Memories #14-Jose Dale reunion @ Amsterdam

Quilon, Kerala, India

Four brothers with the same acronyms denoting their names lived in the picturesque seaside village of Tangasseri. The place was popular for its lighthouse which came into existence early in 1902.Another interesting feature was that remains of both the Dutch and Portuguese forts can be still found there.The four brothers all had P.B D’Cruz as their abbreviated names,when expanded P and B denoted different names. Each of them went on to carve different careers for themselves in their lives. The eldest one went on to become a successful Teaching Professional to helm one of the well known schools in Dubai. The second one cracked the Indian Civil Services at the young age of 22 barely out of college; subsequently joined the Indian Police Service(I.P.S) and got posted to the Northern part of the country right in the midst of the badlands of Chambal. One of them built a career and a life down under(Australia) and made a name for himself as a Senior Executive in one of the biggest Telecom companies of the world. The youngest of the lot, a passionate educationist still continues his vocation of moulding young minds.He was the one who was lucky enough to be still based out of the place where he is born

Jose Dale

Essen,Germany

A few days into my first business visit to Europe as part of Mindcurv, one fine morning I receive the following broadcast message from one of my cousins.The youngest brother among my father’s siblings was visiting down under for the very first time to spend some time with his elder brother. 

“Tomorrow is our Uncle's birthday. Please take a couple of minutes to give him a call or message him. Remember that he is in Australia which is 5 and a half hours ahead of India, 8 hours ahead of Poland,10 hours ahead of Germany and 11 hours ahead of London”

Just to put things into perspective this message was sent to the children of the very four brothers. 

Reading the message gave me goosebumps. Come to think of it our grandparents would be super proud to know that their clan is scattered all across the world from east to west. Reading the message detailing on how we should wish our paternal uncle according to the timezones left me speechless. I have never seen my grandfather because he passed away a few years before my birth. As far as I know my grandmother was a very focussed and driven woman. She knew exactly where / what she wanted her children to be. But never would they have thought of how small the globe would become with their children/ grandchildren spread out like this.

This entire episode got us thinking of actually meeting each other since most of us were in Europe at that point of time. The fact of the matter was that I had not met my eldest cousin sister for almost a decade. The last I met her was for her marriage, I was the best man and one of my cousin sisters was the bridesmaid. Incidentally both of them are based out of London. Another cousin brother of mine was in the midst of a business visit to Krakow,Poland. It would be a coup d'etat if we could make the meeting happen. We chose Amsterdam for the big fat Jose dale meet up and started planning with great earnest. I was wary in the beginning because most often such grandiose plans never materialise.  

Picture courtesy:Dannilla Donald Correya

Amsterdam,Netherlands

Finally, on the first weekend of December I reached Amsterdam after hopping a couple of trains. Aarti, originally from Australia had reached there first.We agreed to meet up just outside the Amsterdam Centraal station. By then I had already grabbed some breakfast and met up with Aaron one of Teenu’s cousin who had traveled overnight from Stuttgart. I had met this bloke when he was a kid along with his twin brother more than 2 decades back. We were just roaming around the streets around the station when Aarti called informing us that she had reached the station.

We rushed back to find her reading a book. All the offsprings of the 4 brothers were voracious readers thanks to their genes . Each of the brothers had a personal library of their own so it was a no brainer that the kids picked up the habit. After the warm customary hug I realised that it had been quite a long time since I had indeed seen her. She was now an IT professional and a part time musician hopping planes from the UK in the middle of a Friday night to meet her elder cousins.

Dam Square

Teenu had also called us to inform us that her flight had landed but preferred to wait for her younger brother whose flight was scheduled to land sometime later. Meanwhile,all 3 of us were roaming around the place in an effort to kill time and understandably we had a lot to catch up because we hadn’t met each other in ages.The weather was a bit colder than usual but manageable since it was December .


After walking a bit we decided to rest a bit by mid day. There was still no sign of the brother sister duo. We lounged at one of the cafes overlooking the innumerable canals and grabbed a beer. I felt old when I said cheers to my baby sister, she had not even crossed the legal drinking age the last time I met her for Teenu’s wedding. She retorted with gutso that I needed to take a chill pill now that she was an adult. We were joined by another friend of Aaron, Meena who had come from Hague. We again called up Teenu wondering as to what was going on. Adrian, being adrian had discounted the timezone difference and wrongly told his sister about his ETA. Teenu was hardly complaining because that gave her ample time to delve into a book, a rarity these days courtesy being a mother of two boys.He finally landed by afternoon.and they were on their way to meet us from Schipol airport.

Lunch together

As soon as they got down at the intersection ahead of our location Aaron spotted the distinctive blue jacket from a distance and concluded that it was Teenu. She had not changed a bit from the last time I met her. The quorum was now complete with Kavita who had accompanied them. Boy, we were a noisy lot and famished to the core because literally all of us had traveled quite a bit in the last few hours. As starters we grabbed some hot dogs and some onion rings from a food truck. Till date Teenu maintains that it was the best food she ate during our entire time over there. Post that we decided to grab something for lunch before heading to our respective hotels to settle down and then regroup towards the evening.

Its the time to party

Now this is when the actual fun starts with everyone well rested and settled down we were all in our elements when we met again somewhere around dusk. There was a nip in the air since the temperature had slipped to single digits. We were still outdoors walking around looking for a place where all of us could fit in, our options were limited because of the large group size. Finally, found a Bulldog outlet which with a couple of benches outside. As mentioned earlier it was getting very cold but nonetheless we settled in. I wasn’t complaining much because I was coming from a place which had recorded sub zero temperatures the previous week. The entire group slowly was getting into the mood. Eventhough, we were all related it definitely took quite some time to warm up to each other. The last time when all of us met we were only boys and girls but today we were all battle hardened adults who had gone through a bloody lot in their lives. Being scattered all across the globe also didn’t further our cause any less.

After feasting on space cake topped up with some freshly baked homemade cake(courtesy: Teenu) and loads of caffeine we decided to finally push off. As we walked through the streets of Amsterdam looking for a good place for dinner I couldn’t help being reminiscent. I turned quite nostalgic when I thought about the 4 brothers during their growing up years chilling at their backyard in good old Tangy. During one of those evenings I don't think that even in their wildest dreams would they have imagined that their kids would one day hold a reunion of sorts in the Dutch capital. Undoubtedly, this evening filled with fun and frolic was going to leave an indelible mark in the rest of our lives.

[To be continued….]

Click here for part 2

A journal entry from the diary of a toddler #1

Epilogue Today I am trying to attempt something different from my usual fare. I am trying to write a journal entry from the viewpoint of my son Ethan.There are three parts to the piece today: Epilogue, Main topic and Prologue. Like the title suggests the main topic of this post is the recollection of a day by a 2 year old toddler. The other 2 parts are intended for the reader to understand the context of the piece in its entirety.It has to be noted that kids this age will try to apply linear logic to everything they come across. There are instances in the story where we can see that they tend to quickly jump to conclusions based on whatever they are observing. At that age causation is a correlation for anything and everything

A play day with Elsa My name is Ethan and I am two years old. Today I am going to tell you about a day I spent with my cousin sister Elsa who is older than me. Being a saturday my dadda has a holiday, I always look forward to this day because he does not have to work today and I get to see him more. Last week he had promised me to take Elsa's house so that I can play with her. The first thing we did today was set up a toy house for Elsa. This was gifted by her Godmother in Bombay for her birthday. I was the only one from outside with my parents present for her birthday about 2 weeks back .I have also lived in Bombay for a year when my parents were working there. Now we have come back to Kerala where both my parents grew up.

I helped dadda in unpacking the tent which was in a box. There were a good number of plastic sticks in the box. These sticks are white in colour .This is going to be the basic frame of the toy house then there are also some joints to hold this house together. Dadda starts to build the house I and Elsa are helping him out . Dadda is building the house looking at the paper that was inside the box with the sticks. He first asks Elsa to write ‘A’, ‘B’,’C’,’D’,’E’,’F’ in different sheets of paper the alphabets are very big. My mamma has taught me ‘A’ is for apple ‘B’ is for ball. ‘C’ is for my favourite cat,’D’ is for dog I am scared for dogs,’E’ is for elephant which is very big and ‘F’ is for fan.

Dadda asks me to keep these papers in different chairs. Elsa has written these letters very big. After I keep the letters on the chair dadda places the white sticks on different chairs. Some sticks are big while some sticks are small. The joints are also different 1 is red and the other is blue. Looking at the paper dadda builds the house. I get bored and go play with building blocks. We were given grapes and lime juice to drink. I like eating grapes.

Sometime later I come back and I see that only the walls of the house are built dadda is trying hard to build the roof. Dadda does not know how to build houses. He is good at computers; he spends the entire day in front of the computer when he is working. At times he is talking to someone in the computer .Dadda had been helping Elsa set up her classroom with a computer at home, she has just joined her first standard. I am also looking forward to join School. 

Dadda calls up Elsa’s dadda for help in building the roof. Renju uncle is dadda’s best friend and is very good at building houses. After talking to Renju uncle in video dadda finishes the roof. We were all very happy once the house was completed. Elsa has kept a fridge and also many other things inside her house. I don’t like going inside the tent because it is very dark. I like to sit at the door and play.

Now it is time for lunch. Usually someone helps me while I am eating. But today after seeing Elsa eat on her own I also want to eat on my own. I don’t allow Dadda to feed me but he puts some fish in my plate. I like eating fish very much. After eating rice Elsa’s grandmother gives us all ‘Payasam’. I like payasam because it is very sweet. She says she has made payasam because today is the feast of St Anthony.  

Dadda is very tired now he reads to us a story from the book we gifted Elsa for her birthday “The little mermaid”. Elsa and Dadda are asleep but I cannot sleep I miss mamma. I want to see her. I wake up dadda and we talk to mamma in video. Mamma asks me to go and sleep for sometime. We come back to sleep again. Dadda is already snoring, today he called me by the name ‘Ambrose’ who is my Godfather. The same happened with Elsa, her grandfather called her ‘Pinchu’ which is the name of her godmother. I think it is normal to call us by the name of our Godparents.

In the evening we talked to Elsa’s parents on video .After that we played ball and were very tired. As we were resting at the balcony, Elsa’s grandmother gave us milk and biscuits. I see that Elsa is dipping the biscuits in the milk and eating. I have never seen anyone doing it but seeing her I also do it. It feels really good I will do it again.

After that Elsa puts a song in dadda’s mobile and starts dancing. I also join her but I don’t know how to dance. I should tell dadda to teach me to dance. Mamma always says dadda dances well. Dadda shows me a big mango tree but there are no mangoes in it, mango is my favourite fruit.It was now time to go home. I say bye to Elsa. I am very happy today. I should tell dadda to bring me here again.

Prologue

Close to three decades back a few days after my father’s death I was slouching in the corner of a staircase. This was in a huge residence in Trivandrum,Kerala reigned over by the matriarch from my maternal side . This environment was totally new to me due to the fact that until then I had spent almost my entire life in Madhya Pradesh. Seeing my predicament my grandmother on whose name the palatial house was built sent Renju and Johnny with a glass of lime juice to me. They patted me on my shoulder and led me out of the house in midst of a lot of greenery. I can recollect this scene with great detail since it has imprinted itself strongly in my mind.The seeds to our life long friendship were sowed at that very moment. Cousins are our first best friends in our lives; it was no different for me. All 3 of us playing cricket at our grandmother’s place all day long during the summer holidays is something that all of us would cherish for the rest of our lives. Our friendship grew by leaps and bounds which ultimately blossomed during our college days. We were partners in crime for a lot of things during one of the most beautiful epochs in our lives.

Adulthood took us into varied professions and we all ended up in different countries across the world. Being based out of Bombay for quite a long time ensured that I met these folks only sparingly in our later years. Our kids have hardly met or spent time with each other all this while.Today as I was building a toy house for Elsa, I was struggling a bit. Reminiscent of our growing up years I picked up the phone and called Renju to bail me out of the situation.For the record Renju is a Mechanical engineer by profession while I work as an IT Manager. For me it was quite natural in this context to cry out for help to him when I was stuck.It is a dejavu moment for me when I see my toddler bonding with his cousin sister,without any iota of doubt I can say that the warmth and bonhomie on display is testimony to the fact that the friendship has indeed transcended generations. 

Memories #13- ’Languages’

Everything started off when a classmate of mine, living in Bangalore one fine day was ruing the fact that his seven year old daughter was struggling to keep up pace with the online Hindi lessons in her school. Let us take a step back and analyse the situation. My friend, a Malayali based out of Karnataka is being taught the national language by a teacher from Bihar. This is exactly what the founding fathers of our country had in mind about national integration.

This also initiated a train of thought in my mind. It took me back to the time from my childhood when I landed up in the middle of my second grade in Trivandrum,Kerala. I had been living in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh during the early part of my childhood because my father was serving as an Indian Police Service(I.P.S) Officer in the state. At that point of time I hardly knew any malayalam but was very fluent in English and also Hindi to a certain extent. My fluency in English could be attributed to the fact that my father always insisted upon me speaking the queen’s language with him. Whenever, we used to visit our native place for summer vacations I was rather amused when I heard my father switch to Malayalam effortlessly.

Gwalior

Ending up in Kerala learning a new language was a constant struggle for the 7 year old me because I was thrown out of my comfort zone. To my misfortune everyone in school spoke only Malayalam. Moreover, I was expected to appear for exams in my mother tongue since it was mandatory from grade 1. I still remember vividly that during my second grade I was asked to study the first grade Malayalam book and also appear for exams covering the first grade textbook. During the summer holidays I was put under a home tutor to study the second standard malayalam and also get a good grip of the third standard portion so that I could fit in. When I look back now with great pride I can say that I did a fantastic job because by the end of the 4th standard I had sort of mastered the new language. I had by then even started reading “Malayala Manorma” one of the most popular vernacular newspapers in Kerala.

In my fifth grade I got the shock of my life when Hindi lessons were started in school. The elementary Hindi being taught for beginners was of great comical relief to me. The native Hindi speaker in me cringed when I observed the way grammar was being taught in Kerala. I tried to filter out all the Hindi grammar rules that were being taught in school and tried to kept it simple. I just followed the spoken Hindi language that I had learned as a kid and used to write for my exams with that in mind. For instance I never could get the difference between हैं(pronounced as haim) and  है(pronounced as hain),for me the only latter existed.Needles to say many a times it was a walk in the park for me when it comes to preparing for hindi exams.

During my grade 10 our class teacher, one of the most inspirational figures*  in my life once shared with me her desire that I should make her proud by scoring 100% in Hindi.Such a feat I believe would have been a huge achievement for Loyola, one of  the leading English Medium schools in the city. I was game for it. The kind of influence she had on me was such that I would even walk through a brick wall for her. I decided to burn some extra midnight oil to do it for her. Either ways I was firing on all cylinders that academic year**, it was just 1 more item to the bucket list.I gave it my all but in the end missed the magical mark by a whisker. A solitary mark prevented me from achieving the milestone.

*subject of another post An Inspiring Teacher

** subject of another post which gives a sneak peek into my grade 10 Memories #11

I was equally good at Malayalam, a language that I had picked up a little later in life during that academic year as well. A testimony on how good I was in my mother tongue was an incident that happened quit recently . During a zoom call with my erstwhile classmates I left everyone speechless when I narrated a few lines of a Malayalam poem that I studied in school. I would also attribute this to my Malayalam Teacher during my high school the effervescent Mr Anil Kumar who is still continuing his vocation in the very same school. In school quite often I feel that the language teachers are not given their due because we are always stuck in the colloquial mindset with the needless obsession with  Science and Maths. The other day I had successfully set up the online classroom for my niece who was starting her grade 1. It was a deja vu moment for me when her first lesson was in Malayalam.

Till date, I still don't get it as to how the most popular anthem used to cheer our school basketball team was in hindi. It has to be noted that in Kerala, the usage of  hindi as a medium of communication is close to nil. A fact which I hated the most at that point of time when I had just arrived from the northern part of the country.

The Anthem went like this

Sabse aage ladke kaun

Veer bahadur ladke kaun

Aage dekho 

Peeche dekho

Jahan bhi dekho

Every line is repeated with the chorus “Loyola Loyola”

Picture Courtesy :Arun John  

Even today after close to 2 decades I can still feel goosebumps when I reminisce these words. Back in those days the annual basketball tournaments were treated in a way akin to a carnival in our school. Even though,only 5 players represented the school in the game the extra player was the crowd which made the experience very special. The fiercely fought basketball finals has left an indelible in the minds of every student who has witnessed the spectacle in my alma mater. What was more the basketball players were treated like rockstars. I was fortunate enough to share a classroom with few of the stalwarts of the game in our school at that point of time. For me the electric atmosphere that I experienced during these basketball matches is only second to the chorus of “Sachin Sachin” reverberating inside the iconic Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.

My classmates in the School BB team: Jian (standing 3rd from left ),

Arun John (standing 2nd from right)

A couple of years after my graduation,nothing had prepared me for what happened when I landed up in Delhi. To my shock I realised that I had totally lost touch with Hindi. There was a time in my life when I used to speak chaste Hindi which was one of the first languages that I had learnt as a kid.The fact of the matter is that I hardly used Hindi during my time in Kerala where I had spent a lion's share of my lfe. One of the amusing incidents that comes to my mind was when my hindi speaking skills came in handy during my college trip to Hyderabad. I had bargained hard with a shoe seller to get a good deal for my crush thereby scoring some valuable brownie points in the process.

 

Delhi

To my horror I realised that just like a muscle in your body if you don’t use your language skills for some time you tend to lose it completely. I had to start from scratch and slowly build my repertoire in the language which I had mastered quite early in life. At times I pitied myself when I used to struggle a lot while conversing with my friends. Thankfully, I had regained some touch in Hindi once I came to Mumbai. But I was nowhere close to when I was a kid and it pained me as well. I still recollect the episode while visited Gurgaon for a business visit. A friend of mine from our college days in Kerala was speaking impeccable hindi compared to me. He pulled my leg many a times watching me struggling with the language . The fact was that I had been living in Mumbai for a few years now but the irony was that my hindi still had a very strong malayali accent.In my defense the bloke had a North Indian girlfriend which had helped him a lot. In office at times my boss would ask me stuff in Hindi, I always made it a point to reply back in English because I always felt that I could articulate well in the queen’s language. Thankfully,my current boss doesn’t speak Malayalam so I am good.

Mumbai

My classmates in the School BB team: Jian (1st from left ),Arun John (3rd from left ),yours truly (in the middle)

After spending more than a decade outside my home state of Kerala I ended up in Cochin yet again. I don't want history to repeat itself again .A few of my colleagues here speak very good Hindi.So now, I have always made it a point to talk to these colleagues in Hindi whenever possible. This way I don't end up losing touch with Hindi again such an eventuality would take me back to square one.

Cochin

                                            Picture Courtesy :Vishnu Madhusudanan 

Memories #12-'The football connection'

A little more than 24 hours back we had touched down at the majestic Hong Kong International airport. Somewhere at the rear end of the immigration queue that snaked all the way into the lobby. I was standing hand in hand with Jeslin with dreary eyes.We had a long night as our Jet Airways flight was scheduled at 1:00 am in the morning. Thanks to the erratic traffic in Mumbai,we had to leave for the airport from our home in Kandivali as early as 8:30 PM. But nothing prepared for what was going to unfold in a bit.

The immigration officer was quite suspicious about the young good looking couple standing in front of him. He asked us to get off the queue and we were escorted to another room. I was crapping in my pants out of fear but Jeslin as always was cool as a cucumber. Even though I was the son of an Indian Police Service officer I was perturbed by the fact that we were getting in trouble with the law enforcement in foreign land. Both of us were grilled separately with regards to the reason of our visit.The tone of the Police officer softened only after I produced a letter from my employer British Telecom(BT) and provided the mobile number of my Manager.They were convinced that we were bonafide passengers after a bit of questioning and stamped our VISA. After the harrowing experience I was relieved when we were bundled into a Taxi and were on our way to Hotel Excelsior overlooking the bay.

Hardly 2 months into my new role on a Monday morning with butterflies in my stomach I land up at the AIA* Headquarters,No.1 Stubbs Road,Hong Kong in a crisp Business suit. AIA was the biggest client of my company in the Asia Pacific region and I was assigned to it as a rookie Service Manager. Incidentally this was my first onsite assignment as well. Not long ago as a support engineer, not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine that my 9 year old virgin passport would pop its cherry in Hong Kong.

*AIA Group Limited, known as AIA, is the largest public listed pan-Asian life insurance group. which offers insurance and financial services(Courtesy:Wikipedia).

I was at the lobby of the AIA office waiting for my Client Service Director to escort me in. In an effort  to kill time I couldn’t help glancing at the Television screen which was showing a program on a team that played the English Premier League by the name of Tottenham Hotspurs. AIA was the title sponsor of the team. Due to my limited knowledge of the English Premier league only a couple of teams registered in my mind like Manchester United courtesy Beckham,Ronaldo,Rooney and likewise Liverpool with Michael Owen. I wasn’t a football buff to the say the least. I made a mental note of the fact that AIA had some serious financial muscle given the fact that they were the title sponsors of a Football club in the English Premier League.

Years later I was being interviewed for a bigger role by the Client Service Director(CSD) of one of the top five accounts of BT worldwide.While describing my current role I casually mentioned the fact that AIA was the title sponsor of a team called the Tottenham Hotspurs. My interviewer talked eloquently about the ‘Spurs’ (I had no clue they were called that) and informed me that he was a die hard fan of the team. He had witnessed them quite a few times.Sometime later when I was having a drink with the Account Director he mentioned in jest that the grapevine doing the rounds was that my boss offered me the role because of my AIA connection. I smiled to myself reminiscent about the beautiful memory of the AIA lobby not too long ago. 

It so happened that my Client Service Director was visiting the BT Gurgaon office and I was flown in from Bombay to meet him. We were put up in the Crowne Plaza,Gurgaon naturally, I was excited because this was my first time over there.On the first day morning with great difficulty on a winter morning I pulled myself out of bed and went on to check out the gym. I was just casually walking on the treadmill when I noticed my boss making his way in . My jaw dropped when I saw my 50+ boss running at considerable pace for a good 30 minutes in the machine adjacent to mine.I walk up to him and introduce myself as he catches his breath,both of us are equally surprised to see each other. My first meeting with him at the gym was an eye opener for me because for the last couple of years after getting into a managerial role I was neglecting fitness and as a result I had a lot of flab in my body. I resolved firmly that from that day onwards I would start to take my fitness very seriously. I restarted running and cycling taking inspiration from him which I diligently follow even today. 

Later in the morning at the sumptuous breakfast spread my boss eye me quizzically, I realise that my red Manchester United T-Shirt has caught his attention.He remarked that I never mentioned to him that I was Man U fan. In reality I had only purchased the T-Shirt from one of the shops in a mall near my flat in Bombay which sold official sports merchandise dedicated to the club.I played along as a football fan with my fairly good knowledge of the English Premier League. I was stumped when I was asked if I had seen last night's football match between the Spurs and Man U. To keep my story true I made it a point from that day onwards to read up a bit on the ongoing matches to not be caught off guard like this.  From then on he designated me as a Man U fan .The next year when both of us visited our office in Gurgaon again we came across an official Spurs jersey signed by the team, displayed prominently on the floor. AIA had gifted the BT support team with an official jersey signed by the players. I will forever cherish the gleaming smile of my boss  with a teenager’s delight in his eyes as I clicked a photograph of him when he posed alongside the jersey. 

We had always made it a point to always talk about football which acted as a good icebreaker. FIFA world cup 2018 held in Russia was also around that time. My boss was on cloud nine because the England Captain for that year was the Spurs goal machine Harry Kane. I had always made it a point to watch all the matches featuring England without fail. It didn’t end there on every meeting that I went into during that time the first 5-10 minutes were reserved to discuss the match on the previous day. I particularly recollect pulling the leg of our Brazilian Service lead by describing Neymar’s histrionics during their games. The dream run of the underdogs Belgium and Croatia was a heated topic of discussion alongside the brilliance of Modric and Mbappe. There was heartbreak for our English colleagues but Harry Kane top scoring gave them something to celebrate about. I watched in rather amusement when I saw an SOS message from my boss informing all the meeting participants from BT not to discuss football during the upcoming meeting. The reason being the Client Executive who was hosting the meeting was of Italian descent. For the record Italy though a football powerhouse that had failed to qualify for that year’s World cup. 

As someone who had a great adulation for Sachin Tendulkar it was something new to me when I realised that football was loved and followed even in countries where the national team was not that great for example India.My greatest experience of football frenzy would be when when I visited Dortmund,Germany a couple of years later .It was during another such onsite assignment for Mindcurv when I traveled to Essen, Germany. There was a home match scheduled over the weekend. The trains were jam packed with screaming fans travelling from the length and breadth of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan  region. The city sported a carnival atmosphere with teeming fans in their team’s colour thronging the streets with Gluewein and Beer. There was a lot of singing and merry making throughout the city, it was a no holds barred celebration of a grand spectacle.I was totally awestruck because I had never witnessed such scenes in my life and astonished to see so much excitement surrounding a sporting event.The closest and a distant second by a mile in my memory would be landing up in South Mumbai when there is an IPL match featuring the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede stadium.