Say What: August 2009

Monday, August 31, 2009

Force India

Tonight I saw an incredible game of football – it was a cup final. The away team in red and the home team in blue were playing an open, entertaining brand of joga bonito that left me breathless. Even though after normal time and first half of extra time, the game was scoreless, the match was exciting with end-to-end goalmouth action entertaining the packed house. The home team scored with a wickedly curving free kick that in at the bottom of the near post with about five minutes of the second half of extra time left – I was absolutely ecstatic! Even let out a couple of seetees. My team had scored and the cup was ours. In the dying seconds of the match, the away team equalized with a flying header that stunned the crowd. The match headed to penalties… heart stopping stuff, indeed. (On a more serious note, my colleague told me his harrowing time last night when his grandfather actually suffered a cardiac arrest while watching the match - The poor old man had couldn’t bear the excitement and had a heart attack for real. Here’s wishing him a speedy recovery! Talk about the glorious unpredictability of sport not being for those with weak hearts!)

For those of you who think that I am describing a Champions League game between Machester United and Chelsea, think again. Nope I haven’t deserted the United cause – that is blasphemous to even imagine! The game I am talking about was last night’s Nehru Cup final between India (in blue) and Syria (in red). An what a match it was! Definitely the best I have seen in Indian football in recent times.

Goalkeeper Subrata Paul emerged hero as India beat Syria 5-4 via sudden death in the final to win the five-nation Nehru Cup football tournament at the Ambedkar stadium in Delhi. The capacity crowd in the stadium could not have asked for a better show of football with a nail-biting finish!

The teams were locked goalless at full-time and 1-1 after 120 minutes of entertainment with both teams having given their all. The 22-year-old goalie brought off three fine saves, including one in sudden-death, to help the hosts retain the title. Paul has been an enigma in club football for his team Mohun Bagan but seems to give his best every time he puts on the India jersey.

Renedy Singh put India ahead in the eight minute of the second period of extra-time curling home a free-kick from 35 yards, before Ali Dyab darted in from nowhere to head home the equalizer from a Raja Rafe pin-point cross for the Syrians, just seconds from the final whistle.

Climax Lawrence, Sunil Chhetri, Steven Dias, Anwar and Surkumar Singh were successful from the spot for India while Renedy Singh's sent the goalkeeper the wrong only to see his kick ricochet off the upright. India looked set to win again as they led going into the last penalty kick. Subrata Paul was in his elements – each time the Syrians stepped up to the spot, his mindgames began – and they worked too when he saved two attempts on the trot. But the Syrian captain and goalkeeper scored (this time Paul didn’t resort to any mindgames – perhaps out of mutual respect for his opposite number), Mehrajuddin Wadoo’s kick was saved and Syria equalised with their next spot kick thus taking the match into sudden death. Subrata Paul saved the second kick in sudden death to ensure an Indian win.

The match had its fair share of drama on the touchline too – the Syrian coach behaved like Jose Mourinho of his Chelsea days, complaining relentlessly each time the referee made a call against Syria. A member of the Syrian support staff was red-carded and sent off – ala Arsene Wenger (tsk tsk – when will the Gunners ever set a good example!).

Sunil Chetri perhaps had the best chance to score in regulation time when he beat his marker to make a fine run into the box only to shoot marginally wide! The Indian skipper Baichung Bhutia also had a great match and came in for “special treatment” from the Syrians, especially late into the match – one of these incidents got India the free kick in the first place from which Renedy did a David Beckham to nearly win it for India. Baichung was named the man of the tournament for his efforts – just desserts for the man who just played his 100th match for India and has served the nation with such distinction. (His 100th match must have been scripted in heaven – he scored, India won to get into the Nehru Cup finals and he won the man of the match award!) Maybe now AIFF and the clubs involved will have some shame and reinstate him to his rightful place – as a leader on the football pitch…

Truth be told – there were plenty of “agricultural” shots on display too – but that is to be expected given the FIFA rankings of both teams. But all in all, it was India’s night. The victory gave India coach Bob Houghton a hat-trick of titles, having earlier guided the team to the last Nehru Cup crown in 2007 (coincidentally beating Syria on that instance too) and AFC Cup Challenge in 2008. Maybe things will turn around for Indian football after all.

India's successful defense of Nehru cup 2009 has to go down as her best moment in footballing history, in the past quarter of a century. For the last significant achievement, one would need to rewind as early as the bronze medal performance in the 1970 Asiad. By all parameters, this triumph would come better off than the LG cup win in Vietnam 2002 or the Nehru cup win in Delhi, 2007.

I admire the way Subrata Paul has managed to stay focused after coming fire following the death of Brazilian striker Cristiano Junior. Junior – RIP. Paul has been assailed by a section of the Indian football fraternity including some top players after television replays seemed to show that he had hit Junior after the Brazilian had scored the second goal for his club Dempo Sports Club during the Federation Cup final on December 5, 2003. Paul was just nineteen at the time. The cause of death of Junior had been identified as cardiac arrest as later clarified by the erstwhile Bangalore police commissioner S. Mariswamy. Dempo also complained that facilities on the ground were inadequate, and moreover, Junior was transported to the Hosmat Hospital instead of Mallya Hospital, which was right next to the Kanteerava Stadium where the match was being played, thus losing valuable time. He was declared dead on arrival at Hosmat Hospital. All I can say is AIFF wakeup!! (To be fair to then, the month long training camp in Barcelona before the tournament was a good start…) Invest in Indian football – learn something from my employers and the TFA. Open more suchacademies. Encourage youngsters to take up the game – cash in on the interest levels generated by the European Leagues now fanatically followed in India as proved by the crowds at games that showed that more people from a larger cross section of the nation are following the game. Improve the quality of the I-League. And please get rid of all the politicians from the administration of the game!

Naysayers and critics can continue to whine that we beat a low ranked team of a nation which is perhaps one tenth our size. I’ll take the victory – after all we bear a country around 55 slots higher in the ranking ladder. Maybe Indian football is finally on its way to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe, just maybe, one day we can compete with the best in the world. I hope that happens in my lifetime – what more could a Bong ask for?!

To sum up things, I was pleasantly shocked with the quality of entertainment and drama the match produced. The last time I can remember that I watched an Indian team play with such rapt attention was when East Bengal won their Asian Medal a few years ago. And all I can say is, more of the same please. Move over Team India – here comes Force India.

Agle Gaane To Copy Karne Ke Liye * Dabanye

Part of my project work involves conducting a Customer Service study. Today I Called up this one customer on his number as per our records and after a couple of rings, a lady picked up and said the customer was in the bathroom and I could speak to her - she asked for my name - I said I was calling from TMFL upon which she suggested that "we should speak alone" - needless to say, I hung up in a hurry feeling quite worried!! I reported this to my boss immediately and he looked at me quite unbelievingly... later on in the evening, he called me to his desk and told me he heard the same lady say the same thing when he called up another customer - it was just a caller tune - incredible.

From Himesh singing (now that’s an oxymoron) his nasal Jhalak Dikla Ja to Nana Patekar’s crazed laughter – chances are if you are calling someone in India on his mobile phone, you will hear any imaginable sound… Sadly, the tring tring is passé. And trust me, no one misses that retro normalcy more than me... Imagine having to make about 50 calls a day in the course of conducting a customer feedback survey and hearing sounds with the genres ranging from Kishore Kumar’s sublime Pal Pal Dil Ke Pas to Akon’s catchy Smack That or even worse – Mithunda’s bizzare dialogue (“Marbo eikhane laash porbe shoshaney” – loosely translated – “If I hit you here, your corpse will land in the crematorium” – this classic is actually from his superhit blockbuster called MLA Fatakeshto)!!! Today, I can empathize with the hundreds of outbound tellecallers and phone marketers who make calls to customers to earn a living – I can only imagine the trauma they face day and day out. Especially if someone sets the caller tune described in para one!

The scary part is, industry experts believe there’s more to come… sample this: “Mobile value added services in India poise to witness significant growth in future. Operators have shifted focus towards providing these services in a market which has observed falling ARPU’s. Over the years the average revenue per unit (ARPU) accruing to operators has been falling, shifting emphasis to alternative means of revenue generation. As average revenue per user decrease from voice drops, and voice becomes commoditized, operators are increasingly looking at data as an additional revenue stream. The end users have also embraced VAS and it contributes between 5-10% of the revenues of different operators. Thus Mobile VAS has become an important element in the growth of mobile telephony in India. The Mobile VAS industry in India was estimated at Rs. 2850 crore at the end of 2006 and was estimated to grow at 60% to touch Rs. 4560 crores at the end of 2007 – furthermore the industry forecasted 39% growth annually from 2007-11. Revised IAMAI & IMRB reports in 2008 suggested that Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS) are to grow 70% YOY to Rs.16520 Crore by 2010.”

“Caller tunes” is the most widely used Mobile VAS used by subscribers in India. Figures suggest that over 25% of India’s 140 million mobile subscribers bought caller ring-back tones and ringtones and this is growing at 25% a month!

Caller tunes are basically music pieces (well, at least they started out as music – today they have evolved and mutated into much weirder “sounds”) which are played to a caller (that’s me) when he is calling another mobile phone user (that’s the customer for his service feedback). This tune is set by the user who is receiving the call according to his taste and choice (bhai, after all we live in a democracy – but trust me freedom of choice has never been more abused)

Mobile phones today have moved beyond their fundamental role of communications and have graduated to become an extension of the persona of the user. We are witnessing an era when users buy mobile phones not just to be in touch, but to express themselves, their attitude, feelings and interests. And this is the major reason for widespread popularity of caller tunes - they allow the users to express themselves offering unmatched personalization and customization ( just like choosing the ring tone which users set on their mobile phone and we are forced to hear when watching a movie or enjoying a quiet dinner date!) Essentially, they have become “fashion” (note: not style) statements with their only real purpose being to show off to caller. (The only silver lining is that I have now acquired the uncanny knack of predicting whether I will get a favourable response from the customer based on his taste and choice of ringtone!) And the operators are quick to grab this opportunity by offering an additional service also allows users to copy tunes from others and set as their own. (Lord have mercy!)

Remember the sadhu with the cellphone picture that we all used extensively in our class presentations to show how far along the cellphone industry has come in India? Now perhaps if you call the sadhu’s phone, you would probably hear a bhajan! Maybe I should get a caller tune too… any suggestions?!

Sources:
1.http://priorartdatabase.com/IPCOM/000167986/
2.http://emergic.org/2008/08/10/indias-mobile-vas-industry/
3.Mobile Value Added Services in India | A Report by IAMAI & eTechnology Group@IMRB | December 2006

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Football Movies

I love football - those who know me, know that I swear by Manchester United. And I love watching movies. Thus it is no surprise that I scour the net to find "football movies"... here's the list of the top 11 (well this is a list about football isn't it?) movies I have seen:

1. Bend it like Beckham
My all time favourite! This one showed how popular Beckham was (and still is) - he didn't feature in the movie but even his name in the title gave it a massive push. To be honest, I initially watched it because I was curious about the Beckham connection...