I wonder why the Americans call rugby "Football" when feet have nothing to do with it.And again, why call football soccer, and not just football, when feet have the most significant part to play?I had wanted to do a check up on the naming, but then i feel lazy, as usual :)Okay,so yesterday was a big day. Maradona flew to Kolkata, to inaugurate a football institution in a part of the city's not-unknown-any-more corner,Mahestala. That's pretty near my dad's college (he is the principal of the college,not a trustee or owner, but a be all of that place all the same for the time being, ah gah.)He is the big fan,he saw Maradona play in all of the world cups and the club games, while me, i have only seen videos that my dad has enthusiastically collected, and some replays of old games.Though, i have never been infused with the true spirit of his sportsmanship and skills, it was mesmerising all the same. That man is a wonder! You'd think that the ball is attatched to his left foot with an invisible something,even in moments where you'd probably think, Ah Sh*T,he's lost it( no pun),you would be sure to find himm rolling and cajoling the ball with his left foot.One of the best goals he'd scored was when he had threaded through the defence and scored,cutting off 6 english players.That has been named the goal of the century.Yes I'm an Argentine loyalist, through and through. I know Brazil is the big player.I know in a game Argentina vs.Brazil in a room full of hundred people, nobody would hear my voice cheering them on, but I'm all for them.In the Brazilian team,i feel, each player plays for himself, Ronaldinho would in all probability not pass the ball to anyone else if he issure he would score, when the team could have SURELY scored, if he had made a few small passes to mislead the opponents,and then hit.I don't claim to be an exeort,i've never been there, never EVER done that. But then, if u want to make it big, small things matter ( now this contradicts, i know,that inspite of taking into account all the small things, argentina hasn't made it big so many times, but still),Its my opinion, my reason, you may chose to disagree :).
Back to yesterday.I had been sitting in the field with my dad since 8:30 in the morning and Maradona arrived at around 11:30, security reasons i suppose.My dad had woken me up at 5:30 and i'd been watching footages of Maradona being brought from the airport to the hotel,in a bus with bullet proof behemoth windows so that vision could be inside out,he could see us, and so could we.I wasnt among the thousands who had thronged the streets at midnight with torches.This overwhelmed him,he said.Oh well he arrived,all smiling and waving,and you could see it in his face that he was,i use that word again,overwhelmed.It was a short ceremony,a short speech by Mahestala's Mla,followed by him inaugurating the Indian Football School,actually it was the foundation stone laying ceremony of the same, and then he spoke a few words.Most news channels and newspapers have given it to you, so i aint repeating (again,i lie, i feel lazy!:D).Okay um,he said that he was surprised to find a country so far away from his home playing and following the game with such interest and "Viva la India"..."Long live India". The Mahestala municipality gifted him a tajmahal of sterling silver and this kid had sketched a wonderful portrait of the revolutionary Che Guevara.Maradona was smitten :), he lifted his shirt sleeve and we could see his tattoo on his upper arm :D.
I got to click many pictures,though my dad took care of most of the stills. Our handycam went kaput, so i recorded videos on my dad's phone.And yea,I would remember this day for forever. Thanks dad! :)
Slide show of the pictures
