Those were the days when ‘Nepali footballer missing’, ‘runaway from the airport and still missing’ would make headlines. Losing was the only option we had and dozens and couple of dozens were just the regular diets. Players could hardly make any money. Part time footballers were the only nation’s hope. Few old good daddies retired or bad daddies worn out of the ‘tass’ they play all day , some young drug dealers on the quest of safe place to deal, some ‘bhaiyas’ trying to make some business would top the list of people entering into the stadiums at various places in the country. Not to mention some optimistic football fans that always had faith in Nepali football would be me being prejudiced. Don’t wanna sue me for that. Do you?
However things had to change, and vice versa of what I mentioned above is not entirely true at the moment. But things have started to show good signs. We are on a ‘yoo Nepal yoo’ mood. Every move is being watched. I personally, refresh goalnepal.com page every time i log in to facebook. I almost had this insomnia when I first heard the rumor of rohit chand being transferred to Arsenal. Nepali footballers are getting some tough number of fans to count. I guess our players deserve this; it’s just their hard work being paid off and I hope they continue to make us proud. 9 – 0 was a shame but 1 – 1 against mighty Jordan was something to mark as history. But a 10 – 1 aggregate and not making to 3rd round of FIFA WC qualifiers might let our players down. The home crowd didn’t let them feel that way certainly. I wasn’t there to cheer for you guys, I was busy refreshing goalnepal.com page. The social networking sites are still busy singing the glory for our national heroes. Not any official facebook or twitter pages did but we created our own pages to mark this glorious achievement so far. The page ‘The proud moment when bharat khawas scored a goal’ was the first page I liked soon after the digital score board said 1-1 at Dashrath Rangasala.
This moment got me back to the time when I first watched this Clint Eastwood’s movie ‘Invictus’. Ever since, I had this feeling of writing something about the movie. And then I got dog busy. Don’t mistake it for donkey busy coz donkeys are real busy and a dog doesn’t know himself what he is up to.
Morgan freeman plays Nelson Mandela; Matt Damon plays François Pienaar the captain of proud South African rugby world cup winning team in 1995. What might a newly elected president brag about?? Might talk about the big dreams of peace n welfare n eliminating poverty and stuffs like that. That’s what every pm elected in 6 months out of unrest politics in Nepal does. However Mandela did something different, so I and millions of people read his books and our PM Jhallu gets a tight slap. Don’t wanna talk about what happens in our country coz I closed that chapter long ago. I had this group in facebook ‘we desperately want a youth’s political party in Nepal’, trying hard to encourage young people to shape their own political party. But most of our young facebook users were busy liking pages such as ‘pani puri’, or ‘ I love u ‘ or whatever love craps they were served.
Taking you back to the movie, Mandela realizes his people getting divided over this rugby thing. The blacks didn’t like the whites playing rugby and would cheer against their home squad. He recalls his own memory of Robben Island when he himself would cheer for any team but Springboks, the SA national rugby team. He thinks the only way to unite SA is to not snatch away from the whites what they’ve adored since long time and making blacks admire their national team. He calls up a short meeting over tea with the skipper François and assures him that the whole country will be there to cheer for them when they play against any odds. He also hands this beautiful poem ‘INVICTUS’ by the English poet (William Ernest Henley). At the mean time ‘Madiba’ watches the game and learns all of it. He has this newspaper cut piece with all the national players in it and remembers their name before he finally meets them in person. He asks the national team to make a tour to local neighborhood. The team goes to the poor community of blacks and plays rugby with the kids. The team gets more inspired and an everlasting courage seeing that the whole country is there to prop them up. Finally the team starting its WC journey with the worst form possible ends the journey bagging the World Cup shield, with the whole of SA cheering for them. Sounds like a fiction, but u can Google it and find the exact same thing. I didn’t believe it myself when I first watched the movie. Mandela plays with the rugby sentiments and unites the whole country. A guy spending 27 yrs in prison and yet ready to forgive all the people who put him there. That’s something our rebellions must have learnt from him and his accomplishments. They never did and they never will.
Talking about football again, when the major European leagues are quiescent, it was the best chance for Nepali football to attract viewers. They did play their best and now they are on the peak this moment. Rumors of Rohit chand making to EPL, 1 – 1 draw against mighty Jordan, Nepali team top ranked in South Asia, top 20 in the Asian chart are some glorious moments for all of us who roared the whole pitch down when our heroes were fighting our glory. We have few more months left for SAFF and it’s off season for Nepali football. We can’t expect things to be done by any government authorities run by the filthy leaders who stench more than pig shits, people say. But ANFA (not very clean itself but I guess fanatical to football) can arrange a national tour given 3 months of ‘doing nothing’ time. Just like what Mandela asked to his national team to do.
This might come up as an inspiration for footballers at local level. A way to hook up to the remote Nepali football fans of all sorts. A way to forget all misleads by this shitty headed politicians. A tour to plant new hopes in our apathetic youngsters(busy with the bike modification, new gadgets, girls, drugs, visa processing, Korean dress ups and haircuts) and anarchic Nepal. A tour to prove this to all pointing fingers out there, a tour to cry out loud repeating:
I am the master of my fate
I m the captain of my soul……
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