LIFE IS A BALL

Pass the Ball, Kuttey

How can anyone have a Whatsapp group with such a weird name? This is a new group where I suddenly found myself included and when I realized what this group was all about, I just could not exit. These are members of Hindu College, Delhi, football team which won the Inter-College Championships in 1987. While I was not a member of the victorious team, but having played with most of them, they added me to the group. It was a dream achievement for the team for whom I played so proudly for four uninterrupted years but could never win. And in all the four years, I never scored a single goal in the inter-college championships while I was a prolific scorer in other tournaments. This has remained the greatest failure of my sporting life and a regret that still gives me nightmares even after 35 years of passing out of college.

Photo Shoot

This is where it all began when my father took me to a studio about 56 years ago….my first picture had a ball in my hands. Neither the father nor the son knew that the picture would not change over the years and the ball would become the most important link in his life.

The Anklet

I always loved to play football even as a kid and often played barefoot with boys much older than me. I would have been no more than six or seven when I saw a boy who played well wearing something on one of his ankle. It looked nice and I felt that wearing this magical footwear will help me play like the champion. So next day when my parents left for work, I took out my school socks and with a scissor cut the top end and then the portion around the ankle. Feeling proud of my creation, went to play. Don’t remember if I played well or not but surely the socks were gone for good in just one day’s play.

Ambedkar Stadium

My father would wait for me at the school gate and take me to see football matches whenever East Bengal was playing. And that is where the love of the game grew stronger. Watching players like Monoranjan Bhattacharya and seeing them lift trophies was something that I carried forward as I grew. My friend Buddha and I would make sure we never missed a single match of DCM and Durand Cups from quarter final onwards. Every day, we would reach the stadium, buy the cheapest stand tickets and eat a kulcha-chholey before enjoying the match. Of course, there was trouble whenever the Bengal clubs were playing against sturdy Punjab teams like JCT and Punjab Police and there was a rowdy crowd which would be partisan against us….but we were no cowards and matched them in vocal cords and abuses. Much later, I had the great satisfaction of playing on the sacred field at Ambedkar Stadium for the Delhi Football League.

School Days

When it came to playing for the section, I sometimes would play in the forward line but more often than not I preferred being a goalkeeper. This was not because I was better there but because all others would be wearing nice football shoes and I had none. With Bata canvas shoes, I would slip on the wet grounds and hence preferred to stay back. So all my pictures of inter class tournaments that we won had me sitting on the first row with the ball in hand…almost the same way as my first brush with the ball. I was good barefoot and never tried playing for the school team till I was in the final year in school. I had borrowed the football shoes from a friend and had gone for the trials. The day I first went for practice, the legendary coach of the school, Joginder Singh, asked, “Are you new to the school?” “No, Sir. I have been around for the last 13 years?” “Then why did you not come for trials in earlier years?” I could not tell him the truth. I could run fast, dribble well and shoot with both the foot and so my place as left-winger was sealed in no time. Winning the Inter School Pentangular Tournament and playing an important role in the victory was a high point in the life of a budding footballer.

The Golden Age

In the first year at college, I was determined to study hard and achieve my goal of joining the Civil Services. And as luck would have it, my first year results were so disastrous that I turned to football to seek some joy in life. Again, I got into the team with ease…a forward with a good left foot and speed were an asset for any team. This was the glorious phase and if history books were to be ever written with me as a character, it would be called the Golden Age. Second year in college meant attending minimal classes and by the time I reached the third and final year it was almost zero attendance. By now having been elevated as college team captain, the day in college would start on the football field and end in the canteen with not so healthy refreshment of samosa, vegetable burger and on good days, an omelette made of 4-5 eggs in a burger bun. Post-graduation was the biggest academic farce. I attended six classes in two years, gave sixteen exams and yet managed respectable marks!  Won many a tournament during this golden period and playing for Delhi University was the pinnacle of achievement.

All Work No Play

My friends joked that I will easily get IFS while trying for Civil Services….Indian Football Service. Though the Civil Services dream took me up to the interview stage twice after clearing the Prelims and Mains, the trophy remained out of bounds. Believe it or not, I even had to make an effort to clarify that I had got a job for myself in National Insurance Company Limited, a subsidiary of the one and only General Insurance Company in those days, after clearing an all India exam followed by interview, purely on merit and not on sports quota. Anyway, soon after joining, I went for a trial at the company’s selections in Kolkata, but was prevented by my first boss from wasting valuable office time in playing so the desire to showcase my talent at the Maidan was, sadly, never realized .

It was much later, in my early forties that I played cricket and football for Tata AIG and also won many a victory. This was also the time when I got hooked to watching English premier League on the television and the Indian games now looked so pale and drab. This was  when Arsenal were unbeatable and I loved seeing Wenger’s team dominate…Henri, pronounced as Onri, was God and never missed the match of the Gunners. Then I defected to the other Red club as AIG became the sponsors of Manchester United and Sir Alex’s team of Rooney, Ronaldo, Vidic and Giggs were champions of England and Europe. I still have the calendar of 2009 with the team what was unstoppable. Guess what, I even asked the AIG Chairman, who had come to India, when all others in the room were asking serious questions…”Sir will we get to see ManU in India?”

I completed ten years in Tata AIG and a huge celebration was organized. Two things I still remember was the office organized a huge cake with the Man United logo and one of the boys there got a picture of me playing sketched by a friend of his. I have told my wife that if ever you need a picture of me after I am gone, put this picture and place a ball with a garland… that would be the greatest respect and love for me.

Fifty Five Not Out

One Sunday, last monsoon, the office organized an Inter Department Football Tournament. As I had been warned by my Orthopedic Surgeon and also made to promise by my wife and daughter that I will never ever play again due to a bad slipped disc problem, I went to the field as a manager of the team. But when the youngsters pleaded that I should play, I was ready with my shorts and shoes and took to the field. We stood no chance against the fitter and younger teams so I told my wife that I would be back by noon. We surprised ourselves and went into the quarter finals and so I called my wife to tell her, “I will be back by 2 pm, we’ll have lunch together.” We won again and my time of reaching home was announced as 3pm. “You eat, I will be slightly late.” We beat the favourites and reached the finals and won the championship….finally reached home in drenched condition around 6pm but possibly the winners medal hanging from the neck saved me from the Guns of Navarone.

Bonds Forever

But the most romantic story you would have ever heard of would be of a guy meeting a girl in office and asking her out for a date….and guess where? To see a Super Soccer Match! The complimentary ticket is preserved till date for that soccer match! Though the hair has gone grey and patchy and the game may not be anywhere near its peak, but bonds that were made on the football fields are truly forever…be it the woman at home or  a group of Whatsapp friends called Kuttey.

So that’s my life…it’s a ball!

SS