Waka Waka... No Way!

Now that the FIFA World Cup is over, I finally summoned up the courage to write this article. If it offends sentiments of any of my readers, let me be clear, I was not talking about you. ;)

"Who are you supporting - Spain or Netherlands?", I was inundated by numerous chat messages when I logged into my laptop on the eve of the FIFA World Cup finals. I had a tough time convincing my friends that I was not supporting anyone (gasp!) and that I do not even watch football (more gasp!). My only knowledge of football is at most limited to Paul, the octopus or Larissa Riquelme promise. Before you fall off your chair unconscious by my brazen honesty, I will explain you my reasons.

I was not born in any of these two countries (or for that matter any nation playing in the world cup) and also I have never visited them even once. I do not identify with their culture, food or language. I don't have any friends or family in those two countries. This makes it kind of hard for me to have any passion for them. Also, I have options other than football when it comes to the matter of entertainment.

Now I have many many friends who pretend to be absolute lovers of football. They were going nuts about it and in the process spamming every social networking site that they had their profile on. If that was not enough, every celebrity, big or small, was spamming Twitter about their love for the "beautiful game". Hell, even my uncle who knew nothing about football was complaining how the referee was being partial in a particular game.

I don't want to sound cynical but most of these so-called passions seem fake and just for scoring some brownie points, "most" being the keyword. (I understand that some people truly love football but they are far and few). I fail to understand how can one have such heated passions for a country that's not his own. When I quizzed a friend about this, he said that since India was a long way off playing in the world cup, so he had to support someone. Now, that's a ridiculous excuse. It sounds more like out of peer pressure than out of true love for football.

The feeling was best summed up by one of my friend's mom when I went to their house during the world cup. My friend as usual was going nuts about some match that was in progress. 

Excitedly, his mom asked, "What? Is India winning?" 

"Mom! This is football. India is not playing." 

"Then what are you getting so hysterical about? Now, give me the remote. I have to watch Pavitra Rishta."

The expression on my friend's face clearly made my day.