Monday, June 16, 2008

Football Fever? No Fervour, Por Favor!

Life repeats itself.
The Euro games. The football. The hype. The hoopla. The images. Fans in painted faces. Girls in look-at-me clothing. Beer-barrelled males in national colours. The debates. The arguments.

I'd watched World Cup '82 . Well, reruns of it a couple of weeks after it actually ended, and on a black and white TV, and without any real idea what it was all about. At a time when very few people around had TVs, my mother had gone out and splurged on one the year before, and housefuls of neighbours would turn up when anything interesting was on the program. In early summer, my grandmother had fallen and broken her thigh bone and was very ill but that didn't deter neighbours from swamping the house. My aunt was reported to have remarked that she couldn't understand how so many people could stand to watch men in the same black and white shirts chase a football around every night.

By the time the '86 edition rolled in, we'd been subscribing to Sportsworld and Sportstar magazines and regularly following the BBC radio sportsnews and English FA Cup on TV so we'd become pretty football-savvy. We could reel off names of players, even relatively obscure ones if they were cute, and knew which teams had great footballing history. We loved the spectacularity of Mexico '86 and were hugely entertained by the witticisms of the glib commentators. Like a French player taking a fall being breezily described as, "And that's a French roll." I remember Mum, my older sister and I once actually pulled off an all-nighter taking in 4 matches in succession. We stocked up on fresh pineapples slices, brewed tea at midnight, munched on snacks and were deliriously happy. By the time the final whistle blew on the last game, daylight was already breaking on the horizon.

I hardly remember the '90 edition. And on the late afternoon of the '94 final, my sister's husband's younger brother was killed in a road accident. My younger sisters went over. I stayed home with my mother who had cancer then and could no longer stay out long hours at night. We watched the final together in tired distraction, our minds not really registering any of it.

Personal circumstances change priorities, and repetition brings ennui to even the most exciting things after a while. Sports extravaganzas on TV no longer impact my life quite so emphatically as they once did. Now I barely manage to take in the first half of the early games. I don't know which teams are playing and I don't have the fixtures either. I just don't have the time or inclination to follow events, players or teams anymore.

But when I see images that always appear to accompany spectacular footballing events - colourful stadiums bursting with fans and noise, players celebrating goals in exuberant orgiastic frenzy, skimpily clad fans flaunting national flags and colours, nattily-dressed experts and ex-players debating on the refereeing, the goals that were allowed or shouldn't have been, the penalties, the offsides, the play-acting, the absurdly bizarre new rules etc etc, I'm reminded time and again of the old adage, "The more things change, the more things remain the same."

15 comments:

  1. Wonderful piece. Perfect title, perfect piece. I so totally relate to both the title (especially the title!) and the piece that I could have written the piece. Except that you write so much better. :)

    I remember WC 90 (Roger Milla, et al) as one of the best. I would have watched all the matches that year except that my son decided it was time to bless us with his presence and my wife and I had to spend a few days at the clinic where he was born. Or, maybe, our timing was a bit off (WC being the last thing on our mind...:). Anyway, I missed a few vital matches in 90.

    I finally watched all the matches in the next WC in 94, having installed a TV in office to watch the ones that came on during office hours. Things only went down from then and, except for the ocassional matches that I sometimes watch (mostly at friends' when I happen to drop in).

    Though I havent the faintest idea of whats going on in the EPL, the Primera Liga, etc., I still look forward to the next WC. Maybe, my interest will have returned by then.

    Thanks for a great piece.

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  2. You sound like the Qoheleth whose eloquent musings in Ecclesiastes continually remind us of the fleetingness of our indulgences; except that you put it more vividly.

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  3. Hey Plats, as great as it is that age differences don't matter a dime online, it's such a nice feeling meeting someone with the same life time table here. Thanks for the appreciative remarks. I hope you didn't miss the Spanish title, the Dutch picture and the French label lol. And what a coincidence - my nephew was also born during WC '90. June 28th, in fact.

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  4. Philo, "indulgences"...ah that's a good term. But I'm not sure I sound as sagely philosophical or world weary as your Chaser of the Wind :)

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  5. WC '82 laiin Shillong-ah ka la awm. Kan up-to-date lo thei ropui. Sportsworld/Sportstar mags kan lei ve thin a. A chang chuan, soccer stars pics centrespread-a beisei laiin cricket star ho pic a tam zawk mah thin.
    Italia '90-a 'To be number one' tih hla khan ka lung a la tileng fo thin.

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  6. football chu maw kei chu en ai chuan enloh ka duh zawk!! WC hnuhnung ber final zan khan sawmpuia room ah kan en ve a,ka lo muthilhsan vel..mahse a tui tak tak ten an en hi chu awm ka ti ve tho!! 82 WC he he ava rei toh om ve aw?

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  7. azassk, '82 chuan i la piang lo nimaw i ron tih dan chu :D Nia, football en tui loh chu ka hrethiam ltk che. Autumn in my Heart te nen chuan hnuk a in ulh hleih ve lom momz

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  8. samuapa, vai ho hi chu WC lai te hian an la cricket heu zel. Thil catch lo ang type hi an ni mole

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  9. TV kan neilo a tunkum Euro chu ka bo hu mai, mi ina en tura kal don lahin weekend chauh lo hman ve bok shi, mahse Cristiano Ronaldo hi chu a chhelo ve chiang alom!

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  10. I * na a rei toh tak e, ambs. Don't worry, TV nei poh kan bo hu tho alom. Kan nunah hlutna a nei chau ta tihna ni mai. C'est la vie. That's the way the cookie crumbles.

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  11. '86 world cup atangin ka en tan, tun thlengin ka la atchilh chhawm ta zel futbol hi chu. McManaman a dribbling thiam ka tih zia te, Zidane a footwork turu ka tih dan te, Basten a skill san zia te, Bierhoff a lu hman thiam zia te, dead ball a Beckham turu dan te, barthez a ball dropping tha ka tih zia te, Nistelrooy a position dik zia te, Cantona captaincy that zia te, 1992 Euro a Papin'an goal chance vawi khat chiah a neih a vawi khat a thun tun thleng a ropui ka la tih reng zia te hi sawi zui vak ka van chak em!!!!

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  12. Bebeto off the ball running that zia ka sawi hmaih :)

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  13. amuana chu collection va ron thlawh tha hlom ve. Ka lung an ti leng reuh ltk khing hming ho khian. A then phei chu ka lo theihnghilh toh hlom a - Papin ang te kha. Midfield control lamah Zidane kha nge tha ang Brazil mi Socrates kha le? Chaun WC lam poh ni lo Liverpool ami Ian Rush-a vanglai a goal bulah a den theih rep rep thin zia kha :)

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  14. Hey scribber, thanks for droppin' by.

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