A lovely day of football

For the last 3 years, the annual tournament of footbal has always thrown up pleasant surprises. And this year, was no suprise!! It was a lovely day for a game of ball and the venue was Poinsur Gymkhana, Kandivili (W). The first half was an intra-vakola (Asian Paints Corporate Office) tournament. There were 4 teams and everyone was quite enthusiastic about the game. The 4 teams had been nicknamed Vikings, Strikers, Warriors and Rangers. The first match threw up the big surprise and the front-runners for the tournament. It also brought to the front likes of Mevin, Raju, Nikhil and Sanket. The awesome 4 went on to play a very important role for their team in the rest of the tournament for their team. The Systems dept overshadowed the other 3 teams and went on to win the tournament. The best part of this entire event was that no one really minds losing or winning but, its a day when everybody has a good time kicking the ball!!! These events and winning the event is just an excuse for us to actually observe people forgetting their daily office issues and letting their hair down to really enjoy themselves. After all, isn't that why we come to work in the first place???


The second half of the day (post - lunch) was the Asian Paints Limited (APL) Champions League. The 3 teams were Turbhe Tuskers (the reigning Champion), Vakola United (last year runners-up) and APPG Gunners (one of most Fair Play teams). It was an absorbing day of football that followed (atleast for me). Vakola United was invigorated with the addition of the four musketeers and with new additions to the line up like RC (Rahul Chaudhury), Ali Bawa et al along with last year stalwarts Vilas, Sabby (Sabyasachi) and Happy (Harshdeep), the team was one of the strong contenders. The first match was closely fought and ended in victory for Tuskers against the Gunners. The following matches involved Vakola United against these 2 teams and ended in skewed scorelines in favor of Vakola United. The final was between United and Tuskers. Tuskers took the early lead but then, it was all in favor of United who completed the rout in the rest of the game. There were flashes of brilliance displayed by the reigning Champions but, the new United proved to be too strong and hot to handle. In the end, it ended in victory for the Vakola United team, the new Champions!!

It was a great of football and I look forward to this day in the coming year. And, what was my contribution... I was the referee for all the league matches. It felt good. We ended with the a lot of cheers for all the playing members, organizers and words of encouragement by our Vice President, Mr. Moukwa. It was a fun day and we hope that in the years to follow, many more such days not just in football but other games will follow. Here's to all the guys who made this day memorable.. Cheers to all the guys...