A 'likely unlikely' National Monument! - Gilbert Hill

Devils Tower National Monument, California

Devils Postpile National Monument, Wyoming

Devils Postpile and Devils Tower in the USA are two rock structures which are older than time (66 Million Years Old! - No Kidding!). These two structures have been well protected, preserved and popular tourist attractions. And why wouldn't they be? They are significant enough to be showered this respect. 

However, what if I told you that there is a third rock structure which is as old as these two and matches their characteristics and it is in India - in Mumbai - in the heart of Andheri! Here it is. 

Gilbert Hill, Andheri

Gilbert Hill has a sheer vertical face and was formed when molten lava was squeezed out of the Earth's clefts during the Mesozoic Era about 66 million years ago. Although it is a 200 meters high structure, one of the greatest geological wonders of India, is actually quite irritating to locate. You have to make your way through crowded roads, slums, potholes, high rise residential buildings and still not see the structure until you are right in front of it - at one point we started to doubt the GPS! 

Devils Tower has a boundary of 1347 acres. Devils Postpile has a boundary of 798 acres. Gilbert Hill has no boundary. It's lucky to still be there. There has been construction debris dumped at the foothill of Gilbert Hill. Residential buildings have virtually encroached into its non-existent boundary.   

The Gilbert Hill Rock structure in itself is very beautiful; I wish I could ignore the path to reach it and how the surroundings looked like.

An aerial view of Gilbert Hill. 

Devils Tower and Devils Postpile offer a wonderful panoramic view of lush greenery, mountains, lakes and rivers. Gilbert Hill offers a view of the mountains of SG National Park, Versova Beach sea and the slums, high rise buildings, broken roads and multiple dump yards. 

An aerial view of Devils Tower 

Gilbert Hill is definitely not prepared for tourists from far off places. However, Mumbaikars and experimental travelers, try to check this place out. Because if you do not visit this place soon, the hill is eroding and getting smaller every day until one day there are no remains of this monolith rock to claim its existence.


It's a shame - what could have been a National Monument for the world to see is nothing but a Monumental Disaster.  


P.S - Avoid taking your car there. 

Hindustani Superheroes

If and only if..!

1. Superman: 

After being raised by a poor family in Borivali in Mumbai, Chetan Kanth (Clark Kent) would often control himself from beating up goons who wouldn't let him in a fast train from Virar while he was getting late for college. 

2. Batman: 

Well, obviously with Buddha Wani (Bruce Wayne) around, they own pretty much everything; Mumbai Indians, Being Human, Taj Hotels etc. But the Mumbaikar Batman has an issue with finding a Bat Cave. He couldn't find one. He tried Kanheri Caves but the tourists and monkeys kept barging in. To add to his misery, his Batmobile was towed away too.

3. Wonder Woman:

Being a strong advocate of women empowerment, Devina (Diana) spends most of her time dealing with rapists and eve teasers. She is also fighting a case against TOI over a cleavage-gate controversy. 

4. The Flash

Bharat Alokh (Barry Allen) retired from being The Flash long ago. When he was The Flash for a little while he would bump into people every other second. The rush hours were the worst where he'd spend hours marching from Dadar Station west to east. He is queuing up for a job interview for delivering Amazon/Flipkart products in half a day -guaranteed! 

5. Spiderman

Prerak Parulekar (Peter Parker) was after a thief who committed a heist in Lower Parel. Makkadman swung by all the tall sky scrapers now piling up but the thieves, clever enough, absconded towards Dharawi. Prerak, unable to swing , had to chase them in Dharawi on foot. Apparently, Spidy is seen cleaning up his web mess in accordance with Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan  

6. Captain America

Well, Captain India a.k.a Satish Rajkumar (Steve Rogers) was the First Avenger who waged war against the British and won freedom for our country back in 1947. After waking up from his "sleep" recently, he has been in a state of shock at the level of corruption, politics in Government offices and also the vulgarity in Bollywood movies nowadays. 

7. Hulk

The word is that Dr. Ballu Balakrishna (Dr. Bruce Banner) has distanced himself from the crowded cities and is living in a small village in the South where he can hurt no one with his gussa. He has been acting in South Indian movies to making his living. Apparently, the South Indian actors are capable of Hulk-like strength without getting angry. 

8. Thor

Too many Gods here, so he went back. 

This were just a few thoughts of the top of my head "if" these heroes existed in India. 

Any others spring to your mind? X-Men? Iron Man? How would they survive in India? 

Breaking the deadlock!

It's good enough we're not losing but it's bad enough we're not winning either! There can't be a better opportunity to make a come back for us than tomorrow! Here are five talking points about Mumbai City FC's chances!

1. Lack of goalscorers & finesse

Miscued chances is what has cost Mumbai City to drop points in a drab fashion in the last 3 games. Moritz blitz in the Pune game had us all in an awe and our expectations went sky high but he has been goalless ever since. With towering defenders in the squad, there would be nothing wrong in expecting a goal or two from the set pieces!

2. The great wall of Mumbai

The defense looked lost at the start of the season. Like Coach Peter Reid remarked, MCFC wasn't playing like a team. They have come a long way to shield the Mumbai goal for five consecutive games. And they will have the job to contain the ghost-like runs of Jeje/Mendoza who managed to bamboozle the Mumbai defenders on more than one occasion in the sides' previous meeting (Also resist their urge to take them down every now and then!). 

3. The Anelka factor

On one hand, as much as we were disappointed to see Freddie play only for a handful minutes in the entire tournament, Anelka has lived up to his stature and given the fans what they wanted. He will be pivotal to Mumbai's chances in the tournament. He will have to be the better player against Elano to give the Mumbai City fans the win they are so craving right now.

4. Indian Starlets

Subhash Singh and Nadong Bhutia are the raw Indian diamonds being polished by Peter Reid and it's about time they start making an impact in the game on their own. Subhash in particular has been spectacular in finding space in the opposition half, making those little runs with his pace but he has made unfortunate contributions to missing sitters. Nadong has been creative on the right flank with his crosses.

5. The dish best served cold.

Yes that's right. Revenge time. No shooting blanks tomorrow. It's not a derby. More importantly it is the question of how we reply to the five goal thrashing we received at their mercy in their backyard. Time to buckle up. Not give away penalties and free kicks especially in the Elano region! 

Go MCFC!

When Football lights up Vile Parle!

The Vile Parle Premier League Season IV is over. For many of you, especially the players and owners the feeling might not have sunk in.

Last season, I managed to put up a pre-season, play-offs analysis and also a post season write up. Unfortunately, this time I can only sum all this up in one article!

The Chief Guests who graced the tournament this season

From left to right:

Chinmayee Sumeet - Sumeet Raghavan's wife, Dilip Vengsarkar - Former Indian Captain and former Chief Selector, MLA Krishna Hegde Sir, Milind Purnapatre - Former Badminton Player, Virdhawal Khade - Indian Olympic Swimmer, Milind Ingle - Prominent Music Composer, John Coutinho - Current Mumbai FC midfielder, Prathamesh Parab - Actor

 

 

The Finale

I had to be choosy about going for a match day - I could manage just one - and not so surprisingly I decided upon watching the Grand Finale of this particular season. 

The ultimate clash for the shiny trophy was between "Parle FC" - owned by Pratik Tilekar, coached by Shreyas Gokhale and Aniket Madav and "Parle Messiahs" - owned by Bharat Sir and Suraj Shetty and coached by Kedar Sane, Nimesh Patel and Anand Bandal. The finale was a replay between the two sides as the earlier play-off game between them resulted in a 2-0 victory for the Messiahs. With the presence of FC's midfield magician- Mr. "Raynier Fernandez", it was an altogether fair and square looking game with no side looking like the obvious winner.

 

And that last part was particularly a jab at the Grand Finales of Season I (Parle FC 8 – 1 Parle Diaons) and III (Parle Dazzlers 8 – 0 Parle Ashkickers) which turned out to be totally one sided affairs and not thrilling for a neutral onlooker. 

Anyway, the first half of this Finale started off at a low intensity and was pretty much of a tennis game with both the sides playing safe and attacking with long balls. The ball kept flying west to east - east to west with none of the sides breaking the dread lock of scoring but coming close to scoring a few times. 

The second half saw both the sides upping the tempo and the intensity to make a breakthrough. Counter for counter! There was intensity and flow in the game. With the scores tied at NIL each, extra time stage was entered. Were we looking at a nerve wrecking penalty shootout for the first time in a Finale at PPL?

Well, Parle FC's attack started to gel together. With a beautiful link up and a great ball from Andon D'Souza met by Kaldyn Misquitta's head on the other end, the goal drought was broken. The Messiahs geared up to get back into the game but somehow their midfield couldn't link well enough with their target-man Sohail Khatri who was well marked and caged by FC defenders. 

Another remarkable pass from Raynier, Andon latched his head onto it and bagged the tournament for Parle FC (2 - 0) - The first team to have won it twice since PPL's inception!

Post match, what was heart warming was the fact that the Messiahs - although dejected were applauding their counterpart's win. A pure game. 

 

The Prize winners   

• Best player - Raynier Fernandes (Parle FC)

Although he wasn't on the charts of the top scorers or assist providers, he was their go-to man on the field and a crowd favorite with his trickery and skills on and off the field - lured the crowd during the mid-play off incident.

• Top Goal Scorer - Andon D'Souza (Parle FC)

With 10 goals in his belly, he pioneered his side to victory with goals coming in during crucial match moments.

• Best Goalkeeper - Sheldon Raghavan (Parle Rovers)

6 clean sheets in 9 games. That's not pretty, that's fantastic. Hard luck losing in the play offs in the penalty shootout!

• Best Under-16 Player - Neel Shelar (Parle Rovers)

One of the most talented home grown talent of Parle. He is one for the future! Has been solid with his performances.

• Best Under-21 Player - Alister Mendes (Parle Messiahs)

Not every team has an Ozil; Messiahs had theirs with a whopping 9 assists to his name. Finished with his team at the 3rd spot last season and guided them to the Runners up position this season. 

• Most Valuable Player - Carlton Jude (Parle Rovers)

He has been their defensive wall. Although Carlton wasn't among the expert's choice in the early stages of the league, he proved his critics wrong!

• Kenneth Barboza Memorial Most Promising Player awared by Sudha Subramaniam - Charnel Almedia (Parle Diaons)

A player with dazzling feet, has showed great potential and looks promising enough to be the next star of the league.

• Fair Play Award - Parle United

Parle United - No yellow cards or red cards - Finished at the bottom of the league. Parle FC - 3 Yellow cards - Winners. Parle Messiahs - 2 Yellow cards - Runners up. You see what I did there? :P

• Best Presenting Team - Parle Ash Kickers

A jersey unveiling ceremony, a kit for their players, marketing online via facebook, twitter and an anthem too. They sure deserved the award.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sponsors who make the event execution possible in the first place

• Kirloskar Electric
• Safari Bags
• VK Sports
• Gajalee
• Satkar Group of Hotels
• Playerify
• Ultimate Sports
• PH Finance
• Excel Industries
• Midas Care
• Soccer Connections
• Foreseegame.com
• Etc

The team which executes! Credits to each and every one!

• Siddarth Sabhapathy
• Meghan Pradhan
• Sunit Kanyalkar
• Sagar Giri
• Sabhapathy Iyer
• Prasad Paranjape (Kaka)
• Kishor Kanyalkar
• Akshay Narkar
• Devednya Vyas
• Akshay Kashte
• Pushkaraj Behere
• Kedar Sane
• Nimesh Patel
• Malay Vartak
• Kunal Kerkar
• Nachiket Sant
• Abhijit Ghaisas - Physio
• Om Bag
• Anand Bandal
• Purvesh Limaye
• Abhiraj Rajadhyaksha
• Lucas
• Pranay Kapuria
• Shounak Nayak

Introduction to Indian Football

Yes that's right, I just said introduction because most of us in India are probably new to this topic. 

Just mentally answer these questions;

• Who is the most successful manager of EPL?
• How many times has Brazil won the World Cup?
• The most expensive transfer so far?

If you follow football even half of what I follow, you would know the answers.
Now, the next round of this quiz.
Don't mentally answer it, say it out loud. Make yourself proud.

• Who was the most successful coach for the Indian National team?
• How many times has India played in a World Cup?
• Which club has won the most number of I-Leagues? 

Simple eh?

You see a thousand people wearing a Messi jersey but never a dude posing in Bhaichung Bhutia jersey.You keep track of the number of titles European teams have but you don't know who the last I-League winner was. And we say that Indian football is no fun. 

How can a sport excel without the support of its countrymen? Take for example- cricket; it took off on a bigger scale after 1983. Are we waiting for something like that to happen in football? India won in 1983 with eight nations competing. Well, in football you got 204 nations competing just to qualify for the World Cup.

There are things about Indian football that you should just be knowing as a football fan; inexcusable to be unaware of these facts!


Durand Cup

This tournament, named after its founder Sir Mortimer Durand has been played in India since 1888; making it the third oldest competition in the world. Football leagues were played in India even before Real Madrid or FIFA existed. It was initially started as a competition for the Army- British as well as Indian but later it became an open affair for public teams too. Even today there is army presence in the competition. Army XI last won it in 2005. The Indian Army deserves a lot of credit for keeping this competition alive.

1948  

65 years ago at the London Olympics an independent Indian national football team took on France in the first round of the Olympic football competition. The Indians put on a brave display to win the hearts of the spectators. For 70 minutes the score stood at NIL all. Had the Indians not missed the two penalties, the French would've faced a major heartbreak who ultimately won it 2-1. What highlighted the match other then India's fighting spirit was the fact that most of the Indian players were either barefoot or just wearing socks!


The one-time World Cup qualification

India has qualified for a World Cup; never played in one. The qualification came as a result of the withdrawal of the other Asian countries. And why India withdrew later has a lot of disputed answers. One being that India couldn't afford the trip to Brazil, lack of match practice, team selection issues and the ridiculous one being that we withdrew coz barefoot playing wasn't allowed.   

"We had no idea about the World Cup then. Had we been better informed, we would have taken the initiative ourselves. For us, the Olympics was everything.. There was nothing bigger"

               - Sailen Manna, who could have been the captain of the team

A missed opportunity indeed. (Sportskeeda article)

The golden era - Undisputed Asian champs


India won the 1951 Asian Games which they hosted. In 1952, later, India also won the Colombo Qradrangular Cup held in Sri Lanka. The winning streak continued with India winning the cup again in 1954, 1954 and 1955 which were held in Burma, Calcutta and Dhaka respectively. The Indian national team ended up as runners up at the 1954 Asian Games.

One of the greatest achievements of Indian football was finishing 4th at the 1956 Olympics with the Indian striker Neville D'souza ending up as joint-highest goalscorer who also became the first Asian to score a hattrick in the Olympics and also making India the first Asian team to reach the Olympics semis in the process.

India went on to win the 1962 Asian games and two years later finished second in 1964 Asia Cup. India played in the Merdeka Cup in 1964, 1965 and 1966 where they finshed 2nd, 3rd and again 3rd respectively.


Who is Syed Abdul Rahim?

The man responsible for the ^Golden era of Indian football, pioneer of modern football and the most successful Indian football coach- Syed Abdul Rahim. He is the "Special One" of Indian football. He had the eye to spot talent and make them shine. He was the coach from 1950 till his death in 1963 due to cancer. He would observe day-to-day things, movements of monkeys and drew inputs from them to formulate his game plans. 

“I still remember he was suffering with advanced cancer during the Jakarta Asian Games. But the struggling Rahim Saab never complained and went about his job in a meticulous way. We won the gold. There was tears in his eyes when we won the gold. He died one year later. That was the last big achievement by the Indian football team. It is sad the authorities concerned choose to ignore his unstinting efforts,” 

- One of the forwards who played under him in the 1950s, Balaram.

Unfortunately, he is an unsung, forgotten hero today.