"Some people believe that football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much more important than that." - Bill Shankly
I personally believe that it was invented for the sheer purpose of making mankind realize how beautiful life is. Even though we are confined within the mortal realms, it touches us with a divine beauty and grace, so holy and pure, that you tend to cry out loud in joy and pure bliss and your mind and soul race to the altars of Nirvana. It's simple yet beautiful, it's rough yet beautiful, it's fast yet beautiful; it's The Beautiful Game of Football that shattered all geographical boundaries and united the world with its one common language.
Coming to think about it, I wonder how those 90 minutes instill in us, a myriad of emotions - right from pain to ecstasy, from love to hatred, from pride to envy - and from a hard, smacking sense of mortality to a sense of belonging to a higher plane of existence. A sublime through ball, or a perfectly timed volley, or a gracefully curling freekick, or a header scored after a predator-like lunge in the air, or a magnetic cross-field pass, or a powerful, cannon-like shot or better still, a GOAL lifts our souls and having witnessed such a delightful sight that sends through our hearts a shard of pure thrill, of pure happiness and of pure pleasure, makes us believe, though for a moment, that all is so peaceful and serene and that we attain privileged divinity. To quote Eric "The King" Cantona, "Goals are like babies, they all are beautiful."
And this is exactly why I started playing this sport with a die-hard fanaticism. Listing football in a list of "Things I cannot live without" would not be an exaggeration on my part. Surely, it's too much, many would say. But those who practice this holy sport may know what I mean when I described football as I did. I could not find enough fitting words in my lexicon to describe it. I started out playing football with friends and soon football, for me, wasn't just a form of mere physical exertion or a from of passing time anymore. Gradually, it grew into a whole new passion and a new hobby. I've been playing it for the past 5 years now. It's not at all a big deal really, you would say. Both I suppose it really is a big deal when you go to the park ALMOST everyday for 5 years, either to play or watch the game being played. We even played DURING our Xth Boards. But it does not matter.
With growing madness, a dream was being envisaged in the back of my mind - a dream to be there, at the top, with the best, to play at the Theatre of Dreams, celebrating a goal by crying my heart out in front of the Stretford end, kissing the United crest. It was a dream driven more by a maddening passion, a torturous zeal and a raw fanaticism and less by a commitment and determination to realize it. It was a dream which I hoped would prove to be easy to achieve. But I was proved wrong, partly by my own actions, or rather lack of them, and partly by a social state that everyone could fail to overlook. Dreams are never meant to be easily lived, this I realized agonizingly late after I failed to nurture my dream and gave up its pursuit and let it remain just that - a dream. I was only left with a question that would remain unanswered for eternity - "What if?" My heart still cries out when I imagine living my dream. But it does not matter.
I did play for my school team for 3 years, even captained the side, but never really managed to win a tournament, although we did manage to reach the semi-final stage and manage to beat some of the top sides such as Bombay Scottish and Don Bosco. A lack of a coach played a great role for our failure. To be really modest, we all were naturally talented, no doubt about it, it's just that we never got the proper coaching facilities. But then again, it was just an unforeseen consequence of the lack of efforts from our part. India, unfortunately, was never a footballing nation. Cricket being the national religion of almost all of Indians, football has taken a backseat anyway. I still play for a club, FC Prodigy, that we, football fanatics who refused to forsake their demi-religion of football, formed. But it does not matter.
Football, I believe, shaped me more than anything. It imparted on me a sense of sportsmanship, of team spirit, of determination and grit, of making up for others' loss, of controlling one's emotions and letting them out at the right time, specially when you score a goal, and above all, a sense of being able to do or create something so beautiful and exquisite. And that's why football holds a special place in my heart and would continue to do so until the end of the world.
And that's exactly what matters.
Coming to think about it, I wonder how those 90 minutes instill in us, a myriad of emotions - right from pain to ecstasy, from love to hatred, from pride to envy - and from a hard, smacking sense of mortality to a sense of belonging to a higher plane of existence. A sublime through ball, or a perfectly timed volley, or a gracefully curling freekick, or a header scored after a predator-like lunge in the air, or a magnetic cross-field pass, or a powerful, cannon-like shot or better still, a GOAL lifts our souls and having witnessed such a delightful sight that sends through our hearts a shard of pure thrill, of pure happiness and of pure pleasure, makes us believe, though for a moment, that all is so peaceful and serene and that we attain privileged divinity. To quote Eric "The King" Cantona, "Goals are like babies, they all are beautiful."
And this is exactly why I started playing this sport with a die-hard fanaticism. Listing football in a list of "Things I cannot live without" would not be an exaggeration on my part. Surely, it's too much, many would say. But those who practice this holy sport may know what I mean when I described football as I did. I could not find enough fitting words in my lexicon to describe it. I started out playing football with friends and soon football, for me, wasn't just a form of mere physical exertion or a from of passing time anymore. Gradually, it grew into a whole new passion and a new hobby. I've been playing it for the past 5 years now. It's not at all a big deal really, you would say. Both I suppose it really is a big deal when you go to the park ALMOST everyday for 5 years, either to play or watch the game being played. We even played DURING our Xth Boards. But it does not matter.
With growing madness, a dream was being envisaged in the back of my mind - a dream to be there, at the top, with the best, to play at the Theatre of Dreams, celebrating a goal by crying my heart out in front of the Stretford end, kissing the United crest. It was a dream driven more by a maddening passion, a torturous zeal and a raw fanaticism and less by a commitment and determination to realize it. It was a dream which I hoped would prove to be easy to achieve. But I was proved wrong, partly by my own actions, or rather lack of them, and partly by a social state that everyone could fail to overlook. Dreams are never meant to be easily lived, this I realized agonizingly late after I failed to nurture my dream and gave up its pursuit and let it remain just that - a dream. I was only left with a question that would remain unanswered for eternity - "What if?" My heart still cries out when I imagine living my dream. But it does not matter.
I did play for my school team for 3 years, even captained the side, but never really managed to win a tournament, although we did manage to reach the semi-final stage and manage to beat some of the top sides such as Bombay Scottish and Don Bosco. A lack of a coach played a great role for our failure. To be really modest, we all were naturally talented, no doubt about it, it's just that we never got the proper coaching facilities. But then again, it was just an unforeseen consequence of the lack of efforts from our part. India, unfortunately, was never a footballing nation. Cricket being the national religion of almost all of Indians, football has taken a backseat anyway. I still play for a club, FC Prodigy, that we, football fanatics who refused to forsake their demi-religion of football, formed. But it does not matter.
Football, I believe, shaped me more than anything. It imparted on me a sense of sportsmanship, of team spirit, of determination and grit, of making up for others' loss, of controlling one's emotions and letting them out at the right time, specially when you score a goal, and above all, a sense of being able to do or create something so beautiful and exquisite. And that's why football holds a special place in my heart and would continue to do so until the end of the world.
And that's exactly what matters.
