CIAO CIAO!!

Well a couple of goodbyes to hand out this week.

Manchester United fans the world over were saying goodbye after the retirement of one of their greatest ever managers in Sir Alex Ferguson. 27 years of managing one of the biggest football teams in the world and chewing his way through 2700 kg of chewing gum in the process. It has been a remarkably successful career. Even without the chewing gum. To be honest, the man never gave me much joy as an Arsenal fan. The only joy I have ever had at his expense was a recreation of the 2004 Battle of the Buffet in my head. The image of a pizza slice thrown by Cesc Fabregas hitting him square in the face and sliding on to his suit puts me into guffaws even today.

Time and again he thwarted Arsenal, sometimes even beating us with bizarre tactics like playing 8 defenders in the starting 11. And in his final year, he lured away our captain and top scorer in a cheeky piece of business which left all of us Arsenal fans infuriated. He made me envious of his team’s success and his haranguing of referees and officials made me absolutely loathe him. No, this man brought me no joy whatsoever. But then, that wasn't his job. It was his job as a rival manager to make me go green with envy at his own success. And that he managed to do very well. He earned my respect and my grudging admiration as a winner and I am really relieved to see the back of him, in the hope that it will make life a little easier for my own team.

So goodbye Sir Alex. You have earned your rest. I will miss watching United play and commenting, ‘Oh of course he bought Howard Webb!’ Your drive to win and your red faced fury at losing will be missed. And I wish you a healthy and a far more peaceful retired life.

There was another sendoff on a smaller scale which I wanted to give this time. To my sanity.

Now just as a backdrop, there have been several corruption scandals in our country over the past few years. The line of scandals which are exposed nearly every couple of days would probably far outstrip the line of people waiting for a ticket to an India- Pakistan cricket match at the Eden Gardens (if there ever would be a line for that). Nearly every part of the government has come under fire for being riddled with corruption scandals. The PM has been chastised as a weak individual with not enough personality or conviction to stamp his authority and clean image on his ministry. Hamstrung by corrupt ministers who would rather pay obeisance to the higher Italian deity than do any good for our nation, he has, quite generously in my opinion, been described as an underachiever.

And so in the backdrop of all that, it has been quite amusing to watch the Congress parading its victory in Karnataka as a victory against corruption. Several of its leaders came out and criticized the previous state government for its corrupt image and claimed that their huge majority was a victory for their clean image. Considering the shenanigans conducted by their own party people in the Central government, they would be well advised to look up irony in the dictionary and then take a nice big slice of humble pie. Thrice a day. And serve some of it to Mr. Yeddyurappa who is apparently pretty miffed at having missed out on his birthday celebrations.

Victory against corruption? Goodbye sanity. It was nice knowing you while you lasted.

Until later!