Yes!
Sounds Crazy...because it is!
Nerdette I've always been...straight 'A's all along, teacher's favourite generally, parents never called to the principal's office and all of that.
And like expected...
I found myself going from SSC to 12th Science, to a little detour into BMM (Advertising), and like every slightly above average person these days seems to be ending up, irrespective of where he/she began...there I was, in an MBA college.
How much I learned about business management is still a question mark and will always be, because I never cared enough; but the one thing that caught my attention in college was the football rivalry! Never before had I witnessed the craze, the seemingly stupid loyalty that people had for a football club miles away; that honestly couldn't care less about the support of these few people in the back benches of an MBA classroom.
I distinctly remember, to this day, year 2010, was a match between Arsenal and Chelsea; and Chelsea had won it. As was a bet made the previous day, the losing team had to wear the winning team's jerseys and walk from one end to the other end of out computer lab (it would not have been more than 50-60 steps...maximum). And I kid you not, and I exaggerate not, when I say that the Arsenal fans behaved like they were being paraded in the nude! That's HOW distressed and embarrassed they were. I never got it back then. But I really felt bad for them.
While I never ended up supporting any club, I think sub-consciously, at the back of my mind, there was that little supportive feeling for Arsenal. The fact that our Manchester United fans were forever looking down on the rest, and their behaviour didn't exactly endear them to me, made it very clear that no matter who I supported, it could never be Manchester United!
That was that. The tryst with football in MBA ended like that and I found my way into a job at Ethinos Digital Marketing. I joined in January 2012, a friend, a die-hard Arsenal supporter joined in February. He had Arsene Wenger on his desktop and a lot of my happier afternoons then involved gay jokes about how he was into older men. That was my first introduction to Arsenal, and that's how it stayed till the whole of next year!
2013; was when it was all slated to change! February saw another friend join the gang at Ethinos, a die-hard Manchester United supporter! And sometime, somewhere, I heard him slyly read out a tweet to my Arsenal fan friend; mocking Arsenal for their 9 years without a title.
Twitter is 7 years old. That means no Arsenal fan has ever tweeted, 'We won a title.'
That was it! That was when Manchester United went a notch lower and I found my supportive feeling for Arsenal return!
Sometime around August/September that year, we realized that everyone at Ethinos was getting really fat and the boys decided to play football every week. Thanks to that fact that I had pretty much bonded with the guys over many inappropriate conversations, become really good friends, usually had a blast with them, and had absolutely no personal/social life that asked for my time; watching them play football became one of those fun things to do after work.
The football watching evening saw me get interested in the game, figure out a couple of rules, cheer away, click pictures of the net, then learn to click nice pictures through the net, and enjoy the gay references being shouted out!
Put it in men, put it in fast men, you're so slow, give me head, my ball...now imagine sweaty guys shouting these to each other! Entertaining, right? Even if you couldn't care less about football!
That was it then. Bitten by the football bug had happened!
Here's the Ethinos team that made it happen!
And one fine day...I went up to my Arsenal fan friend and told him, this time Arsenal fans will tweet about winning a trophy. His happiness reached mad levels and he promised me a large Cocoberry Krazy Cup if that happened! Was more than I could ask for! Next step was telling my good friend from MBA class about this latest development! Again, I exaggerate not when I say he was thrilled to bits! Was more than enough that, and I went from Nerdette to Goonerette!
With a miniscule knowledge of football, infinitesimal knowledge of Arsenal, but an enthusiasm that could give any fan a run for his/her money! Was a big deal to me; inspite of the fact that the rest of the world gave zero f**ks! Since football season was just beginning, in September, it was the perfect time to jump in the madness! Head on!
But this was just the beginning...I still had to begin facing the pressures of being a newbie fan! I still face them, and I've kinda reconciled to them now! Hopefully I will reach a stage when I can confidently spew gyaan and talk about nice passes, and tackles, and saves, and misses, and understand positions and all, but for now, I'm happy! I am not doing too bad for a complete beginner!
Luckily for me, I've found friends who make the ride worthwhile!
Nishanth, Rishi, Hector, Zahid, Zubair, Naasir, Melroy, Sheldon, Supam, Karishma...thank you for everything!
More on them in my next blog post on The Survival Kit For A Newbie Female Football Fan!
Wait for it... ;)
Sounds Crazy...because it is!
Nerdette I've always been...straight 'A's all along, teacher's favourite generally, parents never called to the principal's office and all of that.
And like expected...
I found myself going from SSC to 12th Science, to a little detour into BMM (Advertising), and like every slightly above average person these days seems to be ending up, irrespective of where he/she began...there I was, in an MBA college.
How much I learned about business management is still a question mark and will always be, because I never cared enough; but the one thing that caught my attention in college was the football rivalry! Never before had I witnessed the craze, the seemingly stupid loyalty that people had for a football club miles away; that honestly couldn't care less about the support of these few people in the back benches of an MBA classroom.
I distinctly remember, to this day, year 2010, was a match between Arsenal and Chelsea; and Chelsea had won it. As was a bet made the previous day, the losing team had to wear the winning team's jerseys and walk from one end to the other end of out computer lab (it would not have been more than 50-60 steps...maximum). And I kid you not, and I exaggerate not, when I say that the Arsenal fans behaved like they were being paraded in the nude! That's HOW distressed and embarrassed they were. I never got it back then. But I really felt bad for them.
While I never ended up supporting any club, I think sub-consciously, at the back of my mind, there was that little supportive feeling for Arsenal. The fact that our Manchester United fans were forever looking down on the rest, and their behaviour didn't exactly endear them to me, made it very clear that no matter who I supported, it could never be Manchester United!
That was that. The tryst with football in MBA ended like that and I found my way into a job at Ethinos Digital Marketing. I joined in January 2012, a friend, a die-hard Arsenal supporter joined in February. He had Arsene Wenger on his desktop and a lot of my happier afternoons then involved gay jokes about how he was into older men. That was my first introduction to Arsenal, and that's how it stayed till the whole of next year!
2013; was when it was all slated to change! February saw another friend join the gang at Ethinos, a die-hard Manchester United supporter! And sometime, somewhere, I heard him slyly read out a tweet to my Arsenal fan friend; mocking Arsenal for their 9 years without a title.
Twitter is 7 years old. That means no Arsenal fan has ever tweeted, 'We won a title.'
That was it! That was when Manchester United went a notch lower and I found my supportive feeling for Arsenal return!
Sometime around August/September that year, we realized that everyone at Ethinos was getting really fat and the boys decided to play football every week. Thanks to that fact that I had pretty much bonded with the guys over many inappropriate conversations, become really good friends, usually had a blast with them, and had absolutely no personal/social life that asked for my time; watching them play football became one of those fun things to do after work.
The football watching evening saw me get interested in the game, figure out a couple of rules, cheer away, click pictures of the net, then learn to click nice pictures through the net, and enjoy the gay references being shouted out!
Put it in men, put it in fast men, you're so slow, give me head, my ball...now imagine sweaty guys shouting these to each other! Entertaining, right? Even if you couldn't care less about football!
That was it then. Bitten by the football bug had happened!
Here's the Ethinos team that made it happen!
And one fine day...I went up to my Arsenal fan friend and told him, this time Arsenal fans will tweet about winning a trophy. His happiness reached mad levels and he promised me a large Cocoberry Krazy Cup if that happened! Was more than I could ask for! Next step was telling my good friend from MBA class about this latest development! Again, I exaggerate not when I say he was thrilled to bits! Was more than enough that, and I went from Nerdette to Goonerette!
With a miniscule knowledge of football, infinitesimal knowledge of Arsenal, but an enthusiasm that could give any fan a run for his/her money! Was a big deal to me; inspite of the fact that the rest of the world gave zero f**ks! Since football season was just beginning, in September, it was the perfect time to jump in the madness! Head on!
But this was just the beginning...I still had to begin facing the pressures of being a newbie fan! I still face them, and I've kinda reconciled to them now! Hopefully I will reach a stage when I can confidently spew gyaan and talk about nice passes, and tackles, and saves, and misses, and understand positions and all, but for now, I'm happy! I am not doing too bad for a complete beginner!
Luckily for me, I've found friends who make the ride worthwhile!
Nishanth, Rishi, Hector, Zahid, Zubair, Naasir, Melroy, Sheldon, Supam, Karishma...thank you for everything!
More on them in my next blog post on The Survival Kit For A Newbie Female Football Fan!
Wait for it... ;)
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