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.