To Dare Is To Do - Part I

In a country ranked in the last quartile of the FIFA rankings for as long as I can remember, finding people who love football would be hard. I don’t consider the perennial once in 4 years World Cup bandwagon as fans (I agree my prejudice would exclude some purists..but screw them). Those who fall into my certified football lover category are primarily the people who follow a club. Thanks to our colonial past and relatively higher marketing, EPL is by far the most followed league here.  Given the background, there are 5 kinds of fans you would find:

1. Klops: Someone who has seen the Liverpool FC play in the pre Premier League era or the 2005 Champions league converts. Keywords : Gerrard , YNWA
2. Red Devils: The most numerous of the kind, tons of wannabe among them. 13 EPL titles - end of discussion. Keywords: Fergie, Old Trafford, GGMU
3. Gooners: Those who wanted to support the challengers rather than top dogs. Thanks to Arsene Wenger. Keyword : Invincibles (long back), Emirate$
4. Blues: The new elites from the 2004-’05 season, back to back championships. Keywords: Morinho, Drogba Legend and Dasvidanya FFP.
5. Cityzens: The newest elite club and the supporters are like unicorns here. I have come across very few. For a club playing third tier football in 1998, they have come a long way. Thank Shiekhs from Abu Dhabi for the funds and screw you FFP. Keywords: €thihad, Oil, Unicorn 

Let’s examine the progression from the Old Heroes to Champions, Challengers and Elites from a numerical standpoint. With numbers dwindling at every stage and the last set of supporters being called the proverbial Unicorns, it might seem that supporters of another other EPL would be non-existent. They would have to be something like a ‘unicorn de la unicorn’ (my French is poor - deal with it).  

 Yes, I am the unicorn of unicorns. I support Tottenham Hotspurs…have been for over a decade now and will be for the rest of the life. #TTID

P.S: Why Spurs? – It’s a topic for another day.

P.P.S : TTID – Tottenham Till I Die

Rise and Fall

Six years back in Austria,

La Roja took the charge,

They began with Greece, Sweden and Russia,

Not even the whole of Europe could stop their barge.

Their game was unlike any other,

Tiki-Taka was what its called.

It cut through defenses like knife through the butter,

Before their goals were hauled.

With fire in their hearts and magic at their feet,

The heroes were now legends proclaimed.

They dreamt of greater glory..they dreamt of greater feat,

As only Europe was got...the World still remained.

Touted as the golden generation,

They arrived at the greatest stage of all.

Carrying the hopes and burdening the expectation,

They did beat teams great and small.

Never bowing out and never backing down,

They started with loss and then beat all odds.

Taking the glory and winning the crown,

If football was a religion, they were the Lords.

One of the greatest ever were they called,

Europe was their's again.

So it struck like a lighting when they were stalled,

For 6 long years did they reign.

It seemed hard to fill the voids they left,

As they were legends when they took the fall.

Looking back at the memories kept,

I feel fortunate to have seen them at all

Poets of the Fall

Its said that the sweetest songs are those that tell the saddest tale. I am not sure why, but I do agree. I guess when we are sad we are pulling ourselves out of the hole by pouring out in writing. In my case I guess when I am really happy I don't need script out the joy I feel - it is in the moment and should be cherished by completely soaking in it. So when I was looking back to the poems (if we can call it that) I had written, poems of sorrow is all I find.Given my age about a half decade back, it had lot to with lost love..a crush..a friend zone...well you get the point right. Since I would be digitizing them sooner or later - here are some of them:

----

Silenced Words

 There is something I always wanted to say,

But never wanted you to hear,

In my fragile little heart they lay,

Because silenced by vow are they here.

Bathed in tears and chained by fate,

In the voids of heart they wander,

What is life? – A destiny’s bait,

A trap where my dreams are slaughtered.

Every heartbeat is an unceasing reminder,

What my heart always yearned for,

Every desire is a prey to predator,

And bound to perish henceforth.

As a stone in the throat or a thorn in the flesh,

These unsaid words dwell on my pain,

Unceasingly they exist and continue to crush,

The thoughts of happiness and leave me insane.

This life has never given me a chance,

To say how much I loved you,

With every silent second my miseries enhance,

I’m wishing I would be given a life anew.

Unexpressed will my love remain,

Unchanged will be my promise forever,

Allow my deepest desire be slain,

And subsist with the fact- Desire never. 

---

Lament of Love

Known have I from the very beginning,

That I was bound to lose you,

The eyes could see the separations thickening,

Devouring the thoughts of hope few.

I have never known the reasons,

Why I have always felt the guilt,

Living in the saddest of seasons,

Demolishing the dreams that were built.

Knowing the worst was destined to be,

Why did I take this step?

Knowing what the fate had in store for me,

And breaking the promises kept.

Did I need a reason to hate you,

Or live a life without regrets,

That made me say I’ve always loved you,

With my soul waiting to be a reject.

Answers are uncertain … uncertain for now,

But this heart still sings the lament of love,

The reasons are vague and so is the cause,

And the soul still mourns the ballads of loss.

---

An Aberration in your Life

The autumn winds have come again,

Another year is now past,

Those distant memories do still remain,

Of the times before the curse was cast.

Few little days that you were with me,

Were like heaven on this earth,

Locked was my happiness..but you were the key,

So the times did then reverse.

You were happy before we met,

And the joys are with you now,

I am just an aberration your fate has set,

And you are my forbidden love.

You were then possessed by one who loved you,

You are now possessed by one who cares,

My disowned love did get a chance too few,

With my care held in fate's own snare.

All I can give...you do already own,

Your dreams to fulfill are away from me sought,

With your path ahead clear and with destiny shown,

Lost is my battle and the reason I fought.

Walking away from the crossroads we met,

By burying the hopes which in me I kept alive,

And this lonely walk you won’t regret,

For I was and will be … an aberration in your life.

---

Damsel of my Dreams

The angles face out in her brilliance,

The sun is jealous of her shine,

The moon is eclipsed by her beauty,

The flowers shy off from her charms.

The Queen of dreams is she for me,

The Goddess of fantasies too good to be,

She was my destiny’s fuel and fire,

And my heart’s greatest desire.

How I wish this damsel was mine,

A life with her is worth more than nine,

Without her life is so incomplete,

But fate is a fiend I can’t compete.

She can’t make my heart just hers,

For she has the man whom she prefers,

Their eternal joy and my everlasting sorrow,

Will coexist like today and tomorrow.

Time moves on and so do we all,

For we mortals have a life so small,

If only to forgetting her was that simple,

My life wouldn’t have been so crippled.

But there is a place where fate has no place,

Those are my dreams with her enchanting face,

Where together we are for days and nights,

And my sorrows and miseries are out of sight.

---

 I must say I had been chained by the classical cliches of rhyming the lines to make it sound like a poem rather than paint a lyrical picture truest to the feeling. But thanks to these, I felt much lighter after writing them those days and till date writing remain amongst my more instinctive response to foreseeable gloom. Paradoxically when I read through again, it does give me joy to know I have been through this and bounced back. Even when I look back then whole point of writing them was to spill out the sadness and make space for happiness to dwell.  

Time

From rise to set,

Never does it rest,

For past, present and future,

Within it do nest.

When happiness they fetch,

They are momentous like a dream,

But at sadness they stretch,

And never ending they seem.

Like crystal sand in tightened fist,

More is lost when tighter the hold,

Dark and vague like twilight mist,

For it only knows what future may hold.

Money can buy it,

Bonds can’t tie it,

If lost for once it’s lost forever,

Regret of which ceases never.

Did it have a beginning?

Does it have an end?

Is still beyond our reckoning,

It lives by its own trend.

Seconds pile up into minutes,

As does months into years,

But these are just measures of mortal span,

And end with death as we fear.

Infinitely … continuously striving ahead,

Presenting few memories sublime,

To where it will take us, from where it has lead,

We mortals call it Time.

My Rainbow

Colors of happiness you bring along,
Spread the joy with nature's song,
Your arches are gateways to euphoria,
Your show me the visions of Utopia,
Your beauty catches the eye , no matter how far,
For greatest of sight for them thou art.

Dark clouds of sorrow is what precedes you,
Darker still are the one's that succeeds you,
You appear for a moment and time takes you back,
Then life turns a trial , for it you who lack,
What was once a garden is now a desert,
Life is held a prisoner, waiting for you to revert.

Your glimpse is worth the wait till eternity,
And you'll remain beyond my reach for infinity,
Waiting and watching is all I can do,
Treasuring each moment before you finally move,
But you're still faultless, t'was fate's own play,
To keep you in sky and here on earth I lay.

Waking from Slumber

I had made this blog quite some time ago , but nothing did get me fired up to write something into it. Finally after more than three years I could muster some energy to type something or lets say got bored of of seeing "0 posts" on the page. As this is just an effort to nullify the numerical jinx that the "0" had on me this morning , it will be really harsh of you to expect something worth spending time here. I had hoped that if there would be a blog that I would be writing , the posts or at least the first one would be a jargon jungle but the it was big turn off when someone had already taken the name Blogarithm.blogspot.com and so was the case with blogosphere , blogpad blogpod ... and all other cliches of nice sounding blog names the creative juices that the jinx had bought up have dried up.

PS: Sorry for the time waste. Things are bound to be better from here :D

RB#1