And the award goes to...

As the mega football festival comes to end and as people start looking for ways  to get back to their daily chores and say goodbye to  the football flu, Somesh Verma comes up with a list of awards for the twinkling (and the not so twinkling) stars of the World Cup

Yours truly – after having watched the quadrennial football festival with keen interest and playing his part in the local World Cup (pronounced ‘Old Cup in local dialect) where he scored a brilliant goal in the final (leading his team, Maitidevi International XI, to a deserving 0-1 defeat) – feels that the fever has to be followed by ceremony. So, let’s head towards the awards presentations, before anyone else does.

But before anyone would like to make any claim, for or against the awards, it should be made clear that no excuses, on the part of recipients, can be made for not receiving the trophies.

The ‘Golden Wig’ award:

The award goes to the lanky German, Miroslav Klose, (although his goalscoring flood came to a ‘klose’ in the final stages) for telling us mortals that we can have multiple use of our heads (and we were thinking the head is a compartment to keep our brains safe!).

What more, failures of his feet in the game made this jury think whether the whole game should be called ‘headball’. However, there are some who even think that Klose (pronounced close – ah) deserves a golden helmet (and there were some dumbheads who think he has been running for a petty golden boot. Why would he go for the boots when he hardly uses them?).

The jury has also been suggested that the silver wig (or even helmet) award should go to the whole German team, just for their super ‘head-away’ efforts.

The ‘Honestest person’ award:

The honesty (or honest-tea?) award goes to the football star from the neighbouring country, Bhaichung Bhutia. As if it was not bizarre to hear Bhutia’s comments on the likes of Ronaldo and Batistuta, he surprised all of us saying "to be honest" after every second sentence.

Sorry, Mr Bhutia, but why stressing on your honesty so much? The audience was already expecting you to be honest, were we not? Or was it to impress the Bury FC with your honesty (we heard that they’re still to be impressed with your football skills; the reason they kept you on the bench in most of the matches)?

The ‘Guff of the Cup’ award:

This special award goes to our very own, president of one of the two warring All Nepal Football Associations, the FIFA recognised Ganesh Thapa.

Well, Ganeshdai (as he is fondly called), we didn’t know that you were not allowed to play in the World Cup (as you said in the now famous ad – hamile ta payenau…).

Shame on us, the Nepali football fans. We had underestimated our yesteryears’ footballers. Not knowing that there was someone stopping them to play in the World Cup, all we thought that our footballers could not play good enough go beyond the qualification round.

So, Ganeshdai, whom do you blame for this? As per our information, ANFA feud hadn’t started then. So should we blame the FIFA? Now that you’re in the World Cup disciplinary committee, why not discipline them for not allowing us to play then?

The ‘God like presence in the field’ award:

For who else but Oliver Kahn (pronounced o–liver kaan). With the human ancestral look, the German ‘keeper showed enough firepower to punch all the shots (rather than holding them) that were targeted at him.

More than his efficiency at the nets, his clenched fists and puffing nose attracted a lot of compliments from the football watchers from this tiny nation. Some said Kahn is the best goalkeeper. Some said he doesn’t concede goals because opposition players are scared of his sight. But the best compliment this scribe heard for him, when a religious li’l lady blurted out, was, "My God, he reminds me of Hanuman!". Religious emotions are part of sports.

The ‘Good hosts and Bad hosts’ award:

The Good host award goes to Japan, for equalising the US record of hosts bowing out as early as in the second round. Kudos for their belief in the age old eastern tradition – atithi devo bhava – and letting their guests go ahead with all the glory (read: wins). And we thought why does the Pepsi ad featuring Roberto Carlos makes the Japanese bow? Tradition, they don’t want to make their guests unhappy.

Going by the philosophy, the Bad host award should go to South Korea. For they not only advanced ahead of so many guests, they were the culprits of beating so many ‘stronger and more skilled’ European teams. Big Crime, eh (and we are not talking of the 104 fouls they committed, the maximum by any team in the tournament, en route to the semi-finals)? Thank God the German made them remember the Asian tradition (with enough tackles in the field though).

The ‘Bichara sponsor’ award:

The one and only recipient (and there was no one else in the competition) of this award is Mayos, the Nepal made noodle. For what had appeared to them as a wonderful chance for brand promotion, in the World Cup, was a big mess after most of the football followers tuned in to TEN Sports channel (watching Roberto Carlos and David Beckham cheering for Pepsi rather than Ganesh Thapa for Mayos).

A note for the winner of this award: Please make it a point to share this award with the Nepal Television authority. Without their superb contribution, you would not be able to land up with this award. Did we hear NTV and Mayos management singing, ‘Jhukyaune Kurai Chhaina’?

The ‘Why see green when you can see red’ award:

Again without any confusion on the part of jury members (which was just one) this award was unanimously decided. Since there was no other candidate other than Claudio Cannigia, he gets the award. Cannigia, the star of Argentinian performance in the Italia ’90, sculpted one of the finest ever show from the bench for any team in the World Cup, being red carded without entering the pitch (do we call that benchmark?).

He was the only one who could make those Argentina fans embarrassed, especially those who were not embarrassed with the lacklustre performance of the team which had stars all over, right, left and middle.

And the "Oscar for the best acting" goes to:

Who else, but the Barca (and shortly, Hollywood) star Rivaldo Vitor Borba Ferreria Victor. Some have even started calling him ‘fake it and still make it’ star. Whatever one may call him, his on field antics have had a terrific response from viewers all across the globe.

According to unconfirmed (and imaginary) sources, Rajesh Hamal (and also Govinda) is hooked on to the Television set (with his mobile turned off) watching Brazil’s matches to improve his skills in front of camera. Too bad, the American cine stars do not understand much of football and hence they won’t be able to enhance their acting skills.

There are some industrialists who have promised (on condition of anonymity!) that they would be happy to invest in an acting school if it is named "Rivaldo School of Drama". And the only condition they have put up is: Rivaldo has to take one class a week. Wot say, Professor Rivaldo?

Her Search for Prehistoric Man

Her lifelong search for prehistoric man culminates in Nepal. Dr. Gudrun Corvinus is set to come up with her discovery of   prehistoric man in remote Dang.

By Sudha Shrestha

She travelled from the African continent to that of Asia in the search of prehistoric man, and  
spent over 30 years in rugged fields to study rocks and fossils. In Nepal, her life long search has culminated in the discovery of prehistoric man in the foothills of the Siwalik mountains in Dang. She has reached the height of her career after forty years of her research as a geologist, palaeontologist and prehistorian.

When her forthcoming book on ‘The prehistory of Nepal’ will appear, Dr. Gudrun Corvinus’s work would be recognised as the pioneering scholar in the field , who took up the venture single-handedly and mostly in islolation.

In the jungly wilderness of the mountainous Dang, she found the fossilized traces of the prehistoric men from the early stone age to the neolithic age ( the young stone age) in over 90 prehistoric localities.

By studying the rock strata, she dated the different periods of the prehistoric findings .

According to her, during the earlier stone age (some twohundred thousand to ten thousand years ago), men roamed around the jungles as hunters and gatherers with their stone tools.

She discovered handaxes and sharp-edged stone tools , which she thinks must have been used for cutting meat, bones, wood, bamboo etc.

It was only during the neolithic period, a few thousand years ago, that prehistoric man became more civilised and settled down and domisticated the animals.

She believes they migrated originally during the stone age from India and Southeast Asia to Nepal.

She discovered many fossils within the sediments itself. In the connection of her search, she found a well-preserved whole skull of an extinct species of an elephant which is now in the Natural History Museum at Kathmandu.The skulls of such animals as Hippopotamus and pig, and the remains of crocodiles, turtles and rhinoceros, buffalo, an telope and teeth of an extinct ancestor of Giraffe were also found. They are now housed at the above museum for the public to see, and at the Geology Department at the University.

The fossil remains show that they existed in great numbers in the periods between 13 and 1 million years in Nepal.

She also found many plant fossils, which reveal a vegetation of very warm, humid tropical evergreen forests in the older period between 13 and 7 or 6 million years ago, after which the climate became cooler and drier.

The German scholar came to Nepal in 1984 to take up a geological and prehistorical study in the Himalayan foothills of the Siwaliks in Nepal under the sponsorship of the German Research Council, and in affiliation with the Geology Department of Tribhuvan University..

Earlier, she had worked with the team of the Afar expedition in Ethiopia which discovered the famous skeleton of the three million years old African woman which the team called ‘Lucy’. It was the earliest evidence of Homo in the line of human evolution in Africa. Later she worked in the Namibian desert for the South African Diamond Mines to discover one of the richest Miocene fossil animal sites, 18 million years old. (The Miocene is a geological period between 5 and 25 million years).

She also spent 11 years in the study of prehistoric man in India, where her base was in the Archaeology Department of the University of Pune.

In this connection, Dr. Gudrun came to Nepal tracking down the traces of prehistoric man along the foothills of the Siwaliks. But she was attracted by the complete lack of evidences about the prehistory in this country.

"Nothing was known about the prehistoric period. Nepal was a virgin country in the field of prehistory. The earliest history here began only from the period of Buddha which is barely 2500 years" remarks Dr. Gudrun. This fact made her even more eager to take up a study on the prehistory of Nepal beginning from 13 million to 1 million years. She wanted to know what environment, climate and animals and plants existed during that period. Out she went on a one-woman expedition to remote Dang along with porters, a cook and a driver in the land cruiser. It was a 12 year long project .

A born adventurer, Dr. Gudrun always remembers the excitement of working in tough and rugged conditions in the mountains. She was the only woman working in the field..

"We lived in tents in the wilderness of the jungle for three to four months every year. Sometimes we had rain and mud and sometimes extreme heat. Leopards often used to pass our tents in the jungles," she recollects.

She is a lover of animals, especially of the cat family and vividly remembers her encounter with a leopard one evening when coming back home from a village.

" The leopard just stopped by my tent. It stared at me for a while and so did I. Then it went away quietly without doing me any harm," she recalls.

Meeting with Dr. Gudrun is exciting. Reclusive by nature, she has a story to tell which is full of ups and downs both in her personal life and career. She was the child of the Second World War during which she lost everything. Nevertheless, being a determined person, she continued to gather up the broken fragments of her education after the war and finally did her doctorate. She succeeded to stay on in the world of male domination through series of research works in the field of geology and prehistory.

Forty years ago, a male German professor challenged the young Gudrun when she wanted to continue her higher studies in geology at Bonn. He said to her, "it is not a subject fit for women". He even refused to give her permission to continue her study. This challenge made her even more determined to go ahead in pursuing her childhood dreams. After her doctorate, roaming in the field to date rocks in different countries became her life for forty years.

"I’ve celebrated Christmas only twice in my life in my home country, " she says.

Being born into an academic family ( her father was a PhD holder in agriculture and her mother a lecturer of economics ), she was deeply interested in understanding the evolution of our planet and of human life since she was a child.

"I loved being in the forest observing animals and watching insects living their way of life.. So I decided to study geology which was closest to nature," she recollects.

In her twilight years, she wants to join the campaign for the protection of endangered animals, particularly the tiger. "Tigers are so endangered , because man is cutting away his habitat, the forests. In 50 years time our children may not be able to see a tiger anymore in the wild. We absolutely need to preserve this most beautiful animal on our earth".

Today, she has worn the crown of success in her home country by winning the top honors of the German Archaeological Society for her work in Asia and Africa.

She wonders, that her book may not create a big interest in this country "though I ´ve spent years looking back into the remote past of the Nepalese heritage, people here are naturally more interested in the present and future". But for Dr. Corvinus, her book about the prehistory of Nepal is the fulfillment of her life´s work.

Her greatest concern for Nepal is the frightening growth of population. "It is the root problem of all problems in Nepal. With the ever increasing population there will be less food, no alleviation of poverty, no progress. To talk about poverty alleviation is futile, unless the Nepali people are prepared to solve this population problem themselves" she remarks.

SECOND-PAGE | RECOLLECTIONS