Manchester United - a way of life

Its an embarrassing day today to be a manchester united fan, beeing demolished 6-1 at old trafford is not something you see often. I write this blog post in frustration, not so much because of the loss today, but because of the usual reaction you see on facebook from fans of rival clubs who unite to slander and gloat.. I decided its high time I do some research on why this is the case, why a such a magnificent football club with such a great history gets so much hate from neutrals. My findings showed the reason is 2 fold, one the clubs recent rise to dominance led to turning a once exciting league to a boring one, although one might argue chelsea and mancity are providing the required excitement.The second reason is the fans themselves, when a club is winning almost everything in a smalls span of time, they seem to attract a lot of muppets, who inturn go ahead and spoil it for everyone involved with the club. Now the first reason cannot really be helped, it does happen that people like to support the under dog if you are a neutral and overtime it sticks. But the second reason, well it can be helped, i hope whichever united fan reads this can understand this and take my advice...

1)one thing every manchester united fan and for that matter everyone should understand is that "you win some, you lose some"

2)if you can't accept that, then you should rather skip the rest of this blog post.

3) Trash talking with your rival fans is supposed to be in jest and fun, lets not get carried away (I myself tend to get carried away), bottom line, its not personal

4) Be intelligent about what you speak or express towards the clubs players and managers, agreed they are paid ton of money, but they provide you entertainment week in week out and they work hard for it. Its not war, its professional football..so saying stuff like "sell him, or sack him" might not be the best projection of your loyalties as a supporter

5) Manchester United is a fantastic football club having one of the finest players in the game, always remember that, doesn't matter if you get drubbed a few times in a year..trust me, ive been following them for 9 years now, there have been very few such years..

6) People (including my mom) constantly ask me what drives me to waste my time on following the game, posting comments, reading articles etc..and my answer has always been simple, its firstly the sport that is my passion and secondly its the club i liked when I first started watching football, and it stuck and now its a way of life, the point i am trying to make is, whatever be the reason, if you hang on to that people might eventually get it.

7) Yes we have some rivals like leeds, liverpool and city.. and emotions can get the better of you..but refer to point 1) when that happens..

8) respect other clubs, I know this one is obvious, but sometimes we get lost in our fanatic trash talking, we tend to ignore the fact that there can be others who probably deserve it on the day or for the season

9) How to handle trashtalk from liverpool fans : just ask them to come back to you when they have won the league..

10) how to handle arenal fans : sympathize with them on how the future doesnt look all that promising

11) how to handle mancity fans : see point 9) on how to handle liverpool fans

12) how to handle chelsea fans : well this is tricky, remind them that terry drogba anelka and lampard can play on for more than a couple of more seasons and how their manager changes more than the seasons :P

13) how to handle anti-united fans : well this is the trickiest..you either rip on their respective clubs using any of the points 9-13), if they don't swear allegiance to any of the clubs, then don't waste your time, they are too scared to support a club in the first place.

that was that ..

- Gokul

United for life

India winter break 2010-2011

as i write this , i am preparing to leave , to head back to school , as my winter break comes to a end. A big spring semester awaits me , with 2 advanced graduate courses and teaching a undergraduate + grad course in ECE . This will be my final semester at Rutgers, may 2011 is when I'd graduate. Phew , this will be my last vacation as a student , 20 years of formal education , phew..! looking back , looks like a long road traveled. Doubt id want to study further, i think a Masters degree is good enough , atleast thats what I think as of now :)..

I just wanted to note down some good moments in this trip to India , notably the flight from Chicago to Delhi to Mumbai , was memorable. Then new years was quite sobered down and humble , then the Goa trip was a good one. Catching up with mom and being able to spend time with her was the highlight of the 30 day stay. I loved being able to wake up to mom yelling at me , asking me to wake up, go brush so I could eat breakfast. I loved not having to worry about laundry or cooking or cleaning my room ( i never did that back home as well :P), I loved the road side fast food , the chats , the pav bhaji's, the dabeli's, the dosas at home , the idlis , loved watching Indian television , loved complaining about the slow internet , loved the weather, absolutely loved the warm sunshine that greeted me when i woke up on my bed through the window above my bed :) !! , can't believe I will have to go back to snow !!!

now looking forward to the spring semester , the new year and the final chapter in my education history...lets see how that goes..

cheers