96 Hours To Go - The stage is set!

Yes, few more hours to go and mother of all battles is about to get underway. After hosting several sports event successfully, South Africa gets to host World Cup Football across Africa for the first time. And they have left no stones unturned for this special event. They have built several new stadiums and upgraded existing venues. They have invested heavily in public transports and safety measures to ensure smooth traffic of fans.

Coming on to the tournament, once again 32 teams are participating in this World Cup. Each of these 32 teams has appeared in at least one of the world cups earlier and South Africa being the host automatically qualified for the final round. Final Draw of the teams happened in December 2009. As the event kick starts on Friday, I would be looking forward to great individual displays from the teams like Brazil, Argentina and England. It would be equally fair to expect great team game from Italy, France and Netherlands. South Africa will have home advantage for sure but I do not see them making it to final four. Mexico and Spain are the underdogs which can be a challenge for bigger teams in knock out stages. I am not sure who will be the surprise package this time from the minnows (Have not followed much recently). Having said this, I would love to see a Brazil-Argentina final match.

Though actual results may differ from my thoughts and may leave me astonished after 35 days, I cannot wait to submerge into the ocean of football and experience outstanding beauty of skill, grace, power and resistance.

10 days to go... I hope to write about this soon...

Crazy work hours not allowing to write anything, quiet a few things in mind over past few days... Would like to leave this space with this wonderful song for the moment though... I would be here always

15 days to go...

Zidane’s heroics really began to sink in with arrival of FIFA World Cup in the Asia. Playing without him, France was shocked by Senegal in the opening match itself. Their misery did not end here. They went out of the tournament without scoring a single goal. Senegal on the other hand impressed everyone with their agile performance and made it to quarter finals when Turkey finally ended their spree. There was another team which did the entire continent proud with astounding showcase of the game. Joint host South Korea became first Asian team to enter semifinals at the cost of very strong teams like Italy, Spain and Portugal. However, both these teams were stopped in the semis by two seasoned teams of all time. With a strong midfield line and one of the greatest goalkeepers at the helm, Germany made a mockery of its opponents. Of course, Oliver Kahn stood at the goal post like a wall and made some great saves which meant there was only one goal against them till final. On the other hand, Brazil continued with where they left in 1998 and the demolisher-in-chief again the famous duo of Ronaldo and Rivaldo. Final match was being hailed as a battle between Ronaldo-Rivaldo-Ronaldinho and Oliver Kahn. However, absence of Ballack (due to cumulative yellow cards till previous game) gave Brazil a little edge which indeed mattered in the end. How can one forget that famous presence of mind by Rivaldo which allowed Brazil to complete a 2-0 victory! They really deserved this win and can be safely called one of the most successful national football teams. This world cup saw the best of Ronaldo and he won golden shoe award after narrowly missing it the previous tournament.

Germany had little consolation in the sense that the tournament was returning back to Germany in 2006 after several years. I had a chance to watch this world cup out of Green Bay in USA. This time around, 8 out of 32 teams were playing for the first time and all of these 8 teams were from small countries like Togo, Trinidad, Ivory Coast etc. Fans could not witness many goals in knock out stages which resulted into 4 out of 15 such games (including the final) being decided by penalty shoot out. Brazil once again started off very well and reached quarter finals within flash of time. Rebounding from their embarrassing performance, France made a slow start but picked up from round two. They took out Spain, Brazil and Portugal from the tournament to cement a place in final. Similarly, Germany entered semis with players firing in with all cylinders. Likes of Kahn, Ballack, Klose, Podolski and Petit ensured that Germany played great football and was one of most aggressive and in-form teams. Facing them in the semis was Italy who had an easy competition till this game. Game went into additional time at 0-0. A last minute substitution by Italy changed the pace of the game. Del Piero had saved all his energy for this moment and Germany went crashing out again, all dreams shattered leaving all fans disheartened. Final between Italy and France was an equal contest and score read as 1-1 at end of scheduled time. No goals were added in the additional time. Additional time however saw an unpleasant moment when Zidane head-butted Materazzi and was shown red card. This butt more or less decided the fate for France and Italy had won their 4th title!

Countdown begins - 18 days to go!

Come June 11, 2010 and a stupendous fireworks is expected to rock Johannesburg. And why not, Africa gets its first ever chance to host the FIFA world cup. While the entire world is eagerly waiting for the kick start of another breathtaking one month of joy, tears, agony, rivalry and sportsmanship, I would like to pause for a moment and take a tour to previous four world cup tournaments which I have witnessed with my eyes.

FIFA went to USA for the first time in 1994 hoping that it would lead to growth of interest of this game in USA. Though team USA’s performance did not soar very much in the subsequent tournaments, attendance at the grounds skyrocketed and broke all the records since 1950. Major surprise of the tournament was the absence of Britain from tournament for the first and only time till date and major setback was the end of Maradona’s career due to failing a drug test. Biggest surprise however on the field was power packed performance of Bulgaria. Led by joint golden shoe winner of the tournament, Hristo Stoichkov, they eventually made it to the semifinals before being defeated by Italy. Italy on the other side survived a few narrow chances in the group stages before Roberto Baggio lifted the spirit of the team by his extraordinary ability to goal at the crucial moments. Between Italy and the world cup stood the Brazilians who had a smooth run till the finals. Both these teams were eyeing their fourth world cup win. Both the teams made several scoring chances but could not produce a result in the scheduled 90 minutes and additional 30 minutes. For the first time in history, the winner was to be decided by penalty shoot out. After 4 rounds of penalty shoots, the score read Italy: 2, Brazil: 3 with Italy to strike their 5th one first. I recall Roberto Baggio taking this one for Italy and what happened then is a history. He missed the goal bar by several inches and Brazil had clinched their 4th title. They owed this title to a wonderful team effort and dream run of Romario.

World cup moved to France for the second time in 1998. For the first time, 32 teams were playing the finals. This tournament also marked the conception of the golden goal rules and extra time play for stoppage times. Greatest surprise on the field this time was the way Croatia made their way to the semi-finals. Suker for them rose to the occasions more than once and eventually took away golden shoe award. Though they could not surpass rejuvenated hosts in the semis, they did manage to beat Dutchs to end third in the competition. Brazil as usual was on roller coaster ride with best forwards of the game doing the maximum damage against the oppositions – none other than the duo of Rivaldo and Ronaldo. Unfortunately for them, Zinedine Zidane had other plans for the final night at Paris. He scored no goals (except one in penalty shoot-out against Italy in quarter finals) in the tournament till this game and did not use his feet either in the finals to score the goals. Two strong headers and the game went begging away from Brazil handing over France their first title.

As Zidane’s heroics began to sink in, world cup made its way to Asia for the first time and in the process became first tournament in the history to be hosted by two countries – South Korea and Japan.

To be continued…

Before I forget...

Life is wonderful, beautiful and bountiful, as it has always been. It is all the more beautiful because we have so many magnificent friends, colleagues, relatives and dear ones around us. Their sheer presence brings loads of smile for a disheartened heart, their pat on the back bolsters confidence into a struggling journey and their kind words heal all the wounds in due course of time.

I tend to go back in time whenever I think of this priceless gift of Life. Life has offered me so many great friends and colleagues. May be for some reason, all of them have not been in frequent contact which is not so pleasing for sure. However, I have come to terms with this dilemma gradually for it is inevitable given the constraints within which one has to operate. Some call it hard fact of life while some blame it on other impending matters at hand (supposedly needing immediate attention). Valid Points when you look at it from different angles. So what would one do? Or rather what could one do? I am not in a position to offer exact answer as it may vary depending on the individual.

What I could do under such circumstances is perhaps keep all those anmol treasures in the thoughts, remember them for a lifetime and wish them plethora of joy and fulfillment. I could offer a silent prayer for their welfare and success in whatever they do. I could transmit a tranquil smile into this universe hoping it reaches them with the whiff of air and make them smile for a moment, if not more.

To each and everyone, whom I have known since long or not so long, I dedicate this song and hope to connect with you all at some point of time… Jeena_Isi_Kaa_Naam_Hai :-) :-) :-)

Grow and Grow Absolutely

Growth in corporate parlance implies assuming more responsibilities and living up to management confidence in a more effective and robust manner. So what does this mean? Does this mean more work, more projects or more tasks? A very famous cliché that management often uses while discussing career and development plans of its employees is that "we have everything available within this organization and it is up to individual to demonstrate his/ her appetite."

I am not sure whether volunteering for more and more every time would lead to absolute growth in one’s competence, abilities and skills. It is understandable that there are a few ad-hoc activities that need to be addressed on an urgent basis and within no time. However, living in quadrant one (most important and most urgent activity zone) for majority of work life may negatively impact growth of a person. That ways, one may not be able to think of lessons learnt in the whole process and obstacles on the path ahead would be difficult to anticipate.

An example could be dismal performance of Dhoni’s boys in T20 world cup. 45 days extravaganza of IPL on Indian soil really engaged all our players to their core. Owner’s expectations served them no less as they were under pressure to perform due to varying reasons depending upon who is the owner and how poor performance could affect them. It left them with no time to realize that the host of world T20 cup is a country known for bouncy tracks and seaming wickets. While IPL did ensure hefty bank balances for popular players and rise of few local players on a national spectrum, this could not let them breathe in between and plan for tasks ahead. Well, what could be said about IPL nights... I really do not think that they should even be a point of discussion. I have seen so many people working hard and partying even harder :-)

So how would one assume more responsibilities and live up to management confidence thereby evolve as an improved personality also? I reckon that this can be achieved by continuous assessment of work-load and corresponding value added to the self. Also, better time management is a key when it comes to do various tasks all at the same time. Even if one assumes daunting and uphill tasks to manage, learning on all critical parameters needs to be analyzed after the completion of tasks.

Remember, every act done and every word spoken stand for your character and transmit tons of waves about your attitude and personality. Grow in a way that builds a great character, that amplifies self-belief and that cements unwavering serenity deep within. After all, the cause of existence supersedes cause of survival.