Live India, Love Football

I am on a plane heading from Delhi to London and am finally breathing.  Long, deep breaths that fill me with glimpses of inner peace and coat the multitude of butterflies flying around my stomach.  This peace is a nice respite from the last few days of madness.  This is my fourth multi-week family/friend/business development tour of the UK and US and, even after experiencing the pre-trip preparation three times before, I still haven’t found a way to avoid the stress and madness which ensues the days leading up to my departure. I am literally “Tripzilla,” terrorizing my way through my office, gift stores and home making demands of anyone who is unlucky enough to be on my path and reminding all that “I only make this trip once a year” as if this information really matters to anyone but me. This madness is a byproduct of my excitement and my excitement is a byproduct of the massive opportunity in front of me.  Prior to moving to India, I dreamed of holding a posit...

This may be the 20th post where I have mentioned My Angels Academy, but its hard not to write about every visit I make to that magical place. My Angels Academy is a program run out of a Vikaspuri (West Delhi) slum which uses football to empower the lives of  a 100+ youth.  It is by far my favorite place to visit in Delhi beating out some of my other favorites places which include Karims in Old Delhi, the Mughal park in Hauz Khas Village and Lodi Gardens. My Angels is not only a place I like to visit myself, but it is also a place I like to bring others to as well. Over the past few years I've introduced the Angels to everyone from the Director of FCBEscola to a friend of a friend who was interested in taking pictures of an NGO. No matter who visits the Academy, they always leave West Delhi touched, moved and inspired by the excellent work being done by Academy founder/president/mother/father/brother/teacher Sylvester Peter and the Angels who are clearly transformed beings....

I see very few similarities between people in Delhi and people in New York City with the main exception being their respective response to weather.  When it’s cold in both places people can’t stop talking about how cold it is and then a few months later people can’t stop talking about how hot it is. It’s more funny in Delhi because it’s cold until about February but then gets ridiculously hot in March so the 180 degree turnaround in complaining can happen within just a few days.  The other similarity between the two groups is that they both like to brag about where they went for the weekend to beat the summer heat: for New Yorkers it’s “the Hamptons”  and for Delhites “the hills.” Now I’ve been living in Delhi for the past 3.5 years and never once really understood the concept of “the hills.” The “hills” just seemed like a magical place where Delhi people go on the weekends so they can tell everyone else that they just came from there.  Plus, I never knew where...

For some people the media is their worst enemy.  This is true for stars who can't take a step forward without the paparazzi in their face or for those who are into some sort of scandal which the media just won't let die.  For me and many other non-celebrities, the media is our best friend. It's the medium in which we can best share our story with the world which exists beyond our Facebook friends list.  By "small timer" I do not mean less important, it means that I don't play professional sports, do not act in Hollywood (or Bollywood), am not on TV, do not have any special unique talents like singing or dancing and am not the son of some big time star which pretty much means that the media could care less about what I'm doing and could care even less about sharing what I'm doing with the public. The sad part is that there are so many others who do not fit into any of the categories above and yet they are up to big things in their lives which deser...

On Sunday night I attended an event called #I AM UNITED which was hosted by Manchester United and Airtel at the spacious Blue Frog lounge in Delhi. The purpose of the event was to bring together thousands of die-hard United supporters in India for an evening of football viewing (Manchester United vs. Swansea), drinking (open bar all night) and paying respect to one of the greatest coaches of all time (obviously Sir Alex Ferguson). From what I had heard, somewhere around 15,000 people had registered for tickets online and, in the end, only 2,500 die-hard United supporters were able to get in. I’m not a United supporter however I attended the event as a guest of the Manchester United Soccer Schools and was genuinely excited to be there as I love Blue Frog, was looking forward to watching the match and was interested in being around so many of Indians who are passionate about a club which plays its matches thousands of miles away from their country. I arrived at 7:00pm thinking...

If you are one of the 2 people who have actually followed this blog for the past few years, then you would know that I’ve been often surprised by the number of live sporting events I’ve had the opportunity to attend while living in India and the quality of my experiences while attending these events.  When I moved to Delhi I assumed that my consumption of live sports would dramatically decrease, an even if I did make it to an event, that the customer service wouldn’t compare to what I’ve experienced in the US.  Boy, was I wrong. On Friday night I attended my first IPL match. Yes, my first IPL match. It’s quite embarrassing to write this given that I work in sports marketing in India, the IPL is one of the world’s most discussed sports properties and a very close friend is heading up business operations for the Delhi Daredevils. My only weak argument is that I don’t enjoy cricket much and couldn’t imagine spending a few hours in traffic just to spend a few hours in a sta...

Outside of a greater propensity to see crazy things without being completely shocked and a slightly better handle on Hindi, I’m pretty much the same guy I was 3.5 years ago when I moved to India.  That being said, my experience of certain aspects of life has completely transformed for the better. A perfect of example of this is what happened last month when I was in Europe. Over the course of 2 weeks I had meetings with some of the top football clubs in the world which included Arsenal FC, FC Bayern Munich, Liverpool FC, Manchester City FC and  Manchester United FC . I’ve had meetings with each of these clubs at their offices in the past, however my experience this time around was completely unique. Back in 2010 when I first started setting up meetings in Europe as a representative from India, I was merely a beggar.  Even through solid contacts I had to fight and claw to get 45 minutes with someone from one of these football giants. And even during these meetin...