la vida loca

“Que mira, bobo?” (“What are you looking at, idiot?”) – Messi’s angry retort to a dutch player during the post match interview after 2022 world cup semi final. It was Messi’s “roudra” avatar in that match.

I had been spending a few minutes with Duolingo, trying to learn Spanish. I have seen the memes of Duolingo Spanish, but then for me keeping this streak is helping to building some familiarity with the language. Enough to now etch phrases like above to memory.

It is now third European language attempt for me. First was a brief encounter with German, during school. We were living in a house which was at the bottom of a hill, on the other side of which lived a recluse commonly known as “sayippu”. I believe he was a Malayali, vaguely remember someone saying he was with the army, may have been deployed in Germany, but then it could have been memory playing games. But somehow he knew German and somehow my father enrolled me in a summer class on German there. It was just three of us – a brother and sister, trapped in the same military class with me. I don’t remember the sayippu smiling or making any pleasantries. And I don’t remember much of what I learnt of German now other than saying “Ich bin ayyappa”. But what I remember is the circuitous route to this bungalow - couldn’t just climb the hill and cross a fence lined with pineapple shrubs. I remember the return walk after the class (more relaxed) as three musketeers, I remember we were very happy then.

Second was French. It was after the campus interview. We were told to learn French during the final semester, at Alliance Francaise, at the expense of the company. We didn’t know the reason exactly, assumed we were going to be shipped straight to Paris once we join, but after we joined everyone pretended nothing of this sort ever happened. We were taught by someone same age as us and one of my good friends at the time had a crush on her. She was destined for France and I believe atleast she did go. This time too, we had a lot of fun – we had a job already in hand, didn’t care much about the final semester, had some pranksters in the batch who made it even funnier. The highlight this time was the Table Tennis table right outside the porch of Alliance Francaise building – few of us waited for the class to be over, to play till they told us to leave, drenched in sweat. I remember a few more lines this time, including “je t’aime”.

Now the motivation for Spanish may have been Messi, few songs, how cool the language sounds, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and One Hundred Years of Solitude,  Che Guevera and The Motorcycle Diaries and preparation for someday I get to visit Latin America. It is the 4th most spoken language in the world. Five minutes a day isn’t much and Duolingo gives a lot of ways to cheat, to keep the streak going. But now when I listen to some songs, watch something like Money Heist, listen to the accent of Pep Guardiola – feels good that I can recognize some words or sentences. Someday I hope I can read One Hundred Years of Solitude in Spanish.

Painfully, this time around in the world cup, Messi said these just before they walked on to the pitch. “Olvidémonos de todo” (let’s forget about everything) is also etched in memory now.

"Vamos, muchachos. Tranquilos, tranquilos que es lo más importante. Quedémonos tranquilos. Pensemos en jugar nada más, en otra cosa no. Tranquilos, olvidémonos de todo. Olvidémonos de todo, juguemos nada más."

"Come on, guys. Calm down, calm down is the most important thing. Let's stay calm. Let's just think about playing, nothing else. Calm down, let's forget about everything. Let's forget about everything, let's just play."