Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Bottom of the ranking, but top of the world; story of Bhutan's Maiden world cup qualification 2018

Football is God’s Gift to the humanity.
History books are filled with sporting events which brought about peace, excitement and above all, unity amongst the people. Mandela unified South Africa through rugby. Rainbow nation’s rugby win against New Zealand in 1995, led then by a white Afrikaner became a huge symbol of racial reconciliation not just in SA but globally. Nigerians stopped civil war for two days in 1967 to watch Pele, king of soccer play. And our own Kings Cup final in 2013, when Yedzin played MMC Nepal, everyone flocked at Changlimithang to watch our boys play. After an intense national election, there was a need for national healing and football proved to be one.







Our football has come all the way from getting thrashed by Kuwait in 2000 for 20-0 to a rare win against Afganistan, 3-1, in SAFF games 2008, to a clean win of 3-1 on aggregate against Sri Lanka, Fifa World Cup qualification, round one for Asia’s bottom ranked teams. We were tagged as the world’s worst team according to Fifa Coca Cola ranking and were pitted against Sri Lanka, the second best team amongst the lowest ranking Asian teams. There was literally no hope to get even a draw against the team that defeated us on our last five matches against them. Let alone the Sri Lankan former captain who labelled their match with us as not even good enough to acquire experience, even we, the football fans at home, did not see any chance.
Team Bhutan thanking the crowd for the support.
History however was defied. And there was nothing sweeter than the victory. To everyone’s astonishment, our boys not only did double, but defeated Sri Lankans cleanly. We were all over the media, and top of the world. 17th December is our national day, but now 17th March, 2015, shall be as historic as our national day. We not only filled our stadium packed, people were sitting atop the wall, roof, fencing, and even on a mound of earth in a distant view. It was nothing lesser than our historic national day. The atmosphere was electric; there were waves (uncountable times), there were people cheering and eruption of joy. There can never be a justice if we describe the mood in words; it simply was AWESOME.
CG7 scoring the first goal.
The victory shall propel football enthusiast to a greater heights, thus, propelling country even to a greater height. Sports have always been more than just a game. In Spain after Cristiano Ronaldo was bought by Madrid, the potential prospect of having him play against Lionel Messi, not only improved their league, but also had Spain’s  tourist visit increased. Of course, our own Cristiano Ronaldo (CR7), Chencho Gyeltshen  (CG7) had us handed a huge inspirational win. Bhutan’s tactic was pretty much like Portugal’s; get the ball to no.7 and let him do the wonders.  And HE DID WONDERS. The victory was our federations too for developing these players from their early teenage. The team with average age of 22 looks promising to at least look forward for a good decade of football. With Kings Cup and artificial turfs, our national team’s awe-inspiring performance is a cheery on top.
From the bottom of the ranking, we are today on top of the world. Let the Dragon roar.



Monday, February 9, 2015

Best New Year Gift; Life changing experience with Baby

New Year brings new hope and wishes in tons. New year presents us with opportunities to celebrate, call for an occasion.   New Year brings messages wishing new life, Happiness, strength, wellbeing, successes, etc. And much to the delight of these sweet messages, we (me and my wife) has really been blessed with much joy. We were blessed with the little angel, a baby girl on 14th January. Her birth was like all the happiness and wishes summed up and wrapped up with a single gift. It was more than what we could ask for. I was told that Santa Claus is the most expensive and yet most selling F-A-C-E in the world, but I believed my daughter’s face as one.
There’s that mixed feeling waiting outside the birthing center; her deep moans making my knees weak, and yet in the midst of life’s suffering, piercing through the fragile heart, the shy grin braves up with the thought of holding a new baby.  My heart sank with sheer joy and stupidity as I heard my baby crying. T-R-U-S-T ME! One cannot really articulate and justify the emotion.
She was the cutest and most beautiful I saw. She was more than just a proof of our love. She was the little LIFE we had to embrace and grow with. And not the least, she’s also a GREAT teacher. Yeah, you read it right! T-E-A-C-H-E-R.  Somebody wrote that becoming father is easy, but being one is difficult. I would prostrate at that GURU’s feet agreeing so much his realization.
She teaches me to become a better son to my parents. Becoming father is easy, but being Father is very difficult. Waking up in the middle of night randomly and feeding the baby is very tiring and difficult for mother and then helping the mother to put the baby to sleep after that is another level of sheer diligence when your eye brows are dropping down tired. My wife said to me that sons would never understand how much pain mothers have to undergo simply to let the baby grow within during gestation period. I believed her then, but now I rather feel that so far I have never understood how much pain they have to bear and how much life they have to sacrifice to raise the child? It’s true, like we say in Dzongkha, Rang Zuu Phama Majur bar toh, phamai drinlen ngo me shay. My baby girl teaches me how much my parents mean to me and my siblings.
She teaches me Perseverance.  As if waking up randomly and helping her mother in changing diaper during the prolong nights, waking up early and washing dirty bagtang  before leaving for office is really something not so usual for me who used to wake up 15 minutes before office time.
She teaches me how to be Vigilant.  The beautiful life nestled in the tiny body calls for nothing but extra ounces of vigilance, activeness, randomness, etc.
She teaches me to Love and Care. Her birth gave me so many opportunities to tend to my wife who survived such a perilous labour and pain. And the baby's presence in my embrace makes me love her and care her.
She teaches me fatherhood. With all said and done, my little daughter shows me that today the child has become a father of man.