Enjoyed the Week & now Enjoying the Weekend…..Son’s Band ‘Pitch Black’ coming Runners Up..Daughter’s team winning at a Football Carnival ….& Sachin blazing for India at the World Cup Cricket

Coming on top of Son’s Band ‘Pitch Black’ coming a close runner up at a Rock band Competition this week now this weekend too has been great fun so far…he plays rhythm guitar and also writes the lyrics…From 20 bands,five were short listed for the Finals….In the Finals,’Pitch Black’  played two originals by him… ‘Nowhere to Hide’ and ‘Stars’ ….and the Cover of ‘Alive’ by Pearl Jam 

Yesterday,Saturday was fun…daughter (Indian team Black T Shirt and the White and Blue Tracksuit) entered a u 17 Girls Football Team for a 5-a-side Tournament at a Football Carnival in Mumbai and made me the Coach/Manager (That’s me in the Green T Shirt…the knee length shorts don’t really do justice to my shape !)….all, but one,  girls from her school football team… Kunashni Parikh,Anam Alwani,Serena,Maitreyi Bhatia,Sharanya Mahimtura,Anandita Parekh and Natasha Rajpal…and we won !…awarded a Trophy,Caps and Sippers from Nike and Cash Rs 1500 that the girls have decided to donate….The atmosphere was great….70 teams had registered in various categories and over 5000 people came during the day…Kudos to the organiser PIFA run by Anjali (Pink T Shirt) & Nirvan Shah (White T Shirt)…they are passionate about Football and run one of India’s Premier Football Training Academy out of Mumbai…their dream and vision is to see India playing the FIFA World Cup in 2022

….There were fun skill tests and games and lots of food counters….but the most interesting and innovative were the top quality sessions right through the day on Sports related issues…Injuries,Nutrition,Psychology,Event Management to name some…we attended a few in between our matches…the girls ,I daresay,more for the free pasta being served and the PIFA Caps being given out if one answered quiz questions !

….. and I was impressed by Amruta Kharkhanis the Sports Psychologist…she even gave a small pep talk to our Girls before the finals…I think that did the trick !…she told the girls not to be focussed or worry on  the outcome and not to remember what happened in previous matches…just go out and play football….earlier in her presentation she had asserted that while in Practice and Training it is 90% Physical and 10% Mental it is the reverse in Competition…Amruta was an ace swimmer and cyclist and has represented India and bettered Ace Swimmer Anita Sood’s records…she has been recognised with the Chatrapati Shivaji Award too…and is now associated with an NGO and is a trained Sports Psychologist…that’s her with the team above on the field

…..the awards were given away by the new CEO,Henry Menezes (the one with the tie), of Western India Football Association (WIFA) the Maharashtra Associate Body of AIFF…daughter was also later felicitated for being the only girl from Maharashtra to have been selected for the India Womens u 16 National team and also appointed it’s Vice Captain….Fun Day 

 And today it was supposed to be a lazy Sunday with me being glued to the India v/s England World Cup Cricket Match from afternoon……but close friends called to meet for a quick lunch at the club…quick lasted two hours !…seemed like food prices may go up after the budget tomorrow and so we were eating as much as we could today !…… and then another close friend termed my wife as a ‘Cricket Widow’ today as she would be losing me to the match !…as if to make amends he quickly said I had lost weight ! 

…and now Sachin has just hit  two consecutive sixes…four in all so far for him today… and is batting on 72 and Gautam Gambhir on 46 ….India is 159 for 1 in 27 overs…India having won the toss and chosen to bat

…so Cheers !  

Addendum: Sachin blazed to a century scoring 120…Yuvraj chipped in with a half century as India scored a formidable 338…England’s pick of bowler was Bresnan with a Fiver….