Anomalies of football

Football was never my game. Quite strange for someone coming from a place where fates are determined by Mohun Bagan-East Bengal goals. But with two diehard football fans in the house and Brazil-Argentina world cup quarter finals on the live, I was not left with another option.

The evening started as usual. I was trying hard to make out dialogues from a hallprint DVD of Krrish, when one of my roomies detected a cheer outside. The rest was as expected. I was politely requested for the remote, and a goal from Argentina decided I must wait till next day to hear the nature of death of Hrithik's dad. But what surprised me most was to think that one game was holding more than half of the world in anxiety and anticipation. And here in my house I was wondering what fun came from twenty good men fighting over one ball! Another thing that strikes me is that Football must be the only game where players have the most exotic hairstyles. You can see all varieties....normal small, long beaded, short beaded, skull beaded, pony tail, plaeted, and then.....hey Ronaldo, you don't really need to carry your signature on your head!

But what I dislike most is the feeling of confinement in the game. Whoever decided the rules must have been out of his mind or dead drunk to remove the use of hands. Why, is it a game for handicaps? It is so odd to see big men jumping about, trying everyway to hit the ball while their hands hang out loose by their sides. I like cricket. Cross the boundary and you get a score.

The most strenuous momemts arrived when the match came down to a one-man-one-kick strategy. The tension in my house was no less than the one in the field. Two people who had never let a foot on a football sat back straight, eyes barely blinking. But God had other plans. Amidst tears and laughter I tried to grasp the actual gravity of the situation. One devasted from the loss of her father's favorite team and the other dazed and unable to move from Argentina's fall. The commentary in bengali that followed about the after affects of such loss set me wondering whether its an insinuation of what is to come in the house. But all in all I had lost interest in Hrithik for the time being.