The Sign I Was Looking For

One of my least favorite times of the year is the first week back in India after returning from my annual trip to the US and UK. It’s not that I don’t want to be back, it’s just that those first few days are usually spent in a jet lagged, semi depressed stupor while trying to cope with the old, but new chaos of India and the always reliable August monsoons. During those days I remain open to signs from God; something that reminds me that my purpose at this stage in my life is to be in India working on developing football. It’s crazy that during those days I have to convince myself of this because my heart already knows this fact as it’s my heart which usually does most of the talking about why I’m still in India when I answer this question to the hordes of people who ask me this during my Western tour.  Although my heart is aware of my purpose, my head is usually so full of noise and confusion during these days that convincing the chattering voice seems necessary for any comfort and peace of mind to exist.

So back to signs. I don’t actively seek signs to validate my choice to be in India but I acknowledge them when they appear. The other day I saw a sign in the most unlikeliest of places. 

If you ask anyone who knows me even remotely well to name my top 10 favorite things, I’d confidently bet that 75% of the people interviewed  would include football and monkeys on their list and they would be correct. I know that this may make me seem just a bit superficial but just like most young men, I appreciate the cuteness and human like qualities of monkeys and always enjoy seeing them roaming through the streets and parks and backyards of Delhi since they make me smile and I love smiling.
 
The other day I reluctantly agreed  go on a site visit to a friend’s school located in the depths of Haryana.  I was reluctant because it was only my 3rd day back in India, I was extremely exhausted, my outlook inbox was overflowing and the thought of driving 1 hour through rural Haryana during the peak of monsoon season sounded worse than death. Given all that, I still said yes and the next thing I know my colleague and I were packed in a beat up taxi heading to the Sehwag International School with our mutual friend.

It was a pretty normal site visit until I saw my sign. We were walking towards the main football pitch and there, sitting where the left half should be, was a monkey just looking adorable. At that moment all I could do was laugh and smile at the fact that I’m so lucky to be in India doing the type of work I’m doing and seeing the type of madness that I see on a daily basis. Never could I imagine showing up to a US or UK pitch and seeing a monkey just hanging out, yet in India this is a not so uncommon experience and the beauty is that during these moments it’s almost impossible to be that serious about anything, be it jet lag or the bouts of loneliness which sometimes surface when you live so far away from family and friends.

Everyone should be aware of the signs around them, existence puts them in front of us to create clarity and it’s up to us to acknowledge them and move on with life…



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Cities, 3 Football Academies

Image
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to visit a few of the top youth football Academies in India.  It’s always interesting to see first-hand some of the blood, sweat and tears football administrators are investing into the future of the sport in the country.  Not to mention, I love experiencing different cultures, norms and idiosyncrasies in each place I visit (there are many).  I won't get too deep into my personal adventures and challenges of traveling through West Bengal and Punjab in the insanely hot month of May.  I'll need to save those for another blog.   I've included the places I’ve visited with some pictures. Pailan World School (Kolkata) http://www.pailanworldschool.com/ Workers putting in artificial turf for the new FIFA Youth Academy Chandigarh Football Academy http://chandigarh.gov.in/dept_sports7.htm The hostel where the CFA players live YFC Rurka Kalan (Rurka Kalan, Punjab...
Read more

Liverpool International Football Academy Coaches – Ray Curtis and Michael Rice

Image
The last half of 2013 was one ongoing conversation about the proposed partnership between Liverpool Football Club and our client DSK Group.  We all knew that only good could come out of this relationship, however we also knew that the level of good would be contingent on the coaches which Liverpool FC selected to represent the Academy in India.  This point couldn’t be hammered home any harder as I’ve seen countless projects fail in India due to the international club’s inability to identify the right type of coaches to make the trip to India. It’s not that these coaches lacked technical expertise or coaching ability, actually that’s never the case, it’s that they lacked a positive attitude and patience.  I actually wrote a post about this which can be found a few months back.  The coaches selected to run the Liverpool International Football Academy DSK Shivajians, Ray and Michael, were handpicked by a trusted member of the Liverpool FC international programming...
Read more

Barcelona

Image
A few months ago my client at Conscient Football and I were discussing options for an "Exposure Trip" we were planning for a group of Delhi based youth footballers.  The obvious locations came up; Manchester, London, Milan, Madrid, Munich, etc... But then Barcelona was mentioned and it was obvious that the meeting was over right then and there. There were no other options.  Barcelona is located in the country that just won the most recent FIFA World Cup, is home to the best football club in the world and home to the best football player in the world.  Why would we take the players anywhere else??? So fast forward to May 12th.  I'm at Indira Gandhi airport in Delhi with 3 other staff members meeting with 27 sets of parents and assuring them that their little princes will be fine.  I'm holding passports, collecting forms, smiling widely, shaking hands and doing my best to exude confidence and responsibility.  Somehow we get the 27 players thr...
Read more