The Next Generation
The other day I received a text from a friend of a family friend. It read "Hi Neel. We are celebrating Janak's birthday tomorrow at our residence from 12pm - 4pm. We want to invite you if you are in town." I was free so I wrote back saying that I would be there at 12 and would have to leave at 2pm for a meeting. Although I didn't know the woman who wrote me too well, I thought it was sweet of her to invite me to her husband's birthday party since she knew that I'm looking to grow my social circle.
I woke up the next the next morning and was just not that excited to go to the party. It was a gorgeous Delhi winter day and the last thing I felt like doing was sitting inside an apartment making small talk with a bunch of adults. I put my lack of excitement aside and put on my favorite new jeans and shirt since I had a lunch meeting afterwards and then was ending the day at an outdoor concert.
I get to the house, ring the door bell and the door opens. I expect to see groups of 40 year olds sitting on couches eating samosas and making small talk. Instead of I see a group of ten 8 year old boys excitedly standing next to a fooseball table watching two of them play. Confused, I walk right up to my friend's husband and say, "Happy Birthday!" with enthusiasm. He says, "Thanks but the Birthday boy is over there."
I quickly realize that Janak is my friend of friend's 8 year old son and not her husband. Then before I know it, the birthday boy says to his friends while pointing at me, "That's Neel, he knows all the professional football stars and he is going to teach us how to play football." The next thing I know I'm in an elavator with ten 8 year olds heading to the football field.
In the end we played football for 45 minutes, ate a lot of pizza, drank soda and discussed the Premiership non stop. It was a very very pleasant surprise and a great afternoon.
In addition to sweat, dirty clothes, an inflated ego and a stomach full of pizza I walked away with a unique of experience of what the next generation of urban upper middle class Indian youth enjoy. Those boys loved to play and discuss football more than any American child I have ever come across. And what surprised me more is they knew more about players, clubs, stats, etc... than one could imagine. Above all, the most interesting thing was the boy who didn't want to play, chose not to participate because he is a great cricketer and doesn't like football. I thought it was interesting that 1 of 8 Gurgaon youth chose football over cricket and the cricket freak was the one watching on the sidelines.
I recognize that this is just one experience however, I do believe that although India is still a cricket crazy country, football is rapidly becoming the sport of choice for urban you in India. Only time will tell if this theory is fully accurate.
I woke up the next the next morning and was just not that excited to go to the party. It was a gorgeous Delhi winter day and the last thing I felt like doing was sitting inside an apartment making small talk with a bunch of adults. I put my lack of excitement aside and put on my favorite new jeans and shirt since I had a lunch meeting afterwards and then was ending the day at an outdoor concert.
I get to the house, ring the door bell and the door opens. I expect to see groups of 40 year olds sitting on couches eating samosas and making small talk. Instead of I see a group of ten 8 year old boys excitedly standing next to a fooseball table watching two of them play. Confused, I walk right up to my friend's husband and say, "Happy Birthday!" with enthusiasm. He says, "Thanks but the Birthday boy is over there."
I quickly realize that Janak is my friend of friend's 8 year old son and not her husband. Then before I know it, the birthday boy says to his friends while pointing at me, "That's Neel, he knows all the professional football stars and he is going to teach us how to play football." The next thing I know I'm in an elavator with ten 8 year olds heading to the football field. 
In addition to sweat, dirty clothes, an inflated ego and a stomach full of pizza I walked away with a unique of experience of what the next generation of urban upper middle class Indian youth enjoy. Those boys loved to play and discuss football more than any American child I have ever come across. And what surprised me more is they knew more about players, clubs, stats, etc... than one could imagine. Above all, the most interesting thing was the boy who didn't want to play, chose not to participate because he is a great cricketer and doesn't like football. I thought it was interesting that 1 of 8 Gurgaon youth chose football over cricket and the cricket freak was the one watching on the sidelines.
I recognize that this is just one experience however, I do believe that although India is still a cricket crazy country, football is rapidly becoming the sport of choice for urban you in India. Only time will tell if this theory is fully accurate.
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