Blending in the high spirits

Magic setting, pyrotechnics, psychedelic lights, baritone from medieval pundits, flaming flowers of Varun Bahl and bold gold of A&T set the tone for the opening day Blender’s Pride Fashion Tour, Kolkata leg. If Varun Bahl thrilled with his mosaic on floral patterns, ace designer-duo Abraham & Thakore brought to fore the urban woman.

As the models sashayed on the ramp the rich intricacy of floral patterns came alive to the background of blooming roses and blossoming violets. “I want the flowers to come alive. They do come alive. I love florals. People ask me why do I use flowers always … but that gives me immense satisfaction and as long as you are satisfied nothing else matters,” Varun later told Khocha.

As the music filled the room one could see the rich colours and vibrant shades fill up the ramp as the ladies in gowns, trousers and skirts fluttered about like butterflies lost in the affluent intricacies of floral designs. “One of my biggest strength is colours. I understand colours very well. And I balance them very well and use unusual combinations. This has worked for me,” he said.

Varun Bahl, who launched his label in 2001, showcased what was in prime revisiting his experiences of the last 10 years. The collection was inspired mostly by Indian artwork with dollops of western influence. The burlesque presence of floral patterns was set against a lot of net, thick crape and georgette. “My design is both progressive and classy. I have experimented with colours like black, white, grey, pale blue, pink and red,” said the ace designer.

The day ended with Abraham & Thakore. The duo named their theme Urban Safari. The collection is ispired by the modern woman—vibrant, strong and determined. The colour palate included gold, cream and ivory set against black and white. Lesser number of colours and fewer accessories make the collection classy and free-spirited in its austerity of flamboyance.

   

Football's knighthood

Arindam Basu

Football fever had taken a new turn in the city. Suddenly cricket was borrowing stars from a football team to add to the sheen of its celebrations. As Joffre, Borja and Josemi waved at the fans from the VIP box of Eden Gardens suddenly it felt like a gotrantar for the game hitherto treated as the pulp of the mango people. ISL had given Indian football its bragging rights.

Rohit Sharma hit 264 to keep cricket's intoxication untainted, but football basked in its new found status 24 years after it had been shifted off to the the eastern fringes of the city.

Suddenly the guest list in a football match had the most sought after faces from the city and outside. Sometimes its the tinsel town from Tollywood that descended upon the stadium and sometimes the VIP gallery looked like an extended board room for the corporate hotshots.

But the game between Chennaiyan FC and Atletico de Kolkata saw something extra special. Abhishek Bachchan has recently emerged as one of the most seen sporting faces of Bollywood (albeit may be due to a laid back shooting calender) slapping his thigh for a Thigh5 to sporting a lungi while rooting for the visitors from down South. But the presence of Mr Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone set the pulse of the 50,000 odd people racing.

As the ripe hues of the winter sun caressed the Western galleries of the Salt Lake Stadium layers of people peeled off the EM Bye Pass and rolled into the giant colloseum. Football was the centrepiece of course, but what added to the spice of the evening of lurking fog was a pride for the game that just was just knighted.     

ATK and a conspiracy theory

Arindam Basu

There is a certain aura to conspiracy theories. Utterly disbelievable and yet it leaves a lingering sense of anticipation. There is absolutely no credo to these tell-tales and yet they leave a few lurking questions in our minds of the ‘What if’ variety. History is replete with such theories: Was Will Shakespeare actually Queen Elizabeth? Did Charlotte Bronte kill her sisters? And more recently the absolutely laughable and yet mind boggling theory that no one that pretty could actually have been that poor and that good at writing.

Yes, J K Rowling! The theory goes that she is obviously an actress hired by a panel of shadowy ghost writers. Or at least that’s what Norwegian film-maker Nina Grunfeld believes. For in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten Grunfeld advocated the theory that the Potter series was in fact written by a full-size team of people, all of whom were perfectly happy to receive no acclaim for the worldwide phenomenon. Rowling is an actress they hired to be the face of the series, and her story was cleverly crafted to give hope to impoverished single mothers everywhere.

While chewing on that thought, you could cast some attention to another such theory gaining muscle everyday albeit in the realm of sports. The hilarity of the theory is set against a growing number of stats and steely-jawed convictions among certain organisers in the corridors of power. Indian Super League is perhaps the best thing that happened to football in India after Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikary took it upon himself to spread the game from the British soldiers in 1880s. Well in between there were a few Herculean achievements like the IFA Shield win and Asian Games success in 1950. Then the game went bust.

As gratifying as it is, ISL has got the rumour mills on the move. And being spun with ferocious ease is the theory that some evil machinations are at play to stop the Ashwamedha of Atletico de Kolkata. What has really got the tongues wagging is the stat that ATK earned a whopping 5 yellow cards and a red in the last match against Chennaiyin itself. While the veracity of the yellows could be contested, there is no doubt that the red carding of Joffre was unwarranted and callous. TV replays showed Gourmangi Singh hacking down Joffre and the referee flashing the red on the victim to utter disbelief of even the Chennaiyin players. Such embarrassing was the situation that Mikael Silvestre was seen running up to Joffre and offering a few words of camaraderie.   

Now let us look at a few other facts. AIFF has reduced the ban on Antonio Lopez Habas from four matches to two as upon investigation they found no evidence to the charges levelled against him of being physical. So why the hurry to ban him in the first place? Fikru started the season in sparkling form striking up a perfect combination with Luis Garcia. What we see next is a ban on him too. This has not only cost ATK four points but also cost the Ethiopian continuity. After the first three games ATK has never been allowed to field their first eleven and for the last two games the brain behind the team was disbarred from the sidelines. The team has picked up cards more frequently than the bridge players. While most of them could well be contested, their attitude towards the game has been dissected and the players’ integrity towards discipline questioned. Branded as the bad boys they have been sent to the gallows repeatedly. 

And why just to keep them down and out. Well…well…well…that’s some theory!

It’s still a few matches before the curtains are drawn on the first ISL. Only when the hurly- burly is done will any of us be able to say whether this conspiracy theory to stop ATK sticks on or not. For now the galleries of the colossal Salt Lake Stadium are flush with waves of whispers of a wicked plot against their home team.

Well the Gods of the leather orb must be watching!

ATK fails to beat the red within

Arindam Basu

Self destruction is usually defined as “the voluntary destruction of something by itself.” In human terms we are talking about counter-productive and ultimately self-destructive behaviour patterns which can cause irreparable damage, either deliberately or inadvertently. It’s a fatal umbrella for a variety of self-damaging tendencies from doing things that always seem to backfire, to habitual self-harm, to suicidal recklessness. The match between Atletico de Kolkata and Chennaiyin FC was a veritable display of all three in various phases.

And let me add with a little caution, if ATK don’t change, they will pay a price too dear sooner than later.

ATK began like a clever moocher soaking in all the verve of the home team before bursting out in counterattacks. It was from one of the counter when Luis Garcia, please all take a bow, sent an adventurous ball into the penalty box that Md Rafi latched on to before being brought down by Chennaiyin FC goalie Shilton Paul. Garcia walks up and scores from the spot. 1-0 for ATK. Chennaiyin FC down to 10 men. Game set and match all would say.

Garcia’s penetration, Borja’s prodigal run, Jofre’s intelligence in the final third was slowly making life difficult for Chennai. Garcia tested Bracigliano with a sharpshooter. Then Borja sent a teasing aerial ball from the Beckham zone that had the lanky goalie backtrack gingerly only in time to keep the trajectory out. Baljit made a mess of a volley from close.   

It was time to sit back. Slow down. Enjoy. And feed on time like a hungry leech. But then referee walks into the scene and acts as the proverbial biblical serpent inducing into Jofre the viral Narcissist syndrome. He collects the first yellow of the match for an unnecessary walk over on Elano. The germs of destruction had set in.

After the change over, Jofre carried on where he left. Only this time he was brought down by Gourmangi Singh and ATK should have got a penalty and Gourmangi Singh a yellow. Instead the ref thought Borja did enough play acting for one evening. A second yellow for simulation and suddenly Chennai got a lifeline. ATK paid the price for their habitual self-harm.

Thereafter the game had slowed down, picked pace and went along the sidewalk as tired legs and frayed nerves took over. Balwant and Jeje were injected into the match to yield result, Sanju and Masih brought in to maintain status quo. Balwant nearly scored thought unwittingly and Mendy put plug on a bullet that Sanju triggered.  

And after a series of such anti-climax as the match had slipped into injury time, Kingshuk does the unthinkable. A suicidal moment of recklessness saw Chennai’s Valencia brought down and Elano Blumer doesn’t need a second invite to score from the spot. ATK threw away the three points they had in their coffer and much like a vagrant moocher returned with just one point, five yellow cards and one red.

Still undefeated. Still on top. But only just. With time running out of the hourglass!       

Rise of the Belgian Bomber

Arindam Basu

Manchester United has been express and impersonal in the eviction of the hamsters, nannies and dorks that emphasised the David Moyes era. Only one remains. He scurried around like a puddle last season and at best barked mildly in between fitness issues. When Louis Van Gaal came, he was quick to hand out to the short rope to him.

But three months into the season he seems to have reinvented himself. Welcome to the rebirth of Marouane Fellaini. A slack defence and lack of an effective blocker in the midfield may have added to his advantage, but the bushy haired Belgian has had to show that he was willing to play in the hole in front of the defence and work relentlessly both in attack and defence.

The journey from Standard Liege to the red part of Manchester via Carrington Road is something of a fairy tale. For he may not be the quickest on the field or may not have the biggest physical advantage, but he compensated that with an arrogant run, impeccable technique and perfect sense of the game. These qualities made him the midfield-marshal with Everton and made Moyes believe he would be a success in the Theatre of Dreams. But then suddenly everything began to fall apart.

The team was under performing. Moyes was under fire. And he was the only player the coach had signed. As a result Fellaini had the albatross hung around his neck. Always under the lens, always talked about, always marked out, he suddenly found out he was a goldfish in a glass bowl. To add to his misery he played at four different positions in the team last season asked to do things that Moyes wished as his guy. He crumbled.

But after watching him in the last two games I’m more than convinced he is back. His game is first class, the swagger is back, the nonchalance apparent and he now wore the Red Devils jersey not as an outsider but one who has a permanent locker in the dressing room. He left a big influence in the Manchester derby and sooner than later the puddle hair will be a fad at the home ground. A brilliant player, worth all the money and all the wait. 

ATK keeps undefeated record intact

Arindam Basu

There are winds of change along Eastern Metropolitan Bye-pass. The city marches along the giant East West connector twice a year when the traditional rivals East Bengal and Mohun Bagan lock horns. They carry their respective flags and paint their faces with their respective colours.

But today Atletico de Kolkata (ATK) was playing. And my car stood at an unusually long red, two signals before the gargantuan stadium.  Curious I craned out to see an energetic group of young men cross the road shouting a slogun: “Jitbe Ke…ATK” (Who will win? But ATK of course). As I neared the stadium I was pleasantly surprised to see a giant congregation of red-white stripes heading their way inside the stadium. For the first time the red-golds and green-maroons blend together as the fans rooted for their city. 35,000 and more.

If football is the popular opium of the Bengalees, Atletico de Kolkata looks to be its veritable prop-up. ATK has successfully broken down unseen wall that divided the city into two halves. If off the field they have been both magnanimous and magnetic, on the field they have played like champions.

This Sunday was no different. They went into overdrive from the word go dishing out attacks into the Kerala Blasters territory with consummate ease. The restlessness of Joffre in the midfield, piercing runs of Lobo and Borja upfront and Arnal’s pick-pocketing balls from the rivals along the centre half left the visitors in much discomfort.     

In one such move Arnal snatched the ball in the midfield and fed Joffre Gonzales on the left. Joffre cut in and send a measured minus to which Cavin Lobo sold a dummy. Borja lay the ball in the path of a surging Baljit Sahni whose rasping volley put ATK ahead 21 minutes into the game.

ATK could well have gone up 2-0 in the next ten minutes, when Cavin Lobo befuddled the Kerala defenders again letting a Kingshuk Debnath through head for an overlapping Borja. However, Cedric Hengbart took advantage of a heavy second touch from the Spanish medio and cleared the danger.

It needed something special to beat the ATK defence and 40 minutes into the match Kerala Blasters did that restored parity through Ian Hume after being set up by Milagres Gonzalves via a gorgeous back flick.

Post lemon break ATK could have taken the lead once again, but for the woodwork that prevented a Baljit volley from going in after Joffre set him up with a measured cross.  Ten minutes later Arnal came close to scoring but for a body block from Sandesh. Three minutes into extra time Joffre could have made the difference between the two sides, but sliced the ball wide with an inviting open goal in front.

The last 15 minutes of the match tired legs slowed down the pace. But ATK made sure that they collected one more point to move up to 11 points on the leader board.  Fikru saw the match from the stands, looking as involved as he would have been had he been on the turf. After the match he obliged the autograph hunters before disappearing into the VIP exit. In contrast Manager Antonio Lopez Habas in an all black suit watched the game intently from the confines of the hospitality box. 

Bad Boys tag working well with ATK

Arindam Basu

There is a certain good in being bad. The arrogant rub, the undefeated spirit, the unconquerable will, the adamant motivation to carry on when everything else around is falling apart makes us love them despite knowing their follies.

Be it Diego Maradona, George Best, Eric Cantona or Paul Gasgoine; be it John McEnroe, Dennis Rodman, James Hunt or Sebastien Chabal –they have one thing in common. They are all bad boys from the world of sport apart from being maverick, brilliant and luminous.  

Atletico de Kolkata is fast earning the very adage with 11 yellow cards, two red cards and three suspensions that include their Manager Antonio Lopez Habas and star striker Fikru Tafarre. However, sitting pretty at the top of the Indian Super League table, the team seems to be letting their game talk for them. And for that ATK is fast gaining fans with over three lakh likes on their social media page alone.

“Football is a contact sport. Fouls are bound to happen. But you cannot ignore the intensity with which the team is playing. They never look like giving up before the last whistle,” said Annesh Bilas Thakur, an avid ATK fan.

Yes, it’s the camaraderie, the intensity and the bond within the team that has won over the soccer crazy city. East Bengal and Mohun Bagan are a passé, the city now bears the standards with a red-white stripe. While, the management is no way condoning the aggressive mentality on the field, they also don’t want the team to go soft.

“There are no disciplinary issues within the team. But at the same time we are not here to make fiends. We are here to win a trophy,” said a source close to the team adding: “While we respect the ISL rules and guidelines, we want to win also. The Aussies were the bad boys of world cricket in the last decade of the millennium. They sledged, played hard and won hearts. We have an owner who challenged that domination. He is the Prince of Calcutta.”

“When ATK takes the field they look every bit the winged lion on their logo. The pride goes for a hunt and in a battle there is bound to be some hard knocks,” says Simon Stephens, who swears by the red-white stripes.

The steely jawed resolution not to cave in has been beaten into the side during the 45-day stint together. Sometimes, the players are becoming boisterous in their approach, agreed. But that is riding the crest of the adrenalin surge and has more to do with the heat of the moment than pre-meditated malice. 

The players themselves are not advocating fouls. “It was a very hot game (meaning the Goa Fc tie). It's normal; its football, some players fight. But we respect all the teams and all the rules of football. But life goes on even after a bad night. The game goes on. That's most important,” said Jose Miguel Gonzalez Rey, team’s ace defender.

“Would you call Liverpool’s game last season ugly? Or Would you call Bayern Munich bad boys? Hard knocks are a part of the beautiful game. We must not look too much into it. However, at our end we have asked the players to play with more caution because if we lose players because of cards it affects our game plan too,” said another source close to the club.

For now the mantra with ATK is practice hard, play harder. And it seems to be working wonderfully well.