Fever & heroes - chess, cricket or football?

Lately, I have observed a dramatic increase in the number of chess-interested Norwegians! Facebook is full of enthusiastic outbursts, chess-tweets are blooming and the newspapers are competing on digging up the most they can about Norway's new super athlete: Magnus Carlsen. Who is now in Chennai, challenging the World Champion Viswanathan Anand for his title! Hey! When I grew up, chess was a bit.. nerd-y..Not IN! But, now the chess fever is on! So on! Today, I read that the Norwegians rank Carlsen as the 3rd greatest Norwegian athlete ever. Needless to say perhaps, that number 1 and 2 are both skiers? But - still some Anand-Carlsen rounds to go...

According to vg.no: the 3 greatest Norwegian athletes .. ever! 

In my domestic sphere, the chess fever is rather absent, but the football (soccer!) fever is raging! The Greek can hardly sleep these days: Greece is fighting to qualify for FIFA World Cup! Last Friday they beat Romania 3-1, and they are playing again.. right now! Judging from previous similar events - we are in for tons of loud articulate outbursts by the feverish football loving Greek clan in Mumbai! Go Greece!

The Greek national team (FIFA 2013) 

As for cricket-fever, I have the feeling that it is usually on here in India. It may have intensified just now when the beloved cricketer Sachin Tendulkar retired by playing his 200th and last match here in Mumbai, his home city. A very emotional moment for him and for all his fans both in India and all over the world. I really enjoyed reading a beautiful tribute to him on one of my favorite fellow blogger's site My Yatra Diary.

Picture from Hindustantimes.com

So, fever or no fever, we may all have our heroes whether it is in chess, football, cricket - or elsewhere? Talking about heroes, I can not help thinking about the children at the NGO school. You see, we have been working on presentations and descriptions lately, and one boy wrote this:

" My father is the first to wake up in the morning. He takes care of all the other members of the family. He works hard to take care of our needs. I will always love and respect my father. He is loving and caring." 

Thanks for following, dear reader, and enjoy your moments!