A great, great speech...I remember that it was my first speech in my elocution class in Class VIII...As Professor John Henry Wright of Harvard University told him "To ask you, Swami, for your credentials is like asking the sun to state its right to shine in the heavens." He introduced him to the chairman of the committee on selection of delegates with these words, " Here is a man more learned that all our learned professors put together"!!
Barefoot to boots: Indian football’s genial chronicler Novy Kapadia’s ode to the sport
In cricket-hyper India, no one is expecting a football book to trigger breaking headlines but one from Penguin, penned by the affable Novy Kapadia, has reminded a billion plus nation to seriously think about football, actually game of the masses.
Novy Kapadia is not Alan Wilkins, nor Harsha Bhogle, he is Mr. Nobody for India’s cricket cognoscenti who are powerful and rich, and have representatives in the Parliament from all political parties to back them and their willow game. The masses and the advertisers do not know Novy.
But for those who care to follow Indian football, he is the lone ranger, the boy on the burning deck, a total master writer, almost like the total footballer Johan Cryuff of the Netherlands was in the 70s.
Novy is passionate about the game, he has soccer in his veins. Like Indian skipper Virat Kohli, who had cricket on his mind when death came home without warning. Everyone in India knows how Kohli played a game the day his father died, only a handful know about Novy’s bit that he went to watch a soccer match without completing the formalities when his grandmother died.
That separates football from cricket in India. One has great stories but no one cares, the other has no stories but even a sneeze makes it to the front page.
Unlike fashionable cricket writers who proudly display to family and friends their WhatsApp message exchanges with cricketers and do innumerable television shows, even if it means to host one on the streets of London before a crucial India-Pakistan Champions Trophy match, Novy remained the proverbial Ekalavya, the master archer who worshipped his guru (read soccer) and tracked, tracked, tracked and tracked Indian football for a little over three decades.
Novy continues to live in hope that Indian football will one day take the giant leap, he has already taken multiple, small steps to make it happen. The book is a true reflection of the rise of the game in India and reasons for its neglect, also about all the hopes which exist in his mind, in the soccer field.
Want a sampler? At each point, Novy blended Indian footballers and their soccer prowess (whatever little is there) with world class players. No wonder in an East Bengal-Mohan Bagan match, he described the dribbling skills of Baichung Bhutia to the genius of George Best. For reporters, this is the best way to write copy, especially when you are talking to a Justin Beiber generation about Naxalbari. Its like describing Phoolan Devi as the female Robin Hood to an audience in faraway Providence Island in the US so that someone unaware of the bandit queen understands her, forms an opinion.
At a time when publishers weigh every coin before signing a contract, and then push writers through numerous legal recourse before sending to print, this one – Barefoot to boots: The many lives of Indian football – must have been a quick flow. Who cares for Indian soccer?
The mandarins of the game in India should have cared about Novy, and his work. If they did, Novy would have picked up a Padma award and would be in the driver’s seat guiding India to host the U-17 World Cup next month.
Indian soccer’s genial chronicler knows the best, but like it happened with Ekalavya, the gurus have already pledged the throne to someone else.
“I find this obsession with Man U and Barcelona strange. There is no emotional involvement. I enjoy watching their football but I don’t support any team. Indian football is like friends and family. I want to see it developed. I don’t like anyone scoffing at Indian football.”------Super Like!!
Comments
Just hope it's fake
http://bbc.in/2xwBX50
Barefoot to boots: Indian football’s genial chronicler Novy Kapadia’s ode to the sport
In cricket-hyper India, no one is expecting a football book to trigger breaking headlines but one from Penguin, penned by the affable Novy Kapadia, has reminded a billion plus nation to seriously think about football, actually game of the masses.
Novy Kapadia is not Alan Wilkins, nor Harsha Bhogle, he is Mr. Nobody for India’s cricket cognoscenti who are powerful and rich, and have representatives in the Parliament from all political parties to back them and their willow game. The masses and the advertisers do not know Novy.
But for those who care to follow Indian football, he is the lone ranger, the boy on the burning deck, a total master writer, almost like the total footballer Johan Cryuff of the Netherlands was in the 70s.
Novy is passionate about the game, he has soccer in his veins. Like Indian skipper Virat Kohli, who had cricket on his mind when death came home without warning. Everyone in India knows how Kohli played a game the day his father died, only a handful know about Novy’s bit that he went to watch a soccer match without completing the formalities when his grandmother died.
That separates football from cricket in India. One has great stories but no one cares, the other has no stories but even a sneeze makes it to the front page.
Unlike fashionable cricket writers who proudly display to family and friends their WhatsApp message exchanges with cricketers and do innumerable television shows, even if it means to host one on the streets of London before a crucial India-Pakistan Champions Trophy match, Novy remained the proverbial Ekalavya, the master archer who worshipped his guru (read soccer) and tracked, tracked, tracked and tracked Indian football for a little over three decades.
Novy continues to live in hope that Indian football will one day take the giant leap, he has already taken multiple, small steps to make it happen. The book is a true reflection of the rise of the game in India and reasons for its neglect, also about all the hopes which exist in his mind, in the soccer field.
Want a sampler? At each point, Novy blended Indian footballers and their soccer prowess (whatever little is there) with world class players. No wonder in an East Bengal-Mohan Bagan match, he described the dribbling skills of Baichung Bhutia to the genius of George Best. For reporters, this is the best way to write copy, especially when you are talking to a Justin Beiber generation about Naxalbari. Its like describing Phoolan Devi as the female Robin Hood to an audience in faraway Providence Island in the US so that someone unaware of the bandit queen understands her, forms an opinion.
At a time when publishers weigh every coin before signing a contract, and then push writers through numerous legal recourse before sending to print, this one – Barefoot to boots: The many lives of Indian football – must have been a quick flow. Who cares for Indian soccer?
The mandarins of the game in India should have cared about Novy, and his work. If they did, Novy would have picked up a Padma award and would be in the driver’s seat guiding India to host the U-17 World Cup next month.
Indian soccer’s genial chronicler knows the best, but like it happened with Ekalavya, the gurus have already pledged the throne to someone else.
Also, this interview with him:
http://www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/the-incorrigible-lover-of-the-beautiful-game-in-conversation-with-novy-kapadia/article19628363.ece
“I find this obsession with Man U and Barcelona strange. There is no emotional involvement. I enjoy watching their football but I don’t support any team. Indian football is like friends and family. I want to see it developed. I don’t like anyone scoffing at Indian football.”------Super Like!!
Don't know why he reminds me so much of tread . That man is also from US .
http://www.tcnorth.com/the-successful-entrepreneur/when-is-negative-feedback-better-than-positive-feedback/
https://hbr.org/2013/01/sometimes-negative-feedback-is