Hyderabad: FIFA World Cup 2014 is over — never mind that it’s still in the news for various controversies — and students in the city are breathing a sigh of relief as they can finally get back to their daily routines.
“This was the first time I was hooked to the football matches, and I blame social media for that. With constant updates put up by my friends, I didn’t want to be left behind,” says Apurva Jolam, a chartered accountancy student. “Now that the madness is over, we are back to studies.”
Neha Tripathy, a student of Muffakham Jah College of Engineering and Technology, had her holidays to thank to be able to keep up with the aforementioned “madness”. “I couldn’t watch all the matches in the group qualifiers as my exams were going on; but after that we had holidays and it was much easier. I would stay awake at night and sleep during the day. My friends who weren’t that lucky used to end up sleeping during their classes,” says Neha. “Even though it’s disappointing that the WC is over, I am relieved as I can go back to my normal routine.”
Hundreds of University of Hyderabad students had got together to watch the finals of the World Cup. And yes, many of them are also happy that it’s over. “We used to watch the matches every night and things would get competitive as we would also bet on which team would win. But on Monday morning, I woke feeling fresh and mentally relieved as for the past one month I had been staying up at nights,” says Rajnish Kumar, UoH student.
C. Chatur Anand, a student of Aurora Degree College, was disappointed that his favourites didn’t win the cup.
“I was supporting Brazil and then Argentina, neither of them won,” he says. Talking about his hectic FIFA viewing schedule, Chatur says, “I missed a week of college and apart from watching the matches, my friends and I would party depending on which team won.”
