Cup's up, feelin'down

KANAK HIRANI NAUTIYAL / TNN / Jul 3, 2006, 23:34 IST

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Football fans are slowly sinking into a depression as the World Cup nears its grand finale.

Football fans are slowly sinking into a depression as the World Cup nears its grand finale.
Gather up now because it's soon going to be over. After July 9, the family will have to find another place to bond than in front of the telly at 8.30 pm every evening.
No more talking about bending it like Beckham or Ballack's brilliance. With the FIFA World Cup drawing to a close, get ready for boring old routine.
Before you can even ask her to respond, mention that the World Cup's coming to an end and model Smitha Rao rues, "It's such a sad thing. It's not like I'm a huge football fan, but I just started to understand and enjoy the game!"

Enjoy football and how: Smitha confesses she was rooting for all the hunks — "I just loved to watch all those good looking guys and now I don't want to stop watching them in action," she laughs.
"I'm a football crackpot," says landscape artiste Jimmy Amrolia. "And after next Sunday, I'm going to feel that huge football void." It happens to everyone who's been hooked to the game this last month. "People have got used to that lifestyle and then suddenly, it's all gone," he says.

Already preparing himself for the post-football blues is model Acquin Pais. "The timings of the matches were such that we changed our evening schedules to watch all the games," says Acquin, who's starting to feel the emptiness with the matches now being spaced out over the week. "Since the monsoons have begun in Mumbai, you can't go out anyway.
We used to meet up at a friend's house and watch the matches on a plasma TV. Next week onwards we'll just have to sit at home and I'm not looking forward to it at all."
So how are these footie freaks planning to spend their evenings now? Smitha says she's going to miss the whole post-8 pm excitement for a long time, "till I figure out what to do next with my evenings."....
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Jimmy's going to head to the gym: "I'll just workout instead." And Acquin adds in jest, "I'm going to cry. It's going to be a sad and gloomy month ahead, until I get back to my old lifestyle."
Consultant psychiatrist Dr G Vikram Prabhu says it's worse for those who've used this past month to socialise and meet new people. "Single people have been watching matches together.
Football has also helped renew ties between family and friends because it serves as an excuse where you say, ‘come over to my place and watch the match'."
Prabhu says that in routine life, people don't have an excuse to get together. "Football has been a lubricant and the squeakiness in our lives has gone. There will be a void and people are wondering how to fill that."
He adds that some vulnerable people will have transient blues. But for them, here's a piece of advice from Prabhu: "You can always enjoy other things in life; now it's football, next look for something else to keep the excitement up.
After watching the finals tell your family and friend that we'll meet after a few days and keep the connection going. Don't wait for the next World Cup."

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