Great Indian Football Team

“I eat football, I sleep football, I dream of football. I am not mad. I am passionate” Thiery Henry said a poster he had grown up with. Born in a middle- class family with the motto “study well, get a job” it was never easy to pursue one’s dream if it was anything other than studies. That too in India in the 1970s how could one think of a career of football. Even in the 21^st century, it was all about cricket. Only slowly other sports like badminton, tennis, and football are catching up. In such a milieu he had grown up and after finishing, school took a college degree then mastered in business studies and got a job as an executive in a good company, got married ‘arranged’ by him with the blessings of his parents and life seemed to be happy.

Something about the foot had got stuck in his head and not the mouth. He decided that he will stand on his foot. He put his foot down to this executive career and decided to stand on his own foot. He had started a company to provide a supply of ‘temps’ as it was called that time. ‘Temp’ meant temporary and many companies were looking to hire for temporary jobs particularly in the blue- collar segment. The shackles of a government-controlled economy were being untethered and the economy began to boom. From the standard Fiat and the stately Ambassador, Maruti was the first to put its nose on the ground. Bata finally had competition.

There he was set up his own company called “Tempos” and the slogan was “we supply temporaries permanently.” One foot after another the company grew. He put his right foot forward and moved to the city of the techies. His left foot wasn’t being idle. He made several deft moves. His football skills came handy. Right of center, left of center, center forward, back to defense but one should say he never became ‘heady.’ His feet were firmly on the ground.

Occasionally he smoked a cigarette from the brand of Wills and he had a will and the way was found. Soon zeros got added to his net worth on the right side. By then the Indian Premier league got started and it was a blockbuster hit. India being a nation with very poor copyrights and rich in ‘right to copy’ other sports started their own league.

His feet started itching again. Nothing to do with club foot but he had an idea to put foot prints in a club. He had adequate zeros in his net worth and there he became a football club owner. It was called the “Great Indian Football Team” (GIFT). It was a gift for himself and gift to the nation as well. Now it may become possible that India would finally play in a world cup of football. You may see him on the sides with the Indian team doing a Kabir Khan ala Chakde India.

Now he not only strategizes in the Board meetings but in the football field with GIFT. His ‘quest was unending. Be it half time or full time, sleep time or dream time it was now football. So much so he had become trim and the doctor attributed to his sleep and dreams about football and the resulting psychosomatic effect. A new technique of losing weight and calories had been discovered and gifted to the football fans. GDP of India went down due to the closure of industries related to weight loss, diet books, superfoods and so on. Many companies started providing sleep hours as part of the official work time.

While his team was honing its corner strategies, he was always looking for a ‘corner house’ himself as an investment strategy but don’t push him to a corner, for you would get a flying kick.

Now a days he had turned a bit philosophical. He was often heard singing to his wife

‘Que sera, sera whatever will be will be.’

His wife sighs and sings ‘football it will be.’