25 Years

 I wrote this in July 2007 

Sanjoy Ghose - 10 Years After 

By Ajit Chaudhuri

 

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I’m not there. I do not sleep.

 

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunshine on ripened grain.

I am the gentle August rain.

 

And when you awaken to that morning hush

I am that swift, enlightening rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

 

Do not stand at my grave and cry.

I’m not there. I did not die.[1]

 

It was a long time ago! Memories have faded, and many reading this would be too young to know him as more than just one of the ‘names’ the IRMA community throw around to motivate people towards a certain career path. So let me begin with a short biography.

 

A Short Biography: Sanjoy came from a privileged background – the Cathedral School and then Sydenham College in Mumbai, a family full of judges and civil servants, the works. He joined IRMA as part of its first batch (deciding against IIM-A to come here, I read later, though he never spoke about that), and then took up a job with the Tribhuvandas Foundation in Anand. The URMUL Dairy wanted to replicate TF in Bikaner district in Rajasthan and recruited Sanjoy to set up the URMUL Trust in 1986. I joined the URMUL Trust in 1991, by which time it was headquartered in Lunkaransar, with fledgling operations in Phalodi and Bajju, and was financially independent of the Dairy. Along the way, Sanjoy married his classmate from Sydenham, Sumita, they had two children (Joyita – now a final year sociology student at LSR in Delhi, and Anindo – studying in Mumbai and a budding investment banker, his mother tells me), and he had stints of further education in Oxford in the UK and John Hopkins in the USA.

 

Sanjoy began to make noises about ‘going somewhere his work was really needed’ in the early nineties. He worked on this with his typical rigour and single-mindedness; ensuring that URMUL Trust would continue without him (which it has), identifying a place (finally the North-East, with a base in Jorhat in Assam, field operations in Majuli Island, and networking and advocacy across the region), a mode of operation (he joined AVARD as its General Secretary and set up a branch, AVARD-NE, to work through) and preparing his family and colleagues for the move. He moved to Jorhat in 1996. He was picked up by ULFA in July 1997 and murdered. No body has been found till date.

 

Why is he a ‘name’? Sanjoy was not like you and me. He was brilliant, extremely hardworking, and ruthless – the alpha plus combination that gets you to the top in whichever field you choose. He combined this with deep commitment, a love for the nitty-gritty, genuine charm and a sense of humour, a magnetic personality, and fearlessness. In the six years that we worked together, I have seen all these facets of his personality (and have been at the receiving end, not always in a nice way, of them as well) and can confidently say that he was a one-off. He was as comfortable in plush multi-lateral offices in Delhi discussing policy with the wonks as he was on the floor of a poor household in a remote village discussing basic health. The other ‘names’ don’t compare – Sanjoy would never have allowed himself to get comfortable, would never have lived off past achievements, would always have put the needs of the worst-off as central to what he did.

 

What if? In that one year in the North-East, he had a dormant NGO sector churning across the seven states. There was a genuine non-governmental space being developed between the religious charities and the insurgents that would have been a force to reckon with today had it not died a premature death with him. There would have been a genuine role model for individuals within the Indian development sector, critical today when the sector is competing for talent in a playing field that is not level. And there would have been a role model for NGOs as well, and a better quality of debate on the space for peaceful non-governmental action in a polarising economic environment.

 

To conclude: I am now going to indulge in a little sentimentality! For some years after his death, I would be sort of expecting him to burst into the room any time and fill it up with his presence – it is only recently that this feeling has abated. I still try to avoid getting into discussions about him, unless it is with close colleagues from those days like Madhavan and Sunil Kaul. What stays on with me along with his commitment and his passion is his sense of fun and his habit of eating only once a day. He livened up what would have been a boring few days in Aizawl by discovering the ‘Mizo Flick’ – an adjustment Mizo women did to their clothes while walking that provided a fleeting glimpse of undergarments. He could ferret out food from the unlikeliest of places at the unlikeliest of times – I remember us arriving in Pasighat some late evening, hungry and tired and with everything closed, and he managed to charm some shopkeeper into preparing hot food by speaking Marwari and enquiring into his lineage.

 

Today, ten years later, one feels a certain sense of déjà vu with the news from Assam of Mr. Ram of the FCI, the is-he-dead-is-he-not, the playing with the sentiments of a family in deep distress. I quote Sumita Ghose in a recent article in The Telegraph – that ULFA are ‘a bunch of ageing dickheads (this word is mine – she uses ‘men’, but being a member of the tribe I revolt at the association) who still believe that lies, guns, extortion, force, and other such cowardly means will bring about a positive and lasting change.’ She exhorts Mr. Ram’s family against believing a word ULFA says. I second that!

 

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[1] A poem by Mary Frye that has me thinking of Sanjoy.

A Life in Libraries

 

A Life in Libraries

Ajit Chaudhuri – May 2022

“It’s only words, and words are all I have, to take your heart away!”

 

I love libraries!! They are great places to mis-spend life in; offering solitude and quiet in a world in which these are increasingly becoming luxuries, and enabling the possibility of whiling away significant swathes of time in peace without the threat of eviction if you haven’t bought coffee or whatever. And (and this is a closely held secret), a fair sprinkling of the women you find within can be classified as glamorous (often in an understated way), and most of this number are intelligent, and that’s a heady combination even though, it has to be said, such women by definition have better things to do than reciprocate the interests of the likes of me.

The first library I remember was at my boarding school – a refuge in the otherwise cold and miserable place with a culture of bullying into which a small and meek kid could lose himself in a world of books. We had two library classes a week and could also borrow books and read them after dinner, and I devoured as many as I could in the 5 years I was there, coming away with one of two things that I am grateful to the school for – a need to have something to read with me, irrespective of genre, title, author and others’ opinions. Many journeys into unremarkable places in a life spent wandering around were survived thanks to the bag full of books I always carried.

College life was different – the action would migrate from the canteen to the library around end-January every year (exams were in April), with all us lechers and loafers following suit. It was the first time in the academic year that we would notice the studious girls, referred to as behanjis, and assess their potential. On one occasion, a girl got up from her table to drink water or whatever and we put a note in the next page of the open book that she was studying that read ‘if you want to you-know-what, raise your left hand; if you don’t, raise your right hand’. She came back, studied the page she was on, turned the page, read the note, and then did a glaring 360-degree look-around. None of us had the guts to raise our eyes from our books for the next ten minutes. On another, a friend of mine (now a respectably retired banker) procured truck-wallah-type kachha underpants for himself and someone bet him five bucks to do a tour of the library in them. Such was the value of money at the time that we both went to see a film on the proceeds, to-and-fro bus fares included.

I don’t remember my management institute’s library very well as a Masters’ student in the late 1980s, except for a basement that housed a computer (a VAX-VMS, for the pros among you, which was state of the art at the time) that I was among the few who could program. When I returned to the institute in 2011 for doctoral studies, I used the library extensively for hanging around, research and writing, and several academic papers emanate from that time. I also dealt with knowing that I would not complete my PhD – I was stone broke, and a forced return to the salt mines was imminent – by putting my research into a fictional setting; three months of writing sans distraction for ten hours a day, resulting in my first novel, “Pax Feminica”.

Another library that I remember well was the one at the LSE, where I underwent a mid-career course in leadership in 2001 – a large, glitzy place with a humongous collection of reading material; you just went to the librarian with what you wanted, and you were pointed towards it (and if it wasn’t available, the library was committed to obtaining it for you within 3 days). It even had a copy of the cult classic “Nomads and the Outside World”, Khazanov’s ethnographic description of pastoral nomadism in Soviet central Asia, that I had been looking for for years. It was only later, during a visit to the Bodleian Library in Oxford, that I questioned the value of such an approach – the Bodleian, believing that ‘what you want is likely to be somewhere near what you are looking for’, encouraged you to hang around and browse.

The last library on my list did not belong to a fancy institution, was not housed in a gigantic building, and did not have library staff – it was discovered while visiting a friend’s ancestral home in a village in coastal Karnataka (specifically Kukkila, South Canara district, near the town of Vittla) in 1991. The red-tiled bungalow in the middle of a mid-sized cashew plantation had a set of stairs leading somewhere, and I was informed upon enquiry that there was an attic upstairs that housed a library. Wow! I spent the remainder of my stay ensconced within, emerging only at mealtimes to sample his mother’s wonderful Canarese cooking when its whiff drifted upwards. ‘That’s what I want in life,’ I remember thinking at the time, ‘in addition to owning a football club that plays in the Champions League and to be an object of desire for an entire Miss World competition’s contingent – to have a dedicated space in my house for books, which I could retreat into for a little peace and quiet when I required it.’

My thinking on the professed ambitions has changed a bit in the thirty plus years that have passed, well, at least on the last one. I now want it to be something for myself and for local children from disadvantaged backgrounds – a safe and quiet space with lots of books, magazines and periodicals for them to read, where they can also do their homework and generally pass time. It was therefore with some distress that I gave away a significant proportion of my book collection while shifting home earlier this year, a collection dedicatedly developed via purchases, gifts and, last but not least, a policy of borrowing and not returning. Despite this, my library continues to be the only one of my professed ambitions with a realistic chance of being realized.

 

What is 'Tata-ness'?

 

What is ‘Tata-ness’?

By Ajit Chaudhuri – 1^st July 2021

 

Some years ago, I was in a discussion with a senior leader at Tata on the subject of ‘social capital’ when he described a phenomenon that had no obvious explanation – that most Tata companies are among the top three players in any business, industry or sector they are in despite pay being at the 60 to 70 percentile within that business, industry or sector. He used the word ‘Tata-ness’ as a possible cause, along with the observation that good people prefer a professional environment that does not grate with their value systems.

I have since come across this term occasionally, usually as an explanation for phenomena such as the above, and also as a slur (the worst pejorative within the group is an observation that a particular person or company lacks Tata-ness) and as a powerful argument to or not to follow a particular course of action.

Coming into the Tata group from academia, my curiosity was piqued. Here was a term that obviously had deep meaning to most of the group’s employees, and yet was not subject to definition or description to any degree of consistency. I remember asking my boss’s boss, a Tata insider who had spent many years as an EA to a longstanding Tata Chairman and who could expound with detail and enlightened insight on a multitude of subjects, on what ‘Tata-ness’ actually meant, and he hemmed and hawed before changing the subject on to supposedly more pressing matters.

Two factors helped sharpen my understanding. The first was the fact that I have since spent more time within the group (and, ahem, moved up the food chain), and the second was changes in the group’s senior leadership with some personnel being drafted in from outside the group and requiring articulation of reasons for following particular courses of action that had earlier been obvious to all (and therefore left unsaid).

So, what is ‘Tata-ness’? To me, it is the combination of three sets of things: behavioral norms, values, and guiding principles.

 

Behavioral Norms:

·         One doesn’t talk, and if one must talk one does so only after the work being talked about has been completed.

·         One plays oneself, and one’s organization down. Others should find out about you from your work and what others say about you.

·         One encourages realistic assessments from peers and subordinates and is not susceptible to flattery and/or the echo chamber syndrome.

·         One does not look to thrive in loopholes.

 

 

Values:

·         Hard work

·         Honesty

·         Punctuality

·         Order (as in the opposite of ‘chaos’)

·         Fulfillment of obligations

 

Guiding Principles:

·         Adherence to the Tata Code of Conduct in letter and spirit

·         ‘The Right Thing to Do’

 

A little more about this last – in Tata, an important factor in decisions regarding possible courses of action is that ‘this is the right thing to do’. Like ‘Tata-ness’, this means something to most Tata employees and, as a principle, is deeply ingrained within our DNA. But what does it actually mean?

There is light on this in Kant’s expositions on moral philosophy and his concept of a ‘categorical imperative’ or a rule of conduct that is unconditional and not dependent upon any desire or end (in Kant’s ‘Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals’, 1785).

The Right Thing to Do meets three conditions –

·         The reasons for doing it are unconnected to benefits for the do-er (and the doing company) or the decision maker – if anything, the course of action creates greater responsibilities, burdens, and tribulations for them.

·         It benefits people who do not have the ability to influence the do-er.

·         The world would be a better place if more (all?) people/companies took this path or adopted this method.

The Case for Retreat as DRR

 

THE CASE FOR RETREAT AS A FORM OF DISASTER RISK REDUCTION

Ajit Chaudhuri – 9^th October 2019

“Retreat, Hell! We just got here!”[1]

The term ‘retreat’ originates from military strategy and has negative connotations (as can be discerned from the quote above) – it is usually a prelude to defeat and a likely subsequent massacre. However, when undertaken in a strategic or planned manner, retreat can be used to serve positive objectives as well. Records suggest that retreat was first used as an offensive strategy by the Mongol armies of the 13^th century (who were masters at feigning disarray and inviting cavalry charges that drew enemies into locations of their, i.e. the Mongols’, choice), and most famously by the Tsarist army during the Napoleonic invasion of Russia in 1812 (letting the French reach the outskirts of Moscow before pouncing – of the 500,000 strong invading force that crossed into Russia in June, only 27,000 crossed back in December).

Thinking on disaster risk reduction (DRR), too, has a negative lens on retreat (or the resettlement of communities to pre-identified locations); it is seen as a last resort, as a one-time emergency action, and/or as a failure to adapt – often undertaken in an abrupt, ad hoc and inequitable manner that involves some level of human rights abuse and is unfair to renters and low-income house owners. DRR prefers to focus upon building resilience of vulnerable communities where they already are, so that they have the ability to withstand the hazards that come their way.

And yet, retreat has always been an adaptation option – there is little point in building resilience of communities in areas that are prone to avalanches or landslides, for example, because no amount of resilience is sufficient protection in the face of certain hazards. And people in hazard prone areas usually look to move themselves and their assets out of harm’s way, more so nowadays with global warming, rising sea levels, and climate related extremes. Those with fewer resources have fewer options to address such risks; they are unable to return, or to rebuild more resiliently; some may feel forced into retreating; conversely, some may be unable to afford to move, and feel therefore trapped in a hazardous location. People staying in contexts of informal settings or insecure land tenures can be particularly affected.

Due to some of these reasons, retreat is often undertaken after an unfortunate event, and usually in some distress. The author happened to pass Malpa in 2014 (a Himalayan village along the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra that lost 221 people and its entire housing stock in a landslide in 1998), an eerie ghost village whose surviving residents had resettled in safer locations. While hindsight is always 20/20, the case for retreat was blindingly obvious given the steep, almost vertical, slopes of rock above the location, the proximity of the rock mass to major (and unstable) tectonic plates, and the heavy rainfall that ensured water seepage into the porous rock.

 

Retreat as a form of adaptation has attracted little research, and there is therefore limited guidance for administrators and DRR practitioners on using it for more than the physical removal of people and infrastructure. There is also limited focus on the social, cultural, psychological and long-term economic consequences for those retreating, those remaining, and those receiving the retreating communities.

It is therefore refreshing to find a recent academic paper[2] that reconceptualizes retreat as a positive DRR option enabling achievement of societal goals and letting communities choose actions most likely to help them thrive. It recognizes that retreat is hard to do (and even harder to do well) due to issues such as place attachment, a preference for status quo, imperfect risk perceptions, inter alia, and suggests that a strategic, managed retreat could be an efficient and equitable adaptation option.

On the strategic front, the paper suggests that a retreat should not be a goal but a means of contributing to a societal goal (such as economic development, environmental conservation, etc.), and should be larger than a group of individual households relocating for their own benefit in that it is coordinated across jurisdictions, involves multiple stakeholders, addresses multiple hazards and risks at both origin and destination sites, and integrates into planning for economic, social and environmental goals. It should also be forward looking and responsive to economic opportunities, market forces and demographic changes. Policy makers need to identify why a retreat should occur and influence the ‘when’ and ‘where’ of it.

Management of a retreat addresses how it is executed. To enable it to be equitable and efficient, there is a need to a) understand and address barriers – especially those in the form of institutional silos within government agencies and financial constraints, b) develop tools to identify residents who want to retreat and require assistance, and c) have communication strategies that engage reluctant residents.

There are several issues that complicate retreat and incentivize living in risky locales – fishing communities on India’s eastern coast, for example, are constantly battered by cyclones, but any attempt to move them to safer locales inland has to counter the suspicion that the administration is acting at the behest of the tourism and prawn cultivation lobbies that are always looking to occupy sea front areas. There is therefore a need to develop and disseminate high quality hazard maps that enable market prices to capture risk and help communities make informed choices.

There is much to be done before retreat is repositioned as a positive DRR option, despite the limitations of ‘build back better’ and other strategies that look to win against nature[3]. Evaluation of retreat outcomes, and recommendations for suitable and context specific policies and practices, are scarce. Key research gaps need to be addressed, and deployments in practice require testing and refinement. But first steps have been taken, and there is growing recognition that sometimes retreating from nature instead of fighting it can open new opportunities for communities.

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[1] Exclaimed by a US Marine during World War I when advised to withdraw from his position.

[2] Siders AR, Hino M and Mach KJ; ‘The Case of Strategic and Managed Climate Retreat’; Science Vol. 365 Issue 6455 pp 761-763; 23 August 2019

[3] Pierre-Louis, K; “How to Rebound After a Disaster: Move, Don’t Rebuild, Research Suggests”; NYT issue of 22 August 2019; accessed on 23 August 2019.

On Sabbaticals!

 

ON SABBATICALS

A 2-Pager by Ajit Chaudhuri – November 2021

 

I recently concluded a 3-month break from work, my third of this century!

The first was in October to December 2001, when I absconded to the UK (and, for short stints, to Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Norway) on a British government scholarship to study leadership at the LSE. It was a great time to travel – nobody else was doing so in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, and most airlines had a ‘get bums on seats at any cost’ policy that enabled great deals for the remotely intrepid. I took my family on a cruise (Newcastle to Amsterdam and back on ‘The Prince of Scandinavia’), I walked through the glens outside Edinburgh, I even took a journey across the Arctic Circle to Troms, all on my scholarship money. In fact, I remember only one weekend spent in London, the highlight of which was a visit to Loftus Road to watch a third division game between Queens Park Rangers and Oldham – football tickets were way more expensive than travel in those days, with GBP 30 getting you from London to Lisbon and back on British Airways but not a seat at an EPL game in London, not even those in the outer stratospheres of stadiums from where the players looked like ants.

The second was in November and December 2006 and January 2007, when I moved to Gujarat for a Visiting Fellow post at IRMA. The highlight of this was the kindling of a love affair with knowledge – it led onwards to several academic papers in different fields (power, participation, autonomy, aid effectiveness, democratic decentralization, et al) and an attempt at full-time doctoral education (I flunked out after three wonderful years alternating between the library and the football ground).

The third, August to October 2021, had no such structure or noble intent – I simply needed a break (pretending to work without having anything to really do takes its toll), I wanted to write a book (whose storyline has been churning inside my head for years), and I wanted to take my annual trek, an activity that, for me, makes life in a city livable (and I hadn’t done one since 2019, so this too was bursting inside me).

I also wanted time to think through my impending retirement.

So, a quick report!

I did two treks! The first was to Patalwan Lake in the Gurez Valley in Kashmir, 5 days from roadhead to roadhead, reaching an altitude of 4,000 meters! This was a beautiful, easy-paced trek through empty alpine meadows (and, I should mention, some less pleasant time spent clambering over rocks), culminating at a stunning and large high-altitude lake. Gurez has been described as the most beautiful part of Kashmir, but also not a good place to visit because of its proximity to the LOC and its convenience as a place for unwelcome foreign guests to cross over into India. My wife and elder child were among the 25-person group that did the trek, and we also enjoyed the excellent food (three hot meals a day, and wazwaan-style cooking when our camp cook was in the mood), the interactions with an army patrol that was in our vicinity through the trek, and the friendships we developed with our trek-mates and our trek leaders (both really cool recently-retired military personnel).

We returned to Srinagar and then decided on the spur of the moment to take an additional week to explore Ladakh (the wife and child had never been). For me, the highlight of this week was the Srinagar-Leh highway (I had travelled on this road many times in the late 1990s – some things had changed, and some had not) and the time spent in the Nubra Valley (my first time in the areas north of the Indus and along the beautiful Shyok and Nubra rivers). The lows were seeing the damage that a successful film can do (in this case, ‘3 Idiots’ to Pangong Tso lake) and the resemblance between Khardung La Pass and Lajpat Nagar market.

The second trek was to the Everest Base Camp in Nepal – it was long (12 days from Kathmandu to Kathmandu), high (reaching 5,600 meters at Mt. Kalapathar for those such as me who chose to make an extra effort for a wonderful view of Mt. Everest), and with long ups and downs, scary bridges, and some stretches of rocky terrain. But, beautiful scenery, few people (and, therefore, Indians welcome – thank you, pandemic), and mostly decent places to stay in with good food, electricity, and a selection of books to borrow. And, last but not least, this trek has serious show-off value upon return, especially in difficult forums such as one’s weekend football team. In case you are wondering, if an obese 58-year-old can do it, so can you (evidence is appended in the form of a photograph taken on 4^th October 2021)!

The second photograph was taken on top of the Taklang La pass on the Leh-Manali road (altitude 5,327 meters) in August 1995, and is included as evidence that wisdom does not, as is commonly believed, increase with age. Same dumbass, 26 years, some inches and many kilograms apart! Pathetic!!

I also managed to complete a first draft of my next novel, “A Walk Through the Wild Side”, which explores issues of ethnicity, identity and insurgency in the North East of India around the late 1990s – and expect sales to creep into double figures this time. Watch this space!!

What I did not do was think through retirement; what will I do, where will I go, should I slow down or continue to work somewhere, etc., at a time when my wife is working (the ‘kept man’ option is particularly attractive), my children are out of the house (though not yet off the payroll), and I like to think that I have almost enough money (nobody has quite enough). The default option, of disappearing into my wife’s cottage outside Dehradun and waking up every morning with nothing to do, no one to meet, and nowhere to go, is an attractive one (but is it too early for that?). Should I write for a living (as opposed to writing because I have something to say), and how would a true Bong manage the business end that is necessary for a modicum of success? Does somebody who is not ‘communications friendly’ (i.e., doesn’t speak much, is not on social media, likes being in the background, and is averse to networking) have something to offer in today’s, and tomorrow’s, post-truth world?

Matters have been somewhat expedited by my return to work, my welcome being akin to that of a refugee on the Polish-Belarussian border (not a great surprise – the corporate sector has a different attitude to 3-months-out compared with the media and development sectors that I had been part of earlier), and I have committed to GTFO by early 2022. Don’t feel too bad for me – I had done everything that I had joined up to do more than two years ago, and will not miss a job that I can do in my sleep, an ‘all-fart-no-shit’ department, and a retromingent hierarchy.

So, suggestions on retirement options are welcome!

Returning to sabbaticals – my experience with them has been excellent, and I strongly recommend these as a means of taking oneself away, recharging one’s batteries, and rethinking the fundamentals of one’s existence. They work well if there is a structure or else a set of pre-set goals for the time away, and a schedule for meeting these that keeps one genuinely busy. They don’t if they are mistaken for holidays (or, alternatively, if work keeps encroaching upon the time away), if they enable sleep in the daytime (or other activities that are not normally done during office hours), or if one ends up hanging around the house and getting in the way of its daily schedule. Getting one’s family on board is a good idea. And, like with children, spacing them out is advisable. Finally, a sabbatical should serve as a means to an end, one whose value in bringing about change in the quality and direction of one’s life is discernible only in hindsight, and not as an end in itself.

During my recent sabbatical, and as an antidote to that feeling of sloth that develops whenever things can be postponed to another day, I had the appended words greeting me at the dawn of every new day. And that’s another thing that hasn’t changed with time (along with my great wisdom, as described in the photographs above, and my love for football), they reminded me back in my college days to focus on the road ahead, and they continue to do so today.

‘The woods are lovely, dark and deep; but I have promises to keep; and miles to go before I sleep; and miles to go before I sleep.’ Robert Frost

 

It's Coming Home

 It’s Coming Home!

Ajit Chaudhuri – Reflections from Euro 2020 – July 2021

 

I always thought there are some things that, by definition, one can’t have too much of – things like sex, money and football. I’m not so sure now, in the aftermath of three weeks of the Copa Americana and the Euros being played simultaneously, climaxing into ‘the most important weekend of football’, Argentina v Brazil (can Messi win a trophy for country?) and England v Italy (is it coming home or going to Rome?). The harsh light of the following Monday morning brought questions – were the sleepless nights in front of the TV (followed by the sleepy days pretending to work) worth it? What did I learn? Am I a role model to my family, colleagues and friends, especially the young and impressionable among them, or a horrible warning? And, last but not least, am I willing to do this again in 2022?

What follows is a list of my observations from the Euros in no particular order.

 

1.    A near-death experience works out well

Let me begin with something that happened early in the tournament, Danish playmaker Eriksen’s on-field heart attack. Much touchy-feely stuff was subsequently said along the lines of some things being more important than football, the sensitivity of his teammates in providing a protective shield around him while he was being treated and the team captain in comforting his spouse, and the sense of shock among players, spectators and audiences as this played out on live TV.

My own take is – one, that nobody gave a crap three days later, and that the old adage ‘football is not a matter of life and death, it’s much more important than that’ continues to be valid. Two, this worked out well for Denmark – an ordinary team went on to its second-best ever performance in a major tournament (it has to be said that the luck of the draw played some part, including the Czechs beating the strong but testicle-less Dutch, their expected quarter-final opponent, the round before), reaching the semi-finals and going down courtesy a contentious extra-time penalty. Eriksen’s direct replacement, a kid called Darmsgaard, ended up as the find of the tournament, and other unknowns (such as Dolberg and Maehle) stood up to be counted. And three, nothing would get a player in a John Terry-led team off his deathbed faster than a whisper that the captain was comforting his spouse.

2.    Tactical trends on display

The most visible was the return of the pure goalscoring centre-forward (or the No. 9), or at least the need for one. It has become fashionable to play without one (Spain’s last tournament win, the Euro 2012, began the trend towards a ‘false 9’), and several top clubs such as the current English champions use this tactic. In this edition of the Euros, many top teams suffered from not having one (Spain most of all, but also Germany, Croatia, Netherlands and Portugal), and the likes of Schik, Lukaku and Benzema (back in Le Blue after 5 years) showed them what they were missing.

The second was on the use of substitutes – 5 are allowed in a game (up from 3), a consequence of the pandemic. Coaches have yet to adjust, most obviously in the final when England introducing two young and lightning quick players in the 119^th minute merely for the purpose of taking penalties (both missed) instead of giving them time to run at an aged (and tiring) Italian defence.

The third was the double defensive shield, or having two midfielders primarily tasked with protecting the defence in a tactic that Germany used effectively while winning the 2014 World Cup (WC – remember Khedira/Schweinsteiger!). Rice/ Phillips and Jorginho/Locatelli were outstanding for England and Italy respectively, as were Xhaka/Freuler for Switzerland in its win over France, and Schlager/Laimer for Austria when they gave the subsequent champions one hell of a scare.

The fourth, of wing backs bombing forward in a manner reminiscent of Roberto Carlos and Cafu and thereby bringing sudden and dangerous width into offensive transformation play, was made possible by the third. Walker/Shaw for England, Dumfries/Van Aanholt for the Netherlands, and Spinazzola/Berardi for Italy were particularly outstanding in this aspect of play.

3.    Diving, cheating, badgering, harassing

It is worrying when there is a significant disconnect between football as played at its lowest levels (such as my weekend kickaround with fellow middle-aged fatsos) and at its highest. One has been caused by the technological innovations of the past 5 years such as VAR – but given the stakes and the way refereeing mistakes often benefit bigger clubs, football fans are OK with the emphasis on correct decisions. Another is the on-field behaviour of the players – some teams play as if there is a sniper in the audience, diving to the ground like dying ducks in their efforts to fool the referee, and then gathering around to badger and harass him. This is cheating!!

We who play football do not play it like this – we love that it is a contact sport, and we use the game also as a way to build strength and character and not to teach how to be an asshole and a fraud. Italy, Spain and Portugal were especially unwatchable for this aspect of their game (the sight of Ronaldo being touched on the side and going down clutching his head was particularly off-putting), and other teams also used this shit to their benefit (Sterling’s dive for England against Denmark, for example). FIFA, please crack down! While we understand the need to protect flair players, and to ensure that what used to happen to Maradona day-in and day-out does not happen today, this nonsense has got completely out of hand.

4.    Players who made an impression

It is difficult to follow football and not know Donnarumma, but this was the first time many actually saw him play – his club AC Milan has not played in Europe for years, and Italy did not qualify for the 2018 WC. And he was even better than his reputation – big, technically correct, and confident both in the air and at stopping shots. What a goalie! For once, I concur with the pundit’s choice of ‘player of the tournament’.

There were two lost-wonderkids who re-enforced their potential at the Euros – Schick and Renato Sanchez (a rare Portuguese who tries to stay on his feet).

The geriatrics did not shame their generation on the performance front – Pandev, the Italian central defence with Bonucci even scoring in the final (and Italy winning its quarterfinal against Belgium in the battle between grandparental defenders), and Ronaldo winning the tournament’s ‘golden boot’. The same could not be said about their behaviour, with Pepe’s being particularly egregious. Mohamed Ali famously said that ‘if you are the same person at 50 that you were at 20, you have wasted 30 years of your life’. Sadly, some players have not changed with age.

The debutants had players who will surely move to bigger clubs – Arajuuri and O’Shaughnessy for Finland and Bardhi and Elmas for North Macedonia.

And one now realizes why some small clubs are able to punch above their weight in their respective leagues – because they have fantastic players, who also shined for their countries at these Euros. Atalanta’s Freuler, Goosens, Maehle and Pessina; West Ham’s Coufal, Rice and Soucek, Leeds’ Aliosky, Klich and Phillips, et al.

5.    The biggest disappointments

Easily Turkey and Russia, but also good to see these wannabe dictatorships’ hot air balloons pricked in full public glare – most especially in Turkey’s 0-2 loss to Wales in Baku with its strongman primping in the audience. Pre-tournament favourites France and Portugal as well for going out so early – France catching Switzerland on a day in which every Swiss player had the game of his life (Arsenal fans were pinching themselves to recognize their on-again-off-again captain, and Shaquiri reminded fans why he was once a highly regarded offensive pivot), and Portugal mistaking theatre for football in a game against Belgium’s golden generation.

6.    What’s with the hairstyles?

Ten years ago, football was aptly described as ‘22 fellows in perms running after a ball, and Spain always wins!’ Today, younger players seem to prefer tattoo parlours over salons – the only one who’s mane would have required skills of a level beyond those of a barber under a tree was M’babu (no, he’s not the outcome of a liaison between Kylian M’bappe and an Indian bureaucrat).  And most older ones who sported long tresses in their younger days have transitioned from looking like they would give pleasure in a men’s jail to looking like they would take it (such as Kjaer and the absent Ramos). It was left to Hamsik, still sporting the mohawk that he wore while captaining Slovakia at the 2010 WC, to carry the card for hairdressers.

The players looked alright despite this. A consequence of the economic downturn was less advertisements in the run up to kick-offs, and audiences thereby got to see the teams lining up (we were also treated to Wembley’s booing of the German, Danish and Italian anthems in turn, followed by a sharp downswing in the betting odds for England hosting the 2030 WC). The Danes looked the nicest, the Turks (with the exception of Mr. Perfect Jawline Soyuncu) the most thuggish, but nothing quite matched the 1990 WC where the Italian line-up outdid any male catwalk (Giannini, Maldini, Zenga) and the Dutch (Koeman, Rijkaard, Wouters) looked like Uderzo’s inspiration for Asterix’s pirates preparing to board a ship.

 

Goodbye 19-20, Hello 20-21

 

GOODBYE 19-20, HELLO 20-21!!

‘And the seasons, they go round and round; and the painted ponies go up and down; captive in a carousel of time; can’t return, we can only look behind from where we came; and go round and round and round in a circle game!’ – Joni Mitchell, “Circle Game”

 

When does the year begin? Is it 1^st January, as per the calendar? Or 1^st April, as office budgets, performance appraisals and, last but not least, income tax wallahs decree? Or is it a function of one’s religion or community (as those of us who scour for those that fall on Fridays or Mondays for inclusion into the official holiday list can attest to – I remember celebrating Tibetan New Year once under this pretext)?

As a football lover, I have a clear answer! It is mid-August, when the English Premier League (EPL) begins – when the sun finally rises after a long and lonely off-season of weekend socializing, when we can bunker down in front of our TVs on Sat/Sun evenings, and when our internet chat-rooms and WhatsApp groups burst into life.

It’s later this year for pandemic-related reasons, and we also have to get used to empty stadiums, no pre-game handshakes, subdued goal celebrations and other assorted crap, but hey – it’s back!! What do we have to look forward to this season?

Here’s my list!!

1.    Watching a Bielsa team play, week in and week out!

While many claim to eat, sleep, breathe and dream football, there is one person to whom this actually applies – the coach Marcelo Bielsa. He was not a significant player, has never managed a big club, and has never won anything significant, but his coaching philosophy is as influential as that of the legendary Johann Cruyff. “El Loco” or “The Madman”, as he is called (for good reason), prefers to work with small teams and unknown players, mold them to his ways, and then make something of the team and the players before moving on. He began working with Leeds United (a large but traumatized club mired in mid-table mediocrity in England’s second division) in 2018 and led them to promotion into the EPL this year. Three games in, and watching Leeds is like watching basketball; end to end action, calamitous defending, goals galore; its match against Man City was the first time I have seen a Pep Guardiola team concede possession to an opponent. I can’t wait for more!

2.    Seeing the ‘superstar freshers’ settle!

Three big guns have arrived; James Rodrigues, Thiago Alcantara, Gareth Bale.

James, the Golden Boot winner of the 2014 World Cup who Everton bought from Real Madrid, is already setting the league alight with his silky left foot. His new teammates are responding by lifting their own standards, making for an Everton team that looks like it will do serious damage to the ‘Big Six’ this year. As an aside, Everton has other assets as well – a coach with serious pedigree, two other new signings (Allan and Doucoure) who provide the steel in midfield to complement James’ creativity, a young centre forward who is looking to make his name, et al.

Thiago is the son of WC winner Mazinho (of the baby goal celebration with Bebeto and Romario in USA 1994) and a key member of an all-conquering Bayern Munich team (his purchase by Bayern was a condition for Guardiola to move there himself). He comes to Liverpool, itself an all-conquering team, and the little that he has played thus far showcases what Liverpool have missed – a midfield creative genius. His no-look assist for Sadio Mane’s goal against Everton (ruled out by VAR for a hairline offside) is a harbinger of things to come. Can Liverpool get even better this time?

It is difficult to term Bale a fresher – he spent 6 years with Spurs before moving to Real Madrid and winning everything there is to win at club level (including 4 Champions Trophy winner medals and 2 La Liga titles) – and his presence in the EPL is more a ghar wapisi. Despite all the achievement, he has much to prove!

3.    Wondering whether the ‘old boy’ coaches will last the distance!

In the recent past, three big clubs have torn up their strategies and called up fan-favourite ex-players to coach; Ole Solskjaer (Manchester United), Frank Lampard (Chelsea) and Mikael Arteta (Arsenal). History is mixed on this – some ‘old boys’ have flourished (Zidane, Guardiola) and some have been misdirected short-term fixes to long-term problems (Daglish’s second spell as Liverpool’s manager). This season will be a time of reckoning for Ole, Frank and Mikael, when social capital will not be sufficient cover for lack of performance. Ole is already odds-on favourite in the ‘sack race’ (the betting on which manager gets sacked first), and Frank is getting there (Chelsea’s recent purchase spree may prove a mixed blessing for him on this).

4.    Correlating big coaches and boredom!

This is the first time that Pep Guardiola will spend a 5^th season at a club – does he have it in him to rebuild a team (as he will need to do with Manchester City) and also go for the elusive Champion’s Trophy? Jurgen Klopp has had three extraordinary seasons at Liverpool (he begins his sixth season here) – can he coax one more out of the crop of players at his disposal, or will he discover that winning the EPL is one thing and retaining it is quite another? Will Jose Mourinho rediscover his mojo at Tottenham Hotspurs, or is he ‘yesterday’s one’? Will the big-name coaches perform?

5.    Continuing the ‘The man is the club’ syndrome!

Some players embody their club! Well known examples include Messi – Barcelona and Totti – Roma! I can think of three such in the EPL this season, Jamie Vardy (Leicester City); Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace) and Jack Grealish (Aston Villa). All neutrals love Leicester City for what they did in 2015-16 (win the EPL at 5,000 to 1 odds) and Vardy, a critical component of that fairy tale, continues to bang them in (he won the Golden Boot in 2019-20 for the most goals scored). Zaha continues to terrorize defences, particularly those of big teams, and contribute to the Eagles’ unpredictably – when they play well, they don’t just win – they blow you away. And Grealish, an Englishman with the ball-playing abilities of a Spaniard, was the main reason for the Villans escaping relegation last season. How will they fare this time?

My predictions for the year are in the appended table!

 

Predictions – EPL 2020-2021
Champions League Qualification	Europa League Qualification	Relegation
What I Would Like to Happen
1.     Leeds United 2.     Everton 3.     Leicester City 4.     Liverpool	5.     Wolverhampton Wanderers 6.     Brighton and Hove Albion	18. ?? 19. Chelsea 20. Manchester United
What I Think Will Actually Happen
1.     Liverpool 2.     Manchester City 3.     Chelsea 4.     Tottenham Hotspurs	5.     Everton 6.     Leeds United	18. West Bromwich Albion 19. Fulham 20. Sheffield United
5 Best Signings: Timo Werner (Chelsea), Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (Tottenham Hotspurs), Ferran Torres (Manchester City), Cengiz Under (Leicester City), Alphonse Areola (Fulham)
3 Bad Signings: Edinson Cavani (Manchester United), Thiago Silva (Chelsea), Willan (Arsenal)
3 Players Who Will Achieve Their Potential: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton), Kalvin Philips (Leeds United), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
3 Unknowns Who Will Become Known: Tariq Lamptey (Brighton and Hove Albion), Timothy Castagne (Leicester City), Patrick Bamford (Leeds United)