Inching
Originally published June 2006
As the end of my stay at IIT Bombay draws closer, something that a friend once said rings truer than ever before — no matter how much you work en avance, the only way to meet a deadline is to put in a concerted burst at the last minute. Of course, this late into the project, I have had the good fortune of having to go do some work at TIFR, and the place is incredible. Definitely more industrious than IIT Bombay in the little that I saw of it. And the food is like heaven for a few rupees. I have not even seen the fabled TIFR seaface! Of course, in the middle of all this I find myself in the unique and perilous position of really liking something that I know I do not want to do.
Meanwhile, my hostel now has a 54 inch television. In a boys’ hostel, that is the best thing that could happen on the eve of the FIFA World Cup. I haven’t been able to watch too many of the matches. Significantly, I missed both the Argentina performances. At the beginning of this World Cup, I was very certain that I really had no favorites, but now Argentina looks like they are going to go a long way. My team in the tournament is of course Germany, whose games I have diligently decided to follow. I’ll now add Argentina to that list, and take Brazil off. Of course it wasn’t always like this. When I heard that Germany, just about pulled together a draw in the warm up game against Japan; I was disappointed, because I expected them to be clinical in the least. But the first game made a lot of things clear. The Germans have left their mechanical, precision gameplay on the bench and decided to run around and flail a bit. This is a very dangerous thing for the opposition, because in addition to their obvious advantage from set-pieces; the Germans are now constantly going at the goal. Their finishing was a little questionable against Poland, but the Polish tactics were despicable in the face of an obviously superior opponent. The German back line, like almost every other team, has been a little shaky — but they seem to have picked that up a bit. So long as they can put together a decent show in the defence, and not give Lehmann too many opportunities to make the blunders he is making ever so often now, I am certain Germany are going to be an entertaining team to watch.
Shall go and try to wrap up my project now!