Time Travel

The zapateado that echoed in this place still rang in my ears every time I visited it.
As a kid I had, on more than one occasion, stamped my feet to match the euphoric rhythm of the crowd on these very slabs of concrete. It was customary here, since that made more din that the usual clapping. (And also sounded more awesome)
This time around too that all too familiar rumble buried in my memory it had begun playing in the far depths of my mind. I took my place in the orderly formation we usually took. On those very grounds.
In ways more than one, back in time!

Rewind a few more years to a chilly morning. Me and a few close friends that I have played football with for a good part of the last ten years, met at the MIT grounds for a kick about. After our game I see this group of girls trying to kick a football around. A sight which looked more like someone trying to ice skate for the first time. The clumsiness was hilarious. I then see them again, the next day and the next, for the entire week that followed. And they still looked like ice skaters thrown into a rink for the first time. No technique. No skill. But their persistence was overwhelming. So I walked up to them and offered a few tips on how to go about controlling the ball, turning, passing and jogging with it under control. Simple stuff really. I was impressed by their persistence to learn a sport I held so dearly, hence had offered to help.
Oh bull shit! I am no saint. The truth was I saw a bunch of pretty things in shorts and walked up to them hoping to be perceived as a saviour. Simple. But it soon dawned that I had bitten off more than I could chew. They were practicing for a tournament which was a few weeks away and they were miles away from ready. Thankfully there was only four teams participating. Which hilariously meant one lucky win and the team was in the finals! I have no idea how we managed to score and before I knew it the team was playing their first finals. We lost though, by a solitary goal. And by doing so, I automatically became their unofficial coach. I happily obliged. How could anyone refuse so many girls, after all?

All said and done, there I was, coaching them. The next season came a lot faster than expected. But it gave me time to work on their basics. the team could now pass around and understood that there was no need for all of them to charge at the ball at the same time. Players now knew the difference between a free-kick, a corner kick and a goal kick. wow! Even I was impressed at the progress made. Result: There were girls in jerseys and talking football lingo. Could there be anything sexier?

Part of the team from the first year.
A well earned dinner after claiming one of our first tournaments

There are roughly six tournaments in an academic year that engineering college girls teams can participate in. Most of them are small sided tournaments with only the university playoffs and MITs own tournament called 'Summit', which were the standard 11-a-side affairs. Of all the tournaments, I considered the University tournament as the most coveted. Simply since every college that has a team turns up to play. Commerce, arts, physical education, Science students. basically, everyone who can kick a ball and its not just restricted to Engineering colleges only. And some of them are pretty good comprising of girls playing for local football clubs too. My first season, we ended up winning two of the six tourneys. Not bad for a start I thought. University if I remember correctly, was a first round knock out for us.

About the same time, is when I was a regular at Deccan XI football club too (as a player). Deccan has the fierce reputation of only fielding the best from amongst their lot. And their "lot" is a bunch of about 200 odd kids who one day hope to don the team's jersey and the chance of getting a few matches to play each season. I had joined the club a few years back and went for practice whenever I found time from my work and other shenanigans. While coaching the girls and I realised I really had no right to push them to their limits when didn't do it myself. I hence made a conscious effort to make practice more often else train whenever I could find time. Basically; Walk the walk. Before I tell them to run a mile, I do so myself.
And that is when the magic began.

Basking. In goa.
We bagged the Bits-Pilani tourney.
(A national level tournament)

I started seeing a drastic difference in what I perceived as attainable and within reach. I was now able to compete with the best at Deccan. And I did the same with the girls. Started pushing their limits. Introducing them to newer training methods. More complex formations. drills. and making sure every time they stepped on the training pitch, they left having gained something. I had to know what each of the players was capable of and then push that limit.

I was not around for most of the third year. Work took me to Delhi. where i spent most of the season at the time the girls had their matches. My younger brother, Amal and Abhijeet, a very close friend of mine stepped in to help. In the midst of my work in Delhi, I get a call where all I hear is yelling and screaming which I eventually figured was the entire team - phone on loudspeaker - "We reached the University finals!". I was in bliss. University finals!!! The feeling is pure exhilaration. Obviously the credit here goes mainly to Abhijeet and Amal. They were the ones who took them through most of the season. Two girls from the team got selected to play for University-Districts that season.
By the end of the season, other teams had begun to take notice of a certain girls team from MIT. At 8.30 on an unforgettable evening, I get a call from one of the girls. She said, "Akil, I'm in Akola." (I think it was Akola. I could be wrong) "I'm here for the district matches. I just wanted to thank you. I have never played football in my life. I would have never gotten here without you. I cant explain the feeling. I have my first match tomorrow morning" I spoke nothing through the call. For the first time I had nothing witty or wicked to say. I had goosebumps all over. I ended hanging up, after saying, "Best of luck for tomorrow".

The fourth year was insanity! I pushed the team to the limit. They were now playing a level of football that surprised even me. I made them enter inter-club matches hoping they would get roughed up and bashed by the regulars. Surprisingly, they gave even those team a run for their money. And simultaneously, I did pretty well at Deccan too. That is when the obvious dawned on me. It was them, inspiring me. All along. It was them bringing out the competitiveness in me. Prompting me to deliver my best at every task. If I wanted them to reach my benchmarks, I first had to reach mine.

The team from my last year with them.
Just before kick off at the Cummins tournament finals. Notice the lack of an audience. It was a 6-a-side and both MIT teams reached the finals from their respective groups. The finals hence was Mit-A v/s Mit-B.
(A feat never before and never again achieved by any other team) As a result. none of the other teams, including the organizers turned up to watch the finals. How sporting of them!

By the end of the season and my tenure with the team about eight of the girls had played for District, four of them played State and three played Nationals. None of whom had ever played football in their lives before. In the last year, the team played the finals of all six tournaments in the year and won four.
Its not everyday, when someone sitting in an office, going through the grind and reminiscing about college and school, is gifted an opportunity to go back in time and re-live it. I was fortunate enough to take that trip. Through each of the team's tournaments I was reliving a moment in that was buried back in time. Through each of their victories, I was on a trip in a much cherished age. Right in the middle of the chaos, the crowds surrounding the pitch, the chants by your college support, the slurs by the opposition. The meetings before crucial matches like our futures depended on it. Contributing money to make sweatshirts. Unconditional teamwork. Everything that spells "The golden years". Each priceless. And it was my good fortune to chance on a team as inspiring and motivated as the one I had the opportunity to coach. I learnt much more than I coached.

With the highest scorer of the tournament
and the winners trophy at Vincent's

And my season with Deccan coinciding with this year was A-kil-ler. Hah Hah. I was playing the finals of our first tourney of the season scoring nine of the team's fourteen goals scored to get there.The finals were played at St. Vincent's. Another trip back in time!
I was back, playing on the very ground. where I had spent ten years of my life. Watched by a crowd that sat on the very stadium I did as a kid and cheered and screamed as our school athletes and teams demolished opponents. We won and I scored three of the five Deccan scored in the finals. That turned out to be one of the most memorable seasons of my tenure with Deccan. I eventually hung my boots along with my coach's whistle at the end of that year. The last sweet gift I received was when the management of Deccan approached me and said, "Get these girls to register for the club. We would like to start a girls team with them for club level matches." That, was the birth of the Deccan XI girls team. Time travel is a thing of the past for me now. But not in the least forgotten. Those travels back in time laid the foundation to an attitude I still use to tackle 'Tomorrow'.
An attitude that has shown me how nothing is forever beyond your reach and I am reminded of Vince Lombardi's words, "Winning is not everything. Wanting to win is".

My travels lie ahead of me now. Into the uncharted, murky and uncertain tomorrow.
I take one deep breath before I decide to plunge into it head on. Muttering under my breath.
Bring it on!

The MIT-'B' team

The Mit-'A' team

Together, along with a few who passed out, they made up the MIT girls football team.
These were my sources of inspiration.

The Deccan Girls team won their first trophy a few months after the team's inception.

Wada paav over Fish and chips for me

WOW! Milan did it in Italy and got a few responses going. An entire population of ManU fans r now hailing the English champs and in a short while im sure a bigger flurry will be caused by Barca. Wondering when we, players, football fans, followers and the miniature flag bearers of football in India will be equally ecstatic about our own league. The biggest contributor to the success of these leagues and of the level of football as a result, apart from great marketing, is the immense support these leagues enjoy from their own nationals. Citizens who take great pride and interest in their own country's clubs and quite evidently their own national side. Tell me, how many of you can name the reserves of the English national side or even the people who warm the Spanish bench. I am sure there are quite a number of you who can. I'm also sure there are quite a few who will even know which muscle of which player has been damaged in a tackle over the weekend and if he will recover in time for a crucial fixture. Kudos to you! And no, i mean no sarcasm. I am honestly put to shame in the face of such passion. But I, more gravely, put myself to shame when I cant name the first 16 of my own National side. No. This is not one of those write ups which screams, "We need to do something. Let us make a change. We are the future." and blah blah.

All I'm doing is announcing, just like you who scream out about how avid a supporter you are of Manchester United or Arsenal or how your life will end if Barcelona loses Messi and Xavi. I am announcing I will more keenly follow my national side and don the jersey of Dempo/Pune F.c/Bagan with equal pride. I will post, comment and tweet with equal fury my frustration or delight, for the sole purpose of sharing, reaching out, 'networking' with the miniscule number of like minded idiots out there who care about Indian clubs and the few who are aware that a National team exist which actually does pretty well in Asia yet struggles for recognition, almost always swimming against the tide every step of the way. I will express disgust at every loss and look at every promising youngster with anticipation. Hoping that this is the much awaited next generation who can keep up with the pace and advances in the game adopted by teams overseas. Hoping that when "Indian Football" is mentioned a few more credible names crop up apart from an aging Bhaichung Bhutia, who I think should have hung his boots a long time back. Yes. I am firstly mad enough to support a sport in India which is not any form of Cricket and which does not have Mr. Sachin Tendulkar involved and I'm even more insane to hope that there might be a few more like me.

Here s little info I stumbled on, the J-league was formed in '92 with the sole aim of improving the Japanese national sides performance, identify and nurture talent at grass root level and improve their level of play. It is today the only league in Asia to be rated 'A' by AFC and boy what ground Japanese football has covered over this span. Japan is already considered a global powerhouse and a Japanese player pipped the best from around the world (Including THE Martha from Brazil) to take home top FIFA honours recently.
The I-league, started in 2007, is nowhere close. Well it is showing signs of progress steadily since inception. Far too "steadily" frankly, but its movement forward nevertheless. There are more and more European clubs looking towards India as a beneficial avenue to invest time and effort. To my relief there are more youth academies today affiliated with or directly under the purview of clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal and/or Barcelona than mere pubs and cafe's. Kolkatta's new celebrity league, if managed and marketed properly, is definitely poised to be a crowd puller. Bayern Munich's already made its visit for the Audi Football Summit in the same city and Barcelona is on its way. Argentina and Uruguay played a friendly earlier this year too. The point is there is interest galore shown by clubs and FIFA alike. All the sport needs now is for us football fanatics to pass the baton around and get as many footballers to become more aware of who they really are and where they come from. Of the whos' and whats' of their own I-League. Turn up and cheer in the same numbers when JEJE, Raju or Gourmangi Singh don India's Blue as they did to see Bhaichung wave goodbye.

In conclusion, all im saying if I d fake sickness to miss work and watch an El Classico or stay up till two in the morning to watch a Champions League fixture I am going to do the same when Pune FC plays Dempo SC or India play an Olympic qualifier. I will hone in me the same passion for the leagues in my own country as an Englishman has for the EPL, or a German for the Bundesliga.
For me, its Wada Paav over fish n chips!