FIFA Fever

Bijoy 'Owl' Gupta

The garden is gradually warming up to the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. It is not even a week since the tournament took off and all those here who swore by IPL and cricket till the other day are now spouting Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi and Balotelli. They are keeping track of the goals scored, team formations, players’ strengths and strategies, match-winning coaches… to the extent of placing bets on the outcome of the tournament!
This is the result of staying awake all night to follow the ‘beautiful game’ live on TV. Bijoy Gupta, for one, is a self-confessed owl who sleeps during daytime and at night, from 9:30 p.m. he settles down with his drinks in front of a television set and watches three matches back-to-back till 5:00 in the morning. Should the last match run into extra time or if he feels extra-charged, he would make an appearance in Garden at 7:00 a.m. to rub off some of his excitement with other football fans.

Exercises Interrupted: Waiting for rains to subside

For the rest of us, who are unable to stay awake all night, Gupta is our first source of information on the outcome of the matches.
Gupta did not show up today -- possibly, because of the inclement weather. It was dark and cloudy since early morning with the heavens threatening to open up any moment. Still, we took our chances and went to exercise out in the open. Sure enough, we were interrupted by intermittent showers resulting in abandoning the exercises a couple of times. The funny part was while some of us waited patiently for the rains to subside, others performed the comical act of exercising with one hand holding up an open umbrella. And for the time there was no rain, Razia Khan raced through each exercise at such breakneck speed that Arun Patil could not help remarking: “See, a mad dog has got behind her!”
Seems like it will take us time to get used to the rains.
Jagmohan Papneja:
Football has not enjoyed popular support among the Indian masses. But this is changing now. Youngsters are picking up the game fast. Still, football has a long way to go. Cricket is all over India. To popularize and give a boost to football, corporates should seriously patronize clubs like Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, etc.