The Mass 'Virgin Moment'

The Mass 'Virgin Moment' – and the climax is today.

The great momentousness of the occasion that is Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement is that none of the Manchester United supporters of my generation have felt what it is like to have a new manager at the football club you support and admire. The great football clubs of the world have this innate ability to rebuild their teams and produce champion material year after year. At Old Trafford, the benchmark for building and rebuilding teams had long been set before the arrival of Sir Alex.  Sir Matt Busby, the original old school manager, had long set the standard with the Busby Babes and the revival of the team post the Munich air disaster. After the crash in '58, the team was rebuilt around the survivors, Sir Bobby Charlton being one of them. Some known players were brought in from other clubs and others were scouted, George Best was one of those scouted.  Man. United lifted the European Cup ten years later in '68 after nearly having its entire team wiped out on a runway in Munich.

This great blend of organic and inorganic growth, and building of the team, is now a trademark at United, thanks to the long years of Sir Alex’s reign. He is cut from the same mould as Sir Matt, but in many ways he has outdone the older Scot. Sir Matt Busby was the manager at the club for 24 years. Sir Alex has been at Old Trafford for 26 years now and has outdone every benchmark that was set for him and has done it in some style.

 Nobody in this generation has seen and experienced a Manchester United without Sir Alex and that includes the players, the club staff & the coaching staff, the opposition teams, the media and the millions of fans around the world. The premier league itself has not seen a Manchester United without Sir Alex, since its inception in '92. This great ‘inexperience’ is unmatched at any other football club.

 Perhaps the contemporary Arsenal supporters of this generation would experience the departure of Arsene Wenger from the Emirates one day and feel a bit of the same. But in lots of ways it wouldn't really be the same, for my generation has never seen United failing. United have never finished outside the top three in the EPL and have always had a chance to fight for the top prize in Europe, the Champions League. Well, the champion’s league is another reason why it won’t be the same when Arsene leaves.  If Wenger was to leave today, as heartbroken as the truest of Arsenal supporters would be, they would hope that perhaps the new manager will lead them to victory in Europe, a feeling they have never had. No club other than Arsenal can even qualify for this grand experience of having the same manager at the club for more than 16 years, that’s how long Wenger has been in charge. Sir Alex has done ten more.

And in that sense, this is a great 'virgin moment' for all the United Supporters of my generation. Manchester United was in the market for a new manager in more than a quarter of a century. The great climax would come today at Old Trafford, where emotions would pour out like they have not in the longest of times. This would be the last time Sir Alexandar Chapman Ferguson, the great elder of Old Trafford, would hold his castle, this last time against an up and coming Welsh side - Swansea City. It will be his last home game as the manager of Manchester United Football Club. This occasion of collective experience of a moment, that in essence will be unique for everyone, has come around in half a century at the club, and perhaps the only united supporters calm right now are the ones who were around when Sir Matt Busby retired more than 43 years ago.

Like it is with all classic 'virgin moments', this one could have also lasted a little longer  as well and  could indeed have been a little more ‘glorious’, had United made it to the finals of the Champions League. Wembley - his last game in charge and a fight for the trophy that he desired the most. But maybe this is the cue for David and he will take us to a climax next season, to a night of another champion’s league final and eventual glory.  And then that would be a night to remember in Europe!!!

mudna main wagheyon khabbe

ik din au gaa,main vi lahore javaanga...

Faiza main vi tere karr aavanga...

audharle Punjab ch vi maa-boli bol aavanga...

wagde taan panje aab othe vi aaa, operean nuu avada bana aavanga...

Amrita teh Manto nu vi mileavanga...

Gawalmandi jaake kuch chak ke vi aavanga...

fankaaraan naal bahaaraan di galaan vi maareavanga...

Mehndi teh Ghulam diya ghazalaan teh do jaam vi laa aavanga...

gaddafi ch Wasim te Imran de kissean teh muskuraa vi avanga...

O Lohara tere munde toh Jugni vi sunn aavanga...

Badshahi masjid di tasveer vi utaar aavanga...

Rai-Bhoi-Di-Talwandi di bus faedke, mattha vi tek aavanga...

Alamghari Darvage tohn Anderoon Shehr vi vekh aavanga...

sikhi de puraane gaadh teh deg-teg-fateh vi japp aavanga...

teh parhiyaan aakhaan naal,gunegaaraan nu gaallan vi kadd aavanga...

fakhir khane jaake tawarikhan di dunghiai vi maap aavanga...

sher-e-punjab ranjiteya teri samadhi teh sirr vi chuka aavanga...

oh kehnede ne je aje lahore nahi vekheya taan halle jamme nai...

main kenhain ik vaar nahi,vaar vaar jamm ke aavanga...

akhiyan taenu udeek diyan,lahore,ik din main zaroor aavanga...

The Secretomotor Phenomenon

“You cannot be serious” – John McEnroe, through out the eighties at random tennis umpires all over the world. I happened to express the same words in a much less animated manner but more so with despair when I read how the champ cried after losing to the new muscle flexing Spanish kid. I have noticed and have come up with the conclusion of him being a very passionate man. From his racquet throwing, abuses hurling wild ways to the calm and composed ways of an experienced campaigner, he has always cried his heart out along the way.

When Roger Federer won his first Wimbledon, he cried like a baby. Everyone stood up and acknowledged his great emotion at display. He won it the second time, did it again and again the third time and the fourth time. By the fifth time , he came in his classy personal apparel designed by Nike with the now famous RF insignia, managed to not get beaten by the tenacious Rafael Nadal and yet again he cried, I mean , you’ve been there and done that five more times more than most winners would ever , enough with the sobbing.

But then again, I really wouldn’t want to judge the great man. For till last year he was being called the undisputed champ, arguably the greatest ever and now all of a sudden, he, has become the underdog. How fickle the order seems. I think what one undermines is the great passion he has for the sport, for winning, for fighting, for glory. Everyone talks of his great talent, his dynamic game play, the serve and volley, the one handed backhand and down the line winners but more than all of these it is undying passion he wears on his sleeve and exhibits without a shame, in victory or in defeat.

But even he will now be singing, in the pursuit of the 14th and conquest of the Parisian clay, and in turn eternal glory, ‘purple haze is in my brain, lately things don’t seem the same’.

first reaction...

As news channels gave yet another "breaking news", this time of a gang war in south mumbai, i thought,wtf,mostly because that is the only place i go to in mumbai.i slept on the thought that if i were to be in a place where my dying was eminent,would i get a flashback and if i did , what would i see.as i got up today, i read the newspaper headline which read 100 injured in mumbai terror attack. thats fuckin different from a gangwar i thought.switching on the TV introduced me to a completely new entity, the deccan mujhahideen.i should have seen that coming. this is india after all, new day ,new insurgent.
i remember, growing up as an army kid, going to kashmir often as my dad was posted there. those fortified cantonments, the curfews, the kupwaras and handwaras, the rajwar sectors and the lolab valleys,LeTs and HMs and the rule of the gun. how ironic, for it wasn't quite the paradise on earth the print media called it then. terrorism in india was always more concentrated in certain regions. in the 80s it was punjab then from the 90s till now, kashmir burnt and still does and the ULFA exercised terror in assam on and off, but it was nothing like it is now. from bangalore to jaipur to ahmedabad we have taken hits. the very essence of our safety is under threat.from india's polital capital to its smallest town to its financial hub, the insecurity is growing every where.
2008 has not been india's best year and that is a huge understatement. sensex fell from 21k to 9k, petrol became more of a luxury,political unrest was witnessed throughout, in the east rebellion grew, from a man wanting the manoos to come of age to the flag bearers of the gorkhaland, there was anarchy everywhere.india's finest organisation the indian army hung its head in shame as india got its first serving arming officer to be arrested on terror charges. and then there was the saffron brigade trying to shield the sandhvi from investigation. thank god we didnt have any riots this year.
the british national lottery has 'it could be you' as its tagline and that very well is the case with terror in india. and for that reason alone we ought to be asking questions. why are the intelligence agencies so pathetically lacking in effectiveness? why dont we find out who hit us the last time? why do we not hit back, those who hit us? why are we always reactive and never pro active? as the national elections come closer, those are the questions atleast id like to ask the elected people.voting is gonna be another dilemma. which one of the the two losers, that'll be the big question.well thats another story for another time. but what this moment in time calls for us to do is to stop heeding gandhi's advice of turning the other cheek. i believe tony blair said it best while standing on the steps of 10 downing street on taking office" enough of talking - it is time now to do".