Finding new love..

01-07-2018
10:45 PM

Bapa brought home a television for the first time back in 1998 only to watch the football world cup, I remember. I can recollect the day vividly, the way he unpacked the huge brown box. The stern, shrewd man I knew until then was excited like a teenager boy. The love for this sport was one of the very few things I couldn’t inherit from him. But now, WC2018 has been a revelation.

That last penalty save by the Russian goal keeper is one of the most beautiful moments I’ve watched on screen. Yet, with the uncertainty of being a newbie in watching football, I tell myself it should be quite a normal thing in this game. I cannot hold my new-found excitement, as I text my football fanatic brother. I do not know if he is surprised to see me ask about a football match. He is kind enough to explain. “Yes, that was amazing”, he says. He talks to me in detail how that was a difficult chance from a goal keeper’s perception. I read him proud, imagining how he’d have stood tall and firm in that same position in the games he played. The first time he brought home the money he earned playing community club football, I was elated beyond words. I knew that was one feat I could never achieve.

Spain were the favourites, it’s an upset victory for the Russians, I’m told. I join their celebrations like a kid wondering around in the field without a hand to hold. I scream inside with the joy of having found a new love, a new game, a new world of sport to chase, watch and read about. There is indefinite warmth that’s creeping in. No wonder people spend sleepless nights to watch this magic on screen. Finally, tonight, I could relate with them all. To redeem myself the guilt of not watching this graceful game all my life, I choose to pen down these emotions here, raw and bare, out in the open. For, I know writing is the only way I could always frantically celebrate.