. Google just stands for the opposite. It was inevitable sparks would fly some day.


14. China banned Avtar for fear of popular uprising. Clearly the Dragon is feeling insecure. The Indian elephant at least doesn't have to worry about this. Else I would not be able to write such posts. True value of Indian Democracy.


15. Racial attacks against Indian in Down Under - Though it is sad to see racism against Indians, India cannot preach anti-racism to Australia. Racism is a form of discrimination. And most of us discriminate against fellow-Indians all the time based on religion, caste, region. Attacks against north Indians is just another example. Who are we who cannot stop discrimination in our own country against our own fellow-man, ask somebody else to stop discrimination against us in their country?


16. Bihar clocks second fastest growth after Gujarat. CM Nitish Kumar definitely should be given a pat on his back. Another example of effectiveness of Democracy - People voted out Lalu Prasad Yadav and growth in return.
    
    
17. After the stinging loss in to Democrats, Obama turns populist. Talks of stopping tax breaks to US companies who outsource. But the actual impact on IT seems to be minimal, as many US companies depend on getting services from India like IBM, Accenture. So US in its own interest may not implement it.

There is still a lot of news to cover. For example the earthquake in Haiti, Indo-Bangladesh test series, CPM Jyoti Basu passed away, three-idiots, where all wazz not well, Kumbh Mela, etc. But citing the length of the post, other news were given lower precedence. Really thank Sree, for his posts do give me lot of food for thought and also new types of post. This idea too from Sree's monthly rants :)

Do drop in your comments about the special news edition. Do let me know if a monthly edition of news does sound a good idea or not? Leaving on climatic note -

Strength of the Genius

The whole nation is watching with bated breath. Even Australians are sniffing for some chance. Sachin had been hit with a beamer from Bret Lee. His concentration might be wavering. He son had told him to hit a six when he is on 94. He has failed in 90s seven times. What will a man do with 1 billion expectation on him to score a century? But does he an impeccable genius think any of this on his mind. Perhaps these thoughts do arise in the thoughts of this great man. But are sent packing out of his mind just as he sends the ball to the boundary. His whole self is waiting for the ball, nothing else... Finally he is able to steer away the ball for a single..the whole India erupts who have spent their only day at home in front of the television...and he has achieved one thing that has been elusive for a whole year...

This is where sports really scores over every other form of entertainment in the world as this is the only real thing that on display. The thoughts, the emotions all conjuring up the high that is not even found even in the best of nicotine or alcohol.

But the point here I want to stress is not the high the sports give but the mental toughness of the Little Genius. Nobody except he can shrug that Brett Lee's beamer like he did. The pain was enormous. But the only exterior sign of that pain was that of a momentary surprise on his face else he remain unfettered. He was even able to smile in the pain betraying none of the pain he is enduring. This is where the strength of his genius comes in. Its not the enormous talent he has that is making the difference, or even his hard work, but his competitiveness. He doesn't' want to give an inch (I believe inch is too big for him, maybe he is not ready to give an millimeter) to the opposition. There are lots of geniuses in the world, even larger amount of talented individuals having may be probably more talent than him, but only point where he scores is this fierce competitiveness...No words come from his mouth but his bat .. it never stops dictating terms....

On tomorrow's match as i talked in the last post, India have to win the tournament to show that they are worthy challengers and to silence their critics as Sachin did yesterday. I think he has set a great example for the youngsters watching the game. Finally its now your turn to bat with your comments....

The Toss!!!

Hello everyone!!!

I have started this blog exclusively for sports addicts and the "not-so-interested-but-curious" kind of people. Of course it will be a real challenge for me to address both this disparate groups simultaneously. The major sports that are going to be covered in this blog are cricket, football, management fundas from sports, leadership lessons, the miracles ocurring in daily sports....
so latch on for further action...The match will commence from 2nd March...So be there to witness the next-gen sporting posts :-)