Live India, Love Football

“Growth” is a word that I tend to use very often.  As I’m sure I’ve written many times in the past, I truly believe that growth (and love) are the most important elements of living an extraordinary life so I’m constantly searching for, evaluating and celebrating growth. Last week we organized the 3 rd edition of FICCI GOAL and the theme of “growth” was certainly present throughout the conference.   FICCI GOAL is a property which my organisation, Libero Sports, along with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) created as way to support the development and sustainbility of the Indian football industry and promote strategic dialogue around the game.  The conference provides a platform for relevant global and domestic industry stakeholders to discuss the beautiful game in India offering a key focus on the various business opportunities unfolding along with the rapid growth of the India...

I was in Ahmedabad, Gujarat the other day to visit my Uncle’s School, SGVP, where they organised a massive Shiva yagna which pretty much means puja or prayer.  I found some time in between the prayer to step out and meet my friend Neil Patel for lunch. Neil is similar to me in that he grew up in America and chose to move to India about 5 years ago to explore personal and professional opportunities.  He has since established an innovative technology company called Awaaz de and created an extraordinary community of ex-pats all living together in the city of Ahmedabad. What I found most exciting about Neil’s life in India was the amount of social work he was engaged in through the NGO Manav Sadhna.  Manav Sadhna, under Gandhiji’s presence and guiding principle “Love All, Serve All," serves more than 9000 children and women through a wide range of projects.  The NGO itself is beautifully situated within the walls of Gandhi’s ashram which makes it almost imposs...

Our organisation, Libero Sports, presented our new company logo last week.  We strategically leveraged the FICCI GOAL 2015 and Indian Football Awards platform to unveil the logo in front of hundreds of key stakeholders and well-wishers in the industry.  I’m happy to share that the new logo was designed by my good friend and former colleague, Randeep Baruah.  Randeep (or Randy) and I used to work together at Dentsu India and he quickly became one of my best friends as well as a key person for me to go to for emotional or logistical support as I tried to navigate myself around this complex country.   We both moved over to Libero Sports at the same time where it became clear that Randy has a strong talent for creative design.  After a few years with Libero Sports, Randy went on to start his own design firm called Grafinx with Libero Sports, of course, as his first client.  When it was time to choose a firm to re-desi...

I don’t know what it is but I love Juhu Beach in Mumbai.  It’s crowded, dirty, smelly, and you can’t walk more than two feet without seeing feces (dog and human) yet for some reason there is a certain charm which brings me back there each time I’m in Mumbai.  I was in Mumbai for a few days last week and woke up early one of the days to go for a nice run and yoga session on Juhu Beach.  While running I watched the hundreds of people that populated the beach at 7:30am on a Thursday morning all engaged in some activity: cricket, football, fishing, eating Pav Bhaji or letting go of last night’s Pav Bhaji in public, etc… One of the thoughts which entered my mind was how charming it is to see people on a beach who don’t really care how they look to others.  I grew up in a place called Huntington Beach in Southern California and the beach was a place where you are only truly comfortable to frequent if your body and style are at their peak. ...

I remember when I was in high school, our football season happened to coincide with the women’s field hockey season.  So after training, my teammates and I would sometimes loiter on the side of the ground to watch the girls run around with these massive sticks hitting a heavy object around.  It was quite intriguing to watch however I never really got into the sport. Fast forward about 18 years and one of the owners of the Delhi hockey franchise called the Waveriders invited my friends and I to watch their match against the Ranchi Rhinos.  The tickets we were offered were VVIP and somehow we found that our seats were right next to Bollywood Actor John Abraham, like literally seated on a couch next to him.  I must say that we thoroughly enjoyed the match. Not only did Delhi win 2-0, but the game was fast, technically interesting and the crowd quite passionate.  Yes, my overall experience was enhanced by the fact that we were sitting o...