Welcome to 2016. I wish everyone a happy, prosperous, healthy 366 days.
New Year's day is really an arbitrary day. The calendar essentially keeps track of the seasons which are an effect of the tilting of the earth's rotational axis and its revolution around the sun. So one revolution gives us one year. The starting point and ending point could have been chosen anywhere and for historical reasons, it eventually came to celebrated on 1st January.
This exclusive insight into time-keeping which I'm sure all of you had no clue about and could never have dreamt of figuring out all on your own comes to me from the book I'm currently reading called Gallileo's Pendulum. It's a book about the history of time-keeping and makes for a very interesting read on something we take for granted everyday - reasonably accurate clocks.
Anyway, I hope this arbitrary period of 366 days is joyous. The last arbitrary period of 365 days, arbitrarily numbered 2015, was a time in which, as usual, life ebbed and flowed. Here are some of the new things I started doing or following in the past year.
BENGALURU FC
In May 2015, I went for only my second ever professional football game. It was special this time because the home team was the team based in my city, namma ooru. Bengaluru. The club is rather predictably named Bengaluru Football Club.
I'd heard a lot about the atmosphere and the passion of the supporters but to experience first hand was altogether a different, well, experience. My friend insisted for some reason that I buy the "West Block" stand ticket for 300 rupees rather than the other, cheaper tickets that were available. It puzzled me but I listened to him and bought the more expensive ticket and I can tell you, it was worth every paisa and more. As I sauntered into the stadium, I heard the synchronised tapping of chairs with the cry of "Westwood's Blue Army". From then on, it was chant after chant, song after song in support of BFC as we (I already saw we after watching them for 2 games) plundered 3 goals to win 3-0.
Simply to be there and with every little movement, little swing of the foot by a player to feel collectively the same emotion as a few thousand others is a special experience. We all screamed our joy at the first goal. We all were booed the referees decisions. We all sang the same songs in sync. And we all came out with a sore throat.
Football, or sport for that matter, has little practical value. A few thousand play, a few million watch. People run around trying to kick a ball into a certain area bounded by the frame of the goal. It's totally arbitrary and random but the players are paid millions. They're serenaded, they're vilified. It's a big deal. Because it brings people together. It creates an environment where many people want the same thing. They believe in the same things. And that is very powerful. It's like a religion.
The next game I attended was more magical. The league stood as such - should BFC beat their opponents they would win the league. Draw or lose and their opponents won it. The head-to-head league had panned out in such a way that the last encounter was like a knockout game. Couldn't have been scripted.
Upwards of 25000 people had packed into the stadium, most of them sporting blue in support of the home team. The weather forecast said thunderstorm and the Gods duly obliged. It poured throughout. Lightning flashed across the sky regularly. The thunder mingled with the roar of the crowd every time the players went anywhere near the opposition half, never mind the goal. And when the ball went into the goal, it was pandemonium. The loudest roar yet and then for the rest of the game, anxiety. If we conceded, it was all in vain.
And concede we did. After holding out for almost 85 minutes, the Bengaluru defence was breached and Mohun Bagan had scored with 5 minutes to go what was surely the deciding goal.
The stunned silence was betrayed only by the minority of away fans packed into a corner having their little party. Shirts were being flailed. People were hugging each other. Then it started.
At first, it was only a thought that turned to a whisper that soon grew into a yet louder roar. BFC, BFC, BFC. Louder than the roar for our own goal, urging the players on for a final flourish. One last salvo. BFC BFC.
I felt goosebumps rise on my skin as I joined in the chorus. We had to win the league. We couldn't let our players down. We would yell our lungs out to spur them on.
It was not to be. It was the away fans who were roaring at the final whistle while the Bengalureans were left matching the mood of the weather. Damp, sour. My saddest and my greatest football experience ever.
LUDOVICO EINAUDI
I'm not very musical person. I like music; everyone does. But I can't quite tell Elvis Presley from Bob Marley from Jimmy Hendrix. My taste has no coherence. It's a song from here, a splash of songs from there, a classical piece here, some pop music there.
The other day, I was watching a football video and the background music caught my attention. It was brilliant. I went through the comments to find out who the artist is and I found this Italian composer, Ludovico Einaudi. And not a day has been spent since where I don't plug into some piece or other of his.
Now I'm not sure what genre it is. Or what style. I just know it's solely instrumental, the guy in question play the piano and every time I listen, I question how I've endured my existence so far, pleasant though it's been overall, without having this music to go back to at all times. How did I get through school and all those competitive exams and all those issues and everything without this music ringing in my ears. I don't know. Henceforth, I can take on anything as Ludovico's got my back.
KANNADA
Something that's been written about in this blog before, I sat down and self-learnt the Kannada script. Now, I can read as well as speak my mother tongue. It was a matter of shame when, in my own home city, the boards and banners in my own language, were unintelligible to me. I'm proud to have set that right.
That's about it actually. These are the length and breadth of my new enterprises in 2015. Hopefully it will be much greater in 2016.