My experiments with the blog

I got an encouraging comment from my only brother, Sukhbir, that made me happy enough to write another blog.

I like to play and try every sport, but my brother is a far better sprotsman than I am and I acknowledge the fact that both of us are blessed by dad who in his prime time was a true sportsman. He played all games from athletics to soccer and from tennis to weightlifting. I really admire his dedication towards sports and always wish that I could be like him one day or may be somewhere near to him. He will be 60 this year and I can bet that he is much fitter than most of today's young generation boys who just don't dare to go to the field and don't like to sweat in the sun. I still remember those days when I was in my early teenage and my dad used to force me to get up early in the morning, send me for jogging and made me excercise. That time I used to think that why he's forcing me into it but now I realise the importance of regular excercise and sports in one's life. In my view a person is incomplete without sports in his or her life. I am really thankful to dad for giving me this gift, though he has given me and my brother far more than that which I don't think I could repay him back. I don't say that my parents are the best on this earth but I would like to thank God for blessing me and my brother with such good parents from whom we have got so much and learnt at each and every stage of life.

Coming back to my brother again, he's been an inspiration for me in every sport that I have played with him. Of all the games, I have played soccer and badminton more with him, though he's as good as in Table Tennis, Cricket and other games, especially Carrom(Hahah just kidding..) I think my brother must be knowing why I have mentioned carrom here. He's a damm good player of soccer. I used to and still copy his style of playing and skills he used. The only thing I could beat him was in the sprint..I guess!

As far as badminton is concerned, I have tried my skills in that too but again of no use. He plays the game very well, more importantly he know how to play and how to make his opponent exhausted.

Salute to him for being a good sportman. He might think that I am exaggerating the things very much but I have written what I believe and what I have experienced being with him. And last but not the least, thanks bro for the comment again.

I would like to start my first ever blog with my experience of the conclusion to the Summer'06! I really enjoyed the whole summer but today was the most rewarding day for me.

As a soccer freak, we all (Homarjun, Greg, Razesh and Abhishek) played the game throughout the whole summer regularly. I appreciate the efforts of Homarjun, Abhishek and Greg who were busy with their research work, still managing to take out few hours daily and getting on to the field to play a good game of soccer.

Everyday the game of soccer was being played in high spirits with players from different places and culture coming together and playing as a team. There were few Japanese players, American players, Pakistani players and few from middle east who all played to their best.
Not digressing far away and coming to the point, today was the last day of summer and we planned to end the note by playing a big soccer game i.e India Vs Japan. So everyone was very excited and curious about the game and finally it turned out to be very interesting and good friendly game.

We won by 3 goals to 1 and all credit goes to the hard work and dedication of all the boys there. I sincerely thank everyone who turned up for the game and how can I forget to thank Depti Mathur, who came specially to watch our final game and to take the pictures while we were all playing. Kudos to her!

I felt slight nerves intitially when I stepped onto the field seeing all the 14-15 Japanese players dressed up in blue T-shirts and white shorts. I saw them practising and planning strategies while we counting only our men, who's playing and who's not playing.

Finally the game started and in the beginning our game was a bit sluggish. Abhishek and Karan did a very good job at the defence and kept Japanese players away from attacking our goal. Abhishek started playing soccer this summer only and he picked this game very quickly and I can very comfortably say that I can rely on him any time and can make him play at any position with minimum worries on my mind. Homarjun also tried his best and made crucial attempts at the defence line, though he's very new to the game. In the mid, Gagan played very well and in the front, Ahmed performed a good job. Ahmed improved his game a lot. We co-ordinated each other very well and moreover he got to know my game and thats why we could make a good pair up at the front. I was also impressed seeing Razesh's game improving. Really, he polished his game very nicely, now I don't see him hurting anyone on the field. He understands the game also very well now and tries to play at one position only, though he has a tendency to run the whole field. Greg, on the other hand, opted to sit on the bench and he let other players to play which I found hard to digest. Greg is a very good player, knows and understand the game very well, he can make the game for the whole team single handedly and more importantly he has got the stamina to play long enough. He kept on sending other players in and preferred to keep himself out of the game till the half time. Due to our weak mid-field, we could not get enough chances to attack our opponents. And in the mid way of first half due to some confusion and lack of co-ordination, Japan scored a goal and were 1-0 ahead till half time. I was really not happy by Greg's decision and can argue on it any time of the day. The story and drama does not ends here.

Greg came into play from the very start of the 2nd half and rather than concentrating on the game he was still worried about the players who havn't got the chance to play the game. I was amazed! But anyways, it was just his, Sumanth's and Asad's mere presence together that we managed to score 3 goals in the 2nd half, two by Gyn and one classic goal by Asad. I would rate Asad's goal as one of best goals of the whole summer season. He came from the center line, tackled two opponents and chipped in the ball from 20 yards over the goal keepers full stretched hands up in the air.

Last but not the least to mention, Osama, our Goal Keeper. He's a really fine goal keeper whose skills you can trust any time of the day. So finally we won the game and felt very proud to come out as winners. Last time I was happy like this was during my Undergraduate studies. I still remember that moment very explicitly which was in the 5th semester when we won the Inter-Year Soccer Tournament. I got a chance to represent my year and we defeated our arch-rival one year junior team 2-1. We had an ego clash with that team and it was so relieving when we won the game, celebrated the whole night. Winning the game today refreshed my memories once again and that's why I said in the very beginning of this blog that today was a rewarding day for me. This day will also be with me in my memories for a long time now.