Ginga

By heart I am a Sportsman. Hence anything good, related to Sports, attracts me.

My friend, Amit Thakkar, saw the movie 'Pele' and gave excellent reviews. He said, it's a must to show the movie to our kids.

Accordingly, I planned and finally succeeded in convincing the whole family into watching 'Pele'

Due to traffic jam, we entered the theatre 15min late. But, got connected to it immediately, which was wonderful.

After watching the movie, the one thing which kept on lingering in my mind was "Ginga". 

What's "Ginga"?

It's the name given to describe the type of football which the Brazilians play.

What does it mean?

From whatever I understood, there is a story behind it. Portuguese, who ruled Brazil, in the 16th Century, brought bonded labour from Africa to Brazil. These labourers were tortured a lot. Hence, for their self defence, they developed a martial art, which they named as "Ginga". When the Portugals came to know about it, they banned it. 

The Portugals brought the game football into Brazil. These labourers discovered that they could practice "Ginga" while playing football and hence they started playing this game in their own unique style.

Over the years, generations together, played this game in the same style. It now became a part of themselves. 

This style of play was criticised a lot by the Europeans, but Pele showed the world how to win the World Cup by this style.

After watching this, something inside me was searching for an answer. I was almost on the brink of discovering it but was not able to fathom. And finally, everything became crystal clear. It was almost as if, I knew it all the time!

My ancestors too had followed a particular way of life. Until my father shifted to a different place, a different profession altogether, for generations, we had been doing the same thing, following the same lifestyle.

In me too, there might be traces of that thought pattern, of those habits, of those lifestyle. What is that "Ginga" inside me?

I realised, a lot of me has that "Ginga"!

Whether it's my food habits, or my effortless management skills which a farmer has, or my sense of humour, which I have often experienced in my native village where they have this tendency to crack jokes inspite of some hard conditions around.

There was also a realisation, that only when I am at my "Ginga", I remain confident, I remain happy, I remain peaceful. If I shift from my "Ginga", I get insecure and I don't perform.

So I infer. 

Let me know my "Ginga".

Let me live with it not caring about successes or failures. 

This will make me happy & peaceful. 

Nothing else can!

So, "What's your "Ginga"?