AFVOA Newletters of Year 2006

Page 55 of 77 “I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person a beggar, who is a thief, such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such high caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated Nation.” - Lord Macaulay’s address to the British Parliament – 02 Feb 1835 An article from Maj Gen C Govindaswamy, which could not be published in the previous Newsletter as it was already in the press, is now reproduced for the reading pleasure of our me mbers. Football!, Football! - Memories of a Bygone Era . The Sports Event of the year, the FIFA World Cup, has just ended with Italy claiming the Trophy. Nations have exulted over their teams' wins, people have wept over their losses and glory be to the worthy winners. In spite of the soothsayers' predictions, many of the more famous footballing nations fell by the wayside and some of the smaller less fancied countries played well beyond the expectations of the public! Countries like Trinidad & Tobago, Ghana and Ecuador were the Davids who humbled some of the Goliaths! This brings memories of one's school, college & subaltern's days a half a century back. It so happened that in my later school days, I was admitted to St. Patrick’s School, Asansol, run by the Irish Christian brothers, with a majority of Anglo Indian boys ( which would be called a minority school these days, but in which the children of other faiths were in a minority!). Coming from DTEA School, Delhi, which was the epitome of academics, it took a while for me to adjust to my new school-mates. Here sport was the major activity and I have to take my hats off to the Anglo Indian community which excelled in every outdoor activity. (We are having a special fortnight now in Chennai to rightly honour its citizens). After a bit of goading my father, I managed a new set of football boots, and lo and behold I was playing the game with my school friends after school hours in the steel town of Burnpur from which most of the day- scholars went to Asansol, a few miles away. Invariably there used to be rough & tumble during these games with fist-fights ("scraps" as they used to be called) but everyone shook hands after the game and remained the best of friends thereafter! Yours truly generally thought that discretion was the better part of valour and did not indulge in scraps. One day the younger brother of one of my friends was the referee, in which the elder brother and I were in opposite teams. As a right winger I scored a goal which my friend, as the defending back, could not block and while I was exulting on the brilliant now famous "Bend it like Beckham" goal, promptly heard the belated whistle of the referee ruling me offside. I could not stand this obvious nepotism and after an exchange of words, got into a scrap with this guy who was perhaps the same age as me . My very first scrap!; the fist fight was on and it turned to a wrestling bout till we were separated by our friends, including the elder brother, who congratulated me for my goal. Next day the talk in the school bus was how Chandra ( as I was called then ) had got into a scrap during football the previous evening. Wonder of wonders. The younger kids in the bus were looking with adulation at their new found hero! I cannot forget the Hearne brothers (Larry and Brian, who are perhaps in Australia now) as they really gave me the first lesson to stand up and fight if one is given a wrong call !! The next episode was during my year long sojourn at St. Joseph's College, Nainital. This was again a Christian brothers institution and here the level of sports was even higher than at St. Patrick's, Asansol. There was the traditional rivalry between the Catholics and the Protestants in the form of the annual games events against Sherwood College. But it was