Pleasantly surprising..

When some months ago my young nephew told me he was preparing for his driving test, I had no idea what plans he had. We grew up in the same household, his mum was my oldest sister and he is almost like the younger brother I never had. We both now live in London and he is the most unassuming person you can ever imagine, although I think perhaps humility is a characteristic that runs in the family. Anyway, I thought nothing of it when he would ask me for tips about driving in London, since he'd said that he was thinking about buying a car.

Unlike the rest of us in the family who had learnt how to drive in our teens, in the process tearing around town in our parents' cars when we should have been studying, he chose to focus on his academic work such that he ended up with a First Class degree from a top UK university and obtained a Masters degree soon afterwards. Now, he has a pick of jobs and my jaw dropped nearly to the floor when he told me that he had just turned down what seemed to me like a fantastic job in Singapore. He now works in investment banking in the Square Mile, (The City), so you get the picture..

Anyway, last week he rang me to announce that his car had been delivered, although he refused to tell me what kind of car it was, as he had always refused to do before then. It was agreed that on Sunday I would drive over to his place to have a look at it. All along I had wanted to know what kind of car he was getting and he would ask me to guess. But all of my guesses were wrong, because not only is this his first car, he's a new driver too and my thinking was that he would go for something modest to start with.

So not in my wildest imagination could I have thought that my young nephew, who in my eyes will always remain the baby that I carried, the one whose soiled diapers I changed, would go for the kind of car that I saw parked in his parking bay. Even as I pulled up beside it, I still thought that this must be his neighbour's car, until he came out dangling the keys, ushered me into the passenger seat and took me for a spin in the affluent Surrey village where he lives. As we drove around in the Porsche Cayman, I trawled through my memory trying to remember if I'd ever ridden in a Porsche before. It seemed that I hadn't, this is not something that I would likely forget.

I'm so really pleased for him. His mum, my sis, who passed away last month would have been so very proud..

Football, the world's lingua franca

I came across this expressive description of the famous World Cup final of 1950 between Brazil and Uruguay. The author A. A. Gill has narrated it so evocatively. I have pasted the description of the match here, but it forms only a part of this wonderful article in the June 2010 edition of Vanity Fair. Please click on the link, the article is worth reading. Most poignant for me were the words:

"There is something about opposing teams of 11 men that speaks to humanity in a way that transcends the game...It isn't music or movies or pizza that is the lingua franca of the globe. It's the Beautiful Game.."

"Brazil, the most successful footballing nation on earth, plays mesmerizing, skillful, and emotional football. They also took part in the most famous final—perhaps the most famous game—ever played. In 1950, in the huge, newly opened Maracana Stadium, in Rio, the Saint Peter’s of the Beautiful Game, roughly 210,000 people—still the record for attendance at a sporting event—came to watch Brazil beat Uruguay. Brazil was such an immensely long favorite that they had already cast their gold winners’ medals and composed a victory anthem. Uruguay’s coach, Juan Lopez, gave his team a locker-room pep talk, saying they should concentrate on defense. As he left, the captain, Obdulio Varela, huddled his fellow players and instructed them to forget what they’d just been told. They must play to win. He famously said, “Muchachos, los de afuera son de palo. Que comience la función,” which translates roughly as “Outsiders don’t play. Let the show begin,” meaning, don’t be intimidated by the crowd, the press, the speculation. Brazil went one up. Varela put the ball on the center spot and yelled, “Now it’s time to win.” Uruguay equalized against the run of play. And then, 12 minutes before time was up, they scored again. The stadium fell silent. It is called the greatest silence ever heard. Jules Rimet, then the president of fifa, international football’s ruling body, said, “The silence was morbid, sometimes too difficult to bear.” It was broken by the final whistle. Some Brazilian fans committed suicide, leaping from the upper tiers of their new stadium. Rimet was left on his own on the pitch to hand the cup to the Uruguayans. The Brazilian-team members were ostracized for the rest of their lives. Some retired immediately. Most were never called to play for their country again. There is a lingering pain among Brazilians, still in a state of shock for the loss.

A Scottish football manager, Bill Shankly, said, “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.” This summer, perhaps a billion people will be watching the World Cup in South Africa, the first time it will be held on the continent. Every single one of them will know that, really, everybody, on and off the pitch, plays.

Let the show begin."

You might also like this slide show of photos and please enjoy the video..