jugo bonita

yes. the football world cup is on. and i'm watching every game this time around. 3 games a day, the last one ending well into the night. roughly 6 hours of watching football leaves me too groggy in the morning to be posting. i guess matters will continue this way till the 9th of july when the cup is won and the rest of the teams have gone home.

its an amazing thing to be able to watch one of the biggest sporting festivals of our times without being subject to any partisan feelings. a neutral supporter is able to truly appreciate the game and if he must, then he can choose a team to cheer for. while watching Argentina hand out a 6-nil thrashing to a lower ranked team i came to believe that its a good thing that India doesn't qualify for these tournaments, because then one would have to face the ignominy and embarassment of such results.

marketers must love us as an audience, no matter which team gets knocked out at which stage, a 140 million strong television audience in India is going to follow the matches all the way to the final. unlike cricket, which is our national religion, once the home team is out of a tournament then the bottom falls out of the television ad revenue market.

this has a telling effect on my social life. it would be non-existent if it weren't for amazing friends who couldn't care less about the game but put up with my enthusiasm for the duration of the match.

and most importantly, i'm training the wife to appreciate the game. she's turning out to be quite a raucous supporter of teams she chooses to cheer for, and god help the teams whose style of play she dislikes, example Australia. she practically willed Brazil to beat the aussies.