Need a Change

I have a question for all those who watch the game of football with passion and interest and even for those who don’t follow it so closely.
Do we follow the football season only to see the big clubs like Manchester United (Man U), Barcelona, Real Madrid or the Clubs from Milan win all the major trophies, Liverpool, Chelsea, Valencia, Juventus, Porto, Bayern Munich and others forever competing to be right there at the top and the lesser known clubs fighting to stay out of the relegation zone. Or do we watch the game expecting some good competitive football being played, coupled with some breath taking displays of players dribbling skills, stunning free-kicks and saves, creative passes and timely tackles and blocks. Even a diehard fan of Man U like me will admit that it gives me equal pleasure to watch the free flowing attacking football of Barcelona on display as much as the more strategic display of total football by team Man U.
The next thing we need to understand is: are we ready to accept: a lesser followed club like the Hull City, or a West Ham United winning the English Premier League (EPL). A live example of a similar situation is in 2009 Formula One season: Brawn Team in its debut season on the circuit has left all the big names like the Ferrari, Renault & McLaren way behind. The leaders list has seen the likes of Hamilton and Massa swapping places with Jenson Button and Barrichalo. Button is leading the list, midway through the season with 75 points while Massa has 11 and Hamilton 9 lying at 10th and 11th position. Has that had an effect on the viewership, only TRPs can say but surely it must have had. I am sure not many of us who never missed a single race last 3-4 years, are still following the game with the same level of zeal.
Personally it’s difficult to accept, the club I follow, see loose but I am tired and bored to see the same names at the top of the points table be it in any sport, Football, Formula One or even Basketball (LA Lakers has again won it this year 15 in total). The Club competitions seem to move towards matches like: India verses Brazil in football, or a Singapore verses Australia in cricket.
If we try to understand the reason for Club games becoming famous was the proposition it brought forth for the viewers: players from different nationalities coming together to play for clubs beyond nationalities and providing an opportunity to see the best talent playing side by side to produce the best results in terms of quality of the game. This also gave an opportunity for the billionaires an opportunity to own clubs real life, have a say in team composition and formation: a dream for any avid sports follower. There is no denying the fact that it had lived up to its expectation: the biggest example of it is the quality of football in EPL or La Liga being far better than in the World Cups. However with time it has become a money spinner for the clubs through television rights and team sponsorships. This has attracted the billionaires of the world who are ready to spend any amount of money to build the best team, wooing the best players from all over to play for them. This has helped the players who have opted to have games as their career. But, only a few good clubs performing well or having the potential to be there at the top, have been able to attract investors, others haven’t and this has increased the gap in spending between the top teams and those lying in the middle or low down. This has resulted in congregation of the best talent in a few clubs which has a deep bearing on the outcome at the end of the season.
The second problem as I see it: a Rio Ferdinand or a Vidic playing for Man U have had equal or even more contribution to the success of the club this year than that of Ronaldo, Rooney or Tevez but they are not even valued at half of that of Ronaldo. If the reason is: Ronaldo is a forward and scores goals while Ferdinand is a defender, then there is something seriously wrong in understanding the game and this would surely have an impact on the moral of these players and effect their contribution and commitment to the team game.
What to do then:
Let us look back to our very own just concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) which is the latest Club game that has made its place in the World Sports calendar. IPL has provided a cap on the spending that teams can make for signing players. The interest of the players was also taken into consideration. The players were graded based on their performance in World cricket and a minimum price was fixed for each grade. All the teams participated in an auction process to bid for the players and each of them had an equal opportunity to get a mix of established, emerging and new comers because of the spending were not related to the size of the pocket of the franchisees. The result is for all to see. All the teams have a balanced side, having the capability of beating the other on its day. The success of it has been that we had 4 different finalists in the two seasons of the tournament with this year’s finalist being those at the bottom of the table last year.
Formula One had put a cap on the total spending to help the participating teams who were affected by the recession to reduce the undue advantage that some of the other teams would have gained who were unaffected by recession. The big teams like Ferrari, Renault or McLaren, who are affected by this, have threatened to revolt and not participate in future seasons of Formula One if the rule prevails. But one thing that it has done it has removed the monopoly in the racing circuit of a few of the teams. We get to hear new names on the podium.
Thus it’s difficult to prescribe a solution for EPL considering the trouble that Formula One is facing, but definitely the administrative body of EPL and other governing bodies of Football clubs in Europe should take steps necessary to reduce the gap in spending of the clubs, which will increase the competitiveness of the league. If something is not done immediately the interest and fan following that it generates now may go and EPL end up as one of the many Club Football leagues being played around the world.
I would like to end hoping that Real Madrid, which has signed both Kaka and Ronaldo this season, fails to deliver as a team, otherwise with the existing team that Real has, it will take home all the big trophies without much sweat.

Deserve, Aspire & Achieve

It was last Sunday, I was having a chat with my child hood friend over the dinner table, and she started telling me that I shall get a life partner like the one I aspire for. I was so happy to hear that, I mean who wouldn’t.
But my next expression was why, She said,
”If you deserve something and then strive for it, and you will definitely get it”.

We need to deserve before we aspire....a take away for life

It was just another day in office and I was frustrated as usual. I was expected to do something that I thought even my higher ups would find it difficult to accomplish. But that’s life and sometimes you need to accept it as it is. This triggered me to think of what is that I could have done differently, in order to attain the same outcome. I could think of a few options but found none of them to be without its fair share of risk. It seemed that the decision was not to identify the correct solution, but to identify the solution with the risk that rightly matched with our risk appetite, not so easy exercise to do after all.
Life had taught me a lesson.....

So whenever I try to see myself in a position of importance I always try and analyse whether I deserve to be there, in terms of knowledge, expertise and experience of handling a similar situation earlier. If I don’t then, I should not aspire for it. To aspire for, is not just to have something but to deserve it and do justice to it . This brings me to the point that we all have aspirations of making it big in a very short span of time. We all aspire for profiles at work where we can apply all that we have learnt as students, but do we ever look back and analyse whether we really have the knowledge and expertise to do justice to the work that we crave for. Just the other day I met my friends over dinner when, in one of our discussions one of us was talking about having to wait for 10 years to be in a position to take the big decisions in her company. My immediate reaction to it was “can’t wait for so along’’, only for me to admit immediately that: yes it’s a difficult job and even my boss is unable to do justice to that. Patience is a virtue, but I am unsure why our generation has lost it.
When I look back, I realise how foolish I was to react......

Our aspirations should always stem from our capabilities and not from our fantasies

Does that mean we stop aspiring.....
The relationship: to deserve, then aspire and to achieve, seems unidirectional, but does that mean we stop aspiring!
Let us try to explore the possibility of a bidirectional relationship.....
We all dream, dream about what we want from life, what we want to do in life. To fulfil our dreams, we aspire. Our aspirations serve as the destination to reach and we do, all that is required, to build our capabilities and expertise, to deserve to achieve our goals and aspirations. This brings us to the point that the seed for all our efforts to built capability and expertise generate from our goals and aspirations and there exists a cyclic relationship between to deserve and to aspire. We aspire, build capabilities and expertise to deserve to aspire and then achieve, only to set higher goals and aspirations and follow the path of developing to deserve, then aspire and finally achieve.

Life is all about being realistic in terms of our strengths, setting goals which can stretch us that bit without creating unnecessary stress, achieve and in the process carve out an unique place for ourselves under the sun

To conclude.....
Most of us who have joined the corporate world after college, must have realised by now that our aspirations of an ideal quality of work may be too farfetched and many of us must be thinking of or tried to curb their aspirations to fit themselves in where they are, what they are doing, only to see themselves happy. But every time we do that, we should remind ourselves: it’s good to be realistic and be happy with what we have, but it’s our aspirations that shall be the seed to develop ourselves now, to deserve to aspire and finally achieve what we are all here for, in the future.

LOVE

It has been some time I had been thinking about articulating my thoughts about the present subject which may help me in clearing the clutter and confusion that exist around it.

My confusion…..
Ever since I have experienced ‘Love’ in all its dimensions like Love for self, Love for parents, Love for brother, Love for friends/sweetheart, Love for football, Love for Calcutta, etc, I have seen the levels of Love and quality of energy that gets associated with it. To elaborate on the aspect of confusion that it encompasses: I am confused; whether to call it an emotion, a feeling or a desire. Yet I recognize its presence and its magic which reveals through joy and happiness and tends to increase in-times of adversity of the loved ones.

What is Love…..
I look at ‘to Love’ to be a quality that helps to transmit and radiate a positive energy in the form of joy, harmony, peace and strength, in good times as well as to fight adverse circumstances. It is beyond the expectation of reward or appreciation and is independent of the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others. It brings in a sense of responsibility, and an ability to make wise choices beyond emotional attachments. It helps to identify and communicate weakness in a way to bring a positive response, and also helps to discover ones true self and identify strengths to help one to strive and attain their goals. It helps to overcome ones ego and try and make one understand that there is a world beyond me and mine and show the way to overcome and transform ones resentments, vanities, illusions, and other blocks, to their own joy.

How I Perceive……
It’s like nature which is boundless and goes beyond religion, caste, colour and economic background that divide the world into multiple fragments. Like nature, it’s free and for all to enjoy and cherish in this materialistic world. Like the vagaries of nature it also inflicts pain in rejection.

What does it mean to me…
Love to me is not about helping others or taking care of them but it’s all about trying to make one realize the potential in oneself and help one build oneself mentally and psychologically so that one can fight the odds of life now and in future, to become self reliant. This provides maximum help that can be rendered to an individual i.e. to help himself and does not make one feel indebt to anyone.

Understanding dimensions of love…
This brings me to the next question; how do I differentiate and priorities between the different dimensions of love. Well it’s very easy to differentiate between the human and the abstract, but I don’t have a clue to differentiate between the dimensions of love among humans. I have been put to test on numerous occasions on a personnel front, to decide my priority and I have always gone by my instinct of being by ones side who, according to me, needs me more.
The most interesting and often discussed among all the dimensions of love is that we share with our friends and sweetheart. Unlike the others it’s that human love that evolves with time from a baby in its infant to an adult in its maturity and we get an opportunity to experience it right through from its start to its maturity. This makes the experience of being in love so exciting.

Expression….
One important thing in love is to be able to express it. I belong to that school of thought who believes in action and not in words. Thus, I believe in, to express my feelings through my actions. A mother does not need to tell her child how much she loves her; it is expressed through the love and care for her child. Same is in the case with ones siblings. But, what about friends? The intensity of love is different and it evolves with time. Thus, it becomes extremely important to be able to express ones feeling in this regard. I am at a fix. Even after being through all the permutation and combinations possible in life, I have failed to understand, what is the right way or mix to express ones love that speak more than the words. I conclude with a hope that it won’t be far off, when life teaches me the same through an enriching experience.