Oh the boys in us!!

Every self admiring, bloated ego, wannabe writer does this at some point. Write that quintessential ‘stuck in the airport’ and ‘starbucks’ post!!  Never dared to take my battered and bruised work laptop (don’t carry a personal one thanks to the weight of this monolith) amongst the cooler MacBooks that usually hang out at coffee shops but here I am with ‘genuine’ time to kill at an airport so why not? Besides making small notes about my multi-continental journey from Sao Paulo to New Delhi, I might as well catch up on Brazil. I have a word page full of ‘interesting’ topics that at some point I planned to write about and post on this blog.

We have all done this as kids. At least the boys did. Collect sports cards. As a 10 year old during the 1990 World Cup the value of a Diego Maradona card I managed to get with a 50 paisa bubble gum was nothing short of the excitement of lets say winning a million dollars as an adult. Not that I know how that feels! If I remember correctly I probably hadn’t even seen a full football game by then. Maybe some clippings of this madman making his way through five Englishmen. But the card was, in Mastercard speak, priceless.

20 years on I don’t know where that card is. Maybe Mom threw it away as rubbish. In fact I had forgotten all about the card until I saw the football card craze at work recently. Apparently it is still a big deal in Brazil. My Brazilian friend told me he has all the cards (which includes cards of players from all teams, team pics, national flags, stadiums etc etc...numbering close to 600 cards for each World Cup) from the last 8 World Cups!!!  Every afternoon (actually all day round) you’ll see 30 somethings trading cards at work.  In fact the cards are numbered and an excel spreadsheet is used to keep track of which ones individuals already have and which one they don’t. It’s almost competitive. Who’s gonna complete the official World Cup album first. Apparently some of the folks from work show up at Ibirapuera park over the weekend to trade cards with strangers from all parts of Sao Paulo. Super fricking cool, I thought. I in fact went out and bought 10 packs (0.75 reals each per pack.) of 5 cards each. Enough for me to trade and get 7 English players. I gave the rest to my friend who last I checked is short of only 25 cards to complete his album. That is before his weekend trip to the park!!

Not your usual conversation!!

“So what is your city famous for” I asked my new friend. 

“Famous for?” she smiled a little and hesitantly said “Aliens!”

“Sorry what?” I thought I did not hear right. It’s the traffic on Paulista Avenue.

“Aliens” she said again.

“You mean Aliens…like E.T. …Aliens??”  I asked again in disbelief.  When was the last time you asked someone what their city is famous for and got that answer?  I am expecting coffee, carnival, beer…and I get Aliens!! Phew!

“Yes.  It’s the most famous alien sighting in Brazil.  The only other alien case more famous in the world that our town’s is Roosevelt’s. Everyone is Brazil knows about the Varginha alien sighting”

“Roosevelt? The American President?”

“Yeah”

I grew up fascinated by aliens, like most kids I guess, but did not remember the Roosevelt incident.  Then again there was no Internet back then. Whatever! Right now this conversation seems unreal.

“When did this happen?” I asked expecting something from the 50’s or 60’s.

“96”

“1996?”

“Yes”

“Jesus that’s not too long ago…I had started watching X-Files by then.”  I pause a bit and then asked.  “So what’s the story?”

“Oh well…three girls saw an alien and lots of strange things happened that day in town.” she said and added as an afterthought “The Brazilian military came in”

“Really?”

“I believe the story…I saw the military myself”

“Wow…that’s amazing …I’ll look it up on Google”

“Yeah look it up” she said with a smile.

Corinthians!!!

Every Brasileiro's (yes that is what they call themselves…not Brazilians!!) first love. Futebol. Little background to the post I guess will help. Sao Paulo has three big teams who play in the highest league. Corinthians, Sao Paulo and Palmeiras.  Apparently Corinthians have the largest fan base (almost 40 to 50%) in the city and like in any other inter city rivalry these fans absolutely hate the other two teams. 

The Corinthians vs. Sao Paulo game was being really talked up at work.  The struggling Corinthians badly needed a win against the more comfortably placed Sao Paulo if they had to have any chance of qualifying for the Paulista Championship Semi final.  Paulista Championship is the intra - state championship and is different from the first division football we are used to watching in Europe.  We had told our Brazilian friend at work, pretty much on the first day of our project, that we need to / have to / absolutely must see a game here in Brazil and he suggested we wait for this one.  “I’ll take you as long as you don’t wear anything in green (Palmeiras colour)” he added being a ‘hardcore’ Corinthians fan. J Having no previous allegiances, I was leaning towards Corinthians anyway partly due to the two big names they had in their ranks. Ronaldo (the fat one! Highest goal scorer in World Cups) and Roberto Carlos (arguably one of the best left backs of our generation…arguably). I was dying to see one of Roberto Carlos’s legendary free kicks. That left leg can pack a punch even in mid 30s!!  He had scored a stunner in the previous week so was likely to take a few shots on goal at least. I kept telling my friend that Roberto Carlos is going to score. Roberto Carlos is going to score. Everyone, I guess, just found my enthusiasm amusing J

The atmosphere was fantastic even though the stadium was far from full. Once particular group of fans called ‘Gaviões da Fiel’were really boisterous. Apparently they are the largest group of ‘organized’ Corinthian fans in the city. I was told they indulge in some harmless ‘organized’ trouble every now and then but I didn’t see any myself so I am not going to hold them against that reputation!! Don’t believe what you don’t see. Especially if the allegation is against sports fans J Nope. Never.

I though I had picked up parts of the Corinthians chant as well during the game until I found out (embarrassingly a day later) that all I was saying was ‘Abacaxi’ (pronounced ba.ca.shi) which means Pineapple in Portuguese!!! Had a hard time explaining the goof up to our friend from work. Guess all the new words got mixed up and I created my own Indiano - Brasileiro - Corinthiano version of the chant!! 

The game itself turned out to be a classic. Corinthians nicked the game 4 – 3 in injury time thanks to an own goal!!  As this modest Nostradamus predicted Robert Carlos scored off the first free kick he took.  Wasn’t exactly his greatest kick ever but was forceful enough to make it through the fumbling goalkeeper. Fat Ronaldo was a pale shadow of his former self! Didn’t, at any stage of the game, look interested and barely made an effort to run. Which brings me to the age old sports question…when is a good time to hang up the boots?? Later.