Chp 920. What was winning the League like in 2004?

THE WAIT IS FINALLY OVERRRR!

This morning, at precisely 2:30 AM IST, Manchester City drew 1-1 with AFC Bournemouth, officially making Arsenal the new League CHAMPIONS! Wooohooooooo!

With one game remaining this season, there is absolutely no way City can overtake us now, even if Arsenal loses the final match 0-100 while City wins theirs 100-0. This is genuinely one of the happiest moments of my life because it’s been 22 long years since we last won the league.

And this title has been even sweeter because we finished the last three seasons in second place, hence earning Arsenal the nickname “Teuh-senal” by rival Mizo football fans, as "teuh" means "almost".

Many of my friends used to tease me, saying Arsenal hasn’t won the league since I started blogging. And yeah, that kinda hurts, lolz. Arsenal last won the league in April 2004, and I started blogging in November 2004. Twenty-two years and almost 1000 blog updates later, the title is finally ours again.

What a glorious moment indeed!

So much has changed since the last time we won the league. :D

Today you will find thousands of articles and opinion pieces about how the current Arsenal squad won the league, the resilience of the players, the mastermind of Arteta, the maturity and growth of the young team, etc etc. And of course, thousands of fans are uploading photos, reels and status updates to celebrate this momentous occasion. That’s what being champions means today.

But what was it like being champions 22 years ago?

In this blog post, let me instead take you for a walk down memory lane and talk about what it was like being an Arsenal fan back in 2004, and just how different the experience of winning the league felt back then.

When Arsenal won the league in April 2004, I was in Hyderabad attending CAT coaching classes. In fact, I had originally taken the CAT exam on November 23, 2003, which was the infamous year of the CAT paper leak incident, lolz, and we all had to retake the exam on February 15, 2004. The results came out in March, and I ended up getting shortlisted for interviews and GDs at all six IIMs (yes, there were only six back then). So yeah, my memories of that entire Arsenal-winning era are still incredibly fresh in my head even today.

Here is a photo of me in my single room at my PG accommodation, year 2004. :D

So what was different back then?

For starters, today most of us watched the match on our mobile phones, laptops, PCs or smart TVs, probably through Hotstar or some other OTT platform. Back then, our only option was cable TV, lolz. I used to watch every single Arsenal game on ESPN channel.

And here’s another thing many of you may not know. Back then, we had to watch live Premier League matches around midnight! Yup, I had to stay up really late just to catch an Arsenal game, which made waking up the next morning for my 6 AM CAT coaching classes really difficult, lolz.

Yes, every EPL match actually used to be broadcast very late at night in India back then, similar to how La Liga, Bundesliga or Champions League matches currently are for us today. Because back then, EPL matches used to start at around 6 PM UK time, which was around midnight for us here in India.

It was around 2006-07 that the Premier League began a major scheduling reshuffle after realising the huge fanbase and market potential in regions like the Middle East and South East Asia (probably thanks to Arsenal's incredible Invincible run :P)

That’s when they slowly started introducing earlier kick-off slots in the UK, usually from around 12:30-1 PM UK time onwards, which meant that for fans like us in India, matches suddenly became much more convenient to watch at around 6-7 PM instead of midnight. But for those of us watching the Arsenal Invincibles era before that shift, we had to stay up way past midnight on every matchday, lolz.

Ahhh, good times.

While many of you may have watched today’s match on your mobile phones, back then there was no such thing as a smartphone. In fact, mobile phones were still in their early boom years in India. Most of us were using the sturdy Nokia 3310, lolz.

Text messages used to be expensive as well. Hell, we were even charged for receiving incoming calls back then, lolz. That was when we came up with our own missed-call language. One missed call meant "come outside", two missed calls meant "I have reached", and three missed calls meant "I’m pregnant". :P

And while incoming calls were already expensive back then, outgoing calls were even worse. So if I wanted to call a friend over to watch an Arsenal match together, I would usually walk out of my PG accommodation and head to one of those old PCO/STD booths to make the call. :D

Today, you can easily take a high-resolution 4K video or photo of your victory celebrations straight from your smartphone. Back then, however, we only had the good ol’ roll film cameras, lolz. Yes, digital cameras did exist, but only the uber rich had those.

For the rest of us plebs, if we took a photo of us celebrating Arsenal’s victory, we first had to finish the entire roll film, then take it to a photo shop to get it developed, wait for almost a week, and only then finally see the results. And after all that waiting, you would probably discover something like, "Hey, my eyes were closed in this one", and then retake the photo... only to wait another two weeks to see the new result. :P

And speaking of watching matches using mobile internet today, back then our only source of internet was cybercafés. Slow-ass internet speeds, and some cafés even required you to remove your shoes or chappals before entering, lolz.

So yeah, we did not have coordinated Arsenal screenings like today because there was no easy way to communicate with other Arsenal fans within the same city. And so, I spent that year watching Arsenal win the league mostly either alone or with my three Arab neighbours at my PG accommodation, who were from Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

Here I am with one of my Arab neighbours, Hyder, who was from Iraq. Such a fun guy.

Notice my two O2 Arsenal jerseys, lolz. I always wore those while watching an Arsenal match. And you might also notice the red banner on the left side of the photo. That was my treasured Arsenal vertical banner, which by sheer luck I happened to find at a flea market.

With my sister, who visited me at my PG.

Apart from my three Arab neighbours, I also made a few Arab friends at the YMCA basketball court in Secunderabad, where I used to play basketball 2-3 times a week. They were mostly from Saudi, and many of them were Arsenal fans too.

So yeah, that was pretty much my experience of winning the League 22 years ago. There are honestly so many other little things from that era which I could keep talking about, but I probably shouldn’t bore you too much, lolz. Things like how there was no YouTube to watch match highlights the next day, no football podcasts, no Twitter reactions, no meme pages, and no instant transfer rumours every five minutes. We depended heavily on newspapers for match reports, league tables and football updates, and sometimes if you missed a match, you simply missed it. That was it.

I hope you enjoyed this little blast from the past and the nostalgia trip back to what life was like for football fans in early-2000s India. And honestly, after waiting 22 long years, it feels soooo good to finally see Arsenal become champions again.

The main aim of this post is not to show you all how old I am, lolz. Some older geezer will probably show up and say, "Phish, this is nothing. Back in my time we were called Woolwich Arsenal, and we invited friends over to watch matches by sending telegrams." :P

I’m not trying to compete with anyone here, but simply to show how different the experience of winning the league felt back then compared to now. But in both eras, one thing has remained exactly the same - it has always felt absolutely wonderful being an Arsenal fan. Go Gunners!

And to end this post, here’s a bit of irony. Back in 2004, I mostly watched Arsenal matches alone in my PG accommodation. And today, as Arsenal win the league again, I’m living alone at my farm here at Neihbawih and still watching most matches alone, lolz.

And back when we won the league in 2004, I was single.

Today, 22 years later, Arsenal have won the league again... and I am still single. :D

Perhaps some cute Goonerette out there who laughed and enjoyed this post might wanna go out for coffee with me? Ahems...

Mizohican out. COYG!

Chp 919. Classmates visit to Mizoram - Day 3 & 4

Previous posts - 

• Classmates visit - Day 1
• Classmates visit - Day 2

DAY 3.

Day three of our classmates’ visit to Mizoram was here, and I was already exhausted, lolz. And the main event hadn’t even started yet. God have mercy on me.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I stayed the night at Regency Hotel in Thomas’ double room. We stayed up talking like it was a teenage sleepover again, reminiscing about the good ol’ days, hostel stories, college memories, and all the nonsense in between.

The next morning, I woke everybody up early, as we had a long day planned. Groggily, everybody washed up, and we proceeded downstairs to have breakfast.

The complimentary breakfast buffet was nice. Bread, choice of eggs, Poha, and "Mizo Paratha" with bhaji.

Once we were done, everybody checked out of the hotel because we were going to stay the night at Reiek. While we were waiting in the lobby, Vasu spotted a cute chick and immediately opened his laptop and acted like he was Elon Musk, speaking to an imaginary person, "Yes, sell. Sell. Buy. Sell." :P

Tlawmlova’s vehicle was the first to arrive that morning. The plan was simple - we would first head to the Living Museum at Falkawn, then return to Aizawl, and then to Reiek.

Azuala and Hminga had work commitments and said they would join us once we returned to Aizawl from Falkawn. That meant, for the first leg of the journey, we only had Tlawmlova’s and Stephen’s cars, which would have been a little too cramped for comfort.

So Tlawmlova told his driver to drive Hminga’s car instead, while he drove his own. Just like that, we had three cars and everyone could travel comfortably.

With that sorted, we set off toward Falkawn.

Our guests were glued to the windows the entire drive. The winding roads, layered hills, and scattered houses perched on slopes were a refreshing change from the flat cities they were used to. Every few minutes someone would say, “Yooo, look at that view mannn.”

And soon enough, we reached the Living Museum at Falkawn.

It’s basically a miniature Mizo village brought to life. The moment we arrived, the artists were already in character, moving about as if we had stepped straight into another era. They performed various dances right in front of us. Their energy was infectious, and you could tell they took pride in every step.

We walked through the traditional houses - the widow’s hut, the blacksmith's hut, the chief’s hut, the zawlbuk (the warriors’ dormitory), and several others, while the performers demonstrated daily village life along the way. For a brief moment, it genuinely felt like the old days had returned.

Inside the chieftain's hut, our boys posed for a photo with the "Lalnu", the wife of the village chief.

...as well as with the village elders and war council.

Thomas and Eshwar even tried out the suk and sum (watch the hilarious video below for their expert performance).

One thing I’ve got to point out - it was genuinely thoughtful of the organisers to have attendants who could speak Hindi and explain the activities along the way in Hindi. Small problem though… all our friends are from the South and don’t speak Hindi. :D

But hey, it’s the thought that counts. And honestly, that was a really nice touch.

We were treated to an extremely educational demonstration of different indigenous musical instruments by a professional artist, and he even asked us to try out some of them. Our friends also tried walking on our traditional wooden stilts, and the result was hilarious.

Here’s a short video I edited using InShot that captures some of those magical moments.

Of course, no cultural immersion is complete without trying the local brew. They sampled our traditionally brewed rice beer - zufang, zupui, rakzu, and boldly declared them better than Goa’s Fenny.

High praise indeed.

We wrapped up the visit with a group photo alongside the Falkawn cultural troupe.

A huge thank you to the Living Museum team and the organisers for giving our guests such an educational and immersive experience. And honestly, thank you for giving me the opportunity to visit as well! I probably wouldn’t have explored this wonderful place if my friends hadn’t come to Mizoram.

By afternoon, it was time to leave if we wanted to catch the sunset at Reiek hilltop. On the way, we stopped at a thingpui dawr for snacks and made them try our traditional Sanpiau [you can click this link to read how to make it]. They loved it.

We drove back to Aizawl, where Hminga and Azuala joined us. The drive to Reiek felt long, but the scenery made it worth it. Soon we arrived at our destination, and we stopped at the main gate for tea before entering.

Then we drove all the way up to the hilltop. The drive itself was beautiful with narrow, winding roads, cool air, and that feeling of gradually rising above everything.

Our friends loved it, taking many photos along the way.

When we reached the peak, a group of Pachhunga University College (PUC) students were there, doing rappelling exercises. Our classmates were amazed by the discipline the students showed. What impressed them even more was when the students were about to leave, they carefully collected the litter (and I mean all the litter lying around, not just theirs) and disposed of it properly, leaving the peak completely spotless.

Acts like this we Mizos often take for granted, but to outsiders, it’s something genuinely refreshing to witness.

The view from the peak was just breathtaking.

And then the sunset happened.

The sky slowly shifted from pale gold to deep orange, then into soft shades of pink and purple. The hills stretched endlessly into the horizon, layered like folded fabric. The wind was gentle. For a few minutes, everyone just stood there quietly, while others sat precariously on the edge, soaking it all in. Mesmerised.

As darkness crept in, we headed back down to the Reiek base. 

Tlawmlova had arranged rooms for all of us at the Tourist Lodge. After freshening up, we gathered in the open space where tables were set up for dinner.

Tlawmlova had even hired a cultural troupe to perform for our visitors, but unfortunately they had to cancel because the Class 10 and 12 board exams were approaching.

However, the singers he arranged still came and sang many songs for us. Our classmates enthusiastically requested their favourites, and it slowly turned into another mini reunion night.

We eventually had dinner, and in my rare moment of not thinking like a blogger, I didn’t take a single photo of the food. I was too busy enjoying myself.

By the end of it all, we were completely exhausted. One by one, we headed back to our respective rooms and called it a night.

What a day.

Phew.

Day 4.

The next morning, I was the first one up. Occupational hazard. Farmers don’t sleep in.

Thalavai had an early flight back to Chennai because doctors are always busy, so I woke him up. We had a quiet cup of coffee together before Tlawmlova’s driver woke up and dropped him off at the airport.

I roamed around the place alone, taking photos of the cute cottages.

Vasu was the next person up. He said he needed to exercise and must compulsorily burn so and so amount of calories every day or else he can't have an erection or something like that, and he went off to hike all the way up to the hilltop by himself!

He sent this photo from the peak to prove he actually reached it.

Meanwhile, back at the base, I was bored AF.

Nobody else was awake, so I started video calling our WhatsApp group just to irritate them. One by one, they slowly crawled out of bed and came down for breakfast.

The staff even made traditional chhangban, which our friends absolutely loved. 

Everybody was still dazed from the previous night's party, lolz.

Once we were properly stuffed, we got ready to head back to Aizawl.

The original plan was to stop by Murray’s picnic spot on the way back and continue the fun there. But exhaustion won. We were in noooo state to do anything else, and so we collectively decided to skip it.

Lolz. We are such a bunch of old farts.

We drove back to Aizawl, where Hminga’s wife welcomed us with some kind of magical refreshing concoction that instantly revived us. After that, the visiting guys checked back into their rooms at Regency.

Azuala dropped me home, where I finally got to see my own family again, lolz.

Meanwhile, Stephen took the boys to the tennis grounds where they played tennis!!!

Seriously… how do they still have that much stamina?

I spent some time at home with my family before heading to Azuala’s place for our final dinner together.

Tlawmlova had cooked a beautiful beef dish and a paneer dish, while Azuala and his wife prepared pork and several other dishes. It was one of those meals where nobody is really eating quietly - everyone’s talking over each other, interrupting, laughing, correcting old stories.

We caught up properly one last time and finally sat down to eat the delicious meal.

And then… it was time.

Time to say goodbye.

I hugged each of them, got into my cab, and headed back to the farm. The others were dropped back at their hotel.

The moment I reached my farmhouse, I collapsed onto my bed and passed out.

What a wonderful and exhausting four days.

The next morning, they all left Mizoram and flew out safely. Just like that, the noise disappeared. The hills returned to their usual quiet. The group chat, of course, did not.

There’s something special about showing people your home. Especially people who knew you when you were just a skinny boarding school kid with no idea what life would become. For four days, my worlds collided - school corridors and hilltop sunsets, hostel memories and Mizo traditional stuff. And somehow, it all fit.

I don’t know when the next reunion will be. But this one… this one will be hard to top.

Cheers!

(I wanted to write these posts much sooner. But unfortunately, Tlawmlova’s beloved wife, Rinpuii, passed away on the 7th of this month, and it didn’t feel right to rush into publishing cheerful reunion stories during that time.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Tlawmlova and his family. Life has a way of reminding us how fragile and unpredictable it can be. Which makes moments like these - the laughter, the sunsets, and the shared meals even more precious.

I’ll always remember that night at Reiek when Tlawmlova video-called Rinpuii, and we all waved and excitedly cheered at her in our loud, silly merriment while she laughed at us from the other side of the screen. That will be the lasting memory of Rinpuii I will hold on to.

Rest in peace, Rinpuii.)

Chp 918. Classmates visit to Mizoram - Day 2

Previous post - Classmates visit to Mizoram - Day 1

DAY 2.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we had a blast with our classmates at 23°N Diner. Azuala and Stephen drove the guys back to their hotel, while I headed back to the farm at Neihbawih because the plan was for all of them to come up to the farm the next day, where we would watch the sunset from my hilltop "spot" and then head down to Aizawl for dinner. 

And so, on the second day of their visit, Thalavai and Eshwar woke up early and explored the city on foot.

Rumour has it that Eshwar was asking every random person he met on the road if they knew where Maria Grace lived. :P

Once the rest of the jet-lagged guys were up, they got ready and the Mizo boys in Aizawl took them to TLC where they had a grand meal of pizzas and burgers.

I, on the other hand, was busy that entire morning cleaning up the farmhouse, arranging snacks, and getting things ready for their evening visit.

And then… politics happened.

There was a massive protest in Aizawl that afternoon (30th Jan). Congress party supporters were demonstrating against some central government issues, and traffic came to a complete standstill across the city.

Naturally, my Mizo classmates were in no mood to attempt the long drive to my farm through that chaos. So after they had all eaten, we all decided to cancel the farm trip, and instead, they took our visiting friends to their respective homes, introducing them to their families.

Damn you, Congress. :(

But on the other hand, it was really nice of our classmates to visit all our homes (except mine, of course, since I was stuck at the farm).

Paul, who couldn't join us on our upcoming trip, also took time off to show our classmates around the city as well.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, I packed a small bag for the next day’s trip and headed down to Aizawl in the evening.

While I was on my way to Aizawl, the guys even played volleyball with some local kids, as Debo was our Volleyball captain and he still plays and coaches to this day.

I reached Regency Hotel and moved into Thomas Joy’s room as he was staying in a double room. I also informed the receptionist about my stay, so I could eat the complimentary breakfast buffet the next morning. :D :P

Thomas isn’t just my classmate from Class 7 to 12, he was also my hostel roommate during engineering college days. Many times, instead of travelling all the way back to Mizoram during short college holidays, I would head to his house in Pala, Kerala. Back then, air travel was a luxury, and getting from Coimbatore to Aizawl meant two to three days of train and road journeys. It simply made more sense to stay at his place. So bunking up together again after all these years was something we were both looking forward to.

Once everyone at Regency had showered and changed, we headed to Hminga's house, which was just a 2-minute walk away, waiting for the other Mizos to arrive.

There were rounds of excited storytelling about their day in Aizawl, and they were genuinely flabbergasted by how polite every driver was and that they hadn't heard a single horn honk since they arrived.

Soon, we headed next door to Hotel Platinum for dinner. Tables had already been reserved, thanks to Tlawmlova’s connections. 

A live band was playing, and they were genuinely good. They alternated between Mizo and English songs, keeping the crowd fully engaged.

The band also played song requests. You know you’re officially an old fart when 80% of the popular English songs from our era that we confidently requested… they had never even heard of, lolz. But yeah, they flawlessly performed every Gen Z and Gen Alpha hit. Damn, we're old.

They served great mocktails too, kudos to the bartender. 

The food was equally impressive. Juicy tandoori chicken, creamy butter chicken, and easily some of the best authentic naan in town. We absolutely hogged everything.

Before we knew it, it was closing time. Our classmates still couldn’t wrap their heads around how early establishments shut here. Thomas did manage to grab a photo with the members of the girl band, and they were incredibly polite and friendly. 

In fact, they were so polite that when he invited them to visit his house, they politely refused. :P

Once we were all outside the hotel, we decided to take a slow stroll down Zarkawt and stopped for roadside tea. Our junior Marsh also joined us.

The streets were calm, with a cool winter breeze lingering in the air, and for a moment, it felt like the city had decided to chill with us.

Eventually, we said goodnight to the other Mizos and headed back up to our hotel rooms. Thomas and I stayed up chatting for a while longer, just like old times. 

We also played around with AI and sent the photos below to our batch WhatsApp group, pretending we were in Pattaya or something. :D 

Vishnu responded by sending this AI-generated video of us, lolz

That night was also the first time in my life that I stayed in a hotel in Aizawl. Yeah, that's wild. Anyhoo, the next day was going to be packed, so we finally called it a night.

Do visit my blog again for day 3. That’s when things got even more interesting. :)