German wife forces Gaurav Pandey to support Germany in World Cup

Gaurav Pandey is being forced to support Germany, because of his German wife
In 2002, when he was still in Mumbai, Gaurav Pandey took his German wife Sabina Sappert to a star hotel to catch the World Cup action between Brazil and Germany. Every time the Germans would look like scoring, he���d break into taalis. But his claps seemed to come louder when Brazilians dribbled the ball. So who was Gaurav actually supporting in the match that Germany lost 0-2? Both, actually ��� and therein lies a ���marriage��� of head and heart, Gaurav would stress.
While, he grew up on a steady diet of Pele-Zico-S��crates, Gaurav would diligently clap for Germany too. After all, who wants a World War on the home front? But he finally ���sold his soul��� to Germany after he spent a World Cup season in Berlin in 2006. Sabina, for her part, still takes his support for the deutsche-team with a heaped spoon of salt!
���Our marriage had run into rough weather in 2002, when he lent his support to Brazil. I was very upset. Though I believe him now when he says he is rooting for Germany, I���m more relieved that Brazil isn���t there in the race anymore. Also, our daughter, Saloni, is a fan of Germany, though she finds Neymar cute. That makes the side stronger,��� says Sabina.

Gaurav���s dabbling in all things German goes back a long way ��� when Sabina walked into his life in 1996. Filling us in on the love story, he says, ���Sabina, born to German parents, was doing her law internship in India. Back then, I had just completed the script of Aastha starring Rekha and Om Puri. After a fight with Rekha on the sets, I decided to leave everything and move to Kolkata. One day, a friend invited me to a party. I had first thought I wouldn���t go, but later changed my mind. It���s at this party that I met Sabina and Cupid struck...��� After a three-month courtship, Gaurav went back to Mumbai to complete Aastha and Sabina left for home only to return 10 months later. That was for a lifetime.
Years later, in 2006, the duo caught the World Cup action live in Germany. By then, Gaurav had learnt to do a balancing act between Brazil and Germany. ���That year, Germany was hosting the World Cup and I was travelling through Europe. Since there was no TV at our friend���s place, we would assemble at the freie internationale tankstelle, which is the parar thek in another language. Berlin was a portrait of celebration the night Italy clashed against France in the final.
It was also the infamous match in which Zidane was sent off for headbutting Italy���s Marco Materazzi. I met Oly Bigalke at the thek, who played the Mayor in my Hanuman.com. He was an actor by day and a steak maker by night. Germans are interesting people and they know how to party. The next morning, when I was travelling to Frankfurt, the train had turned into Bongaon local��� there were that many people!��� recalls Gaurav.
In that edition of World Cup, Germany ended in the third spot and was hailed as weltmeister der herzen or world champion of the hearts. Even before the tour ended, Gaurav had turned into a supporter of Germany. ���I remember the day Argentina clashed against Germany, I was at a bar in Sicily. While I was screaming my lungs out in support of Germany, a tall, muscular guy blocked the TV and said, ���In this bar, you will only hear my voice���. So Germany had landed me in quite a tight spot,��� says Gaurav. Though a converted Germany fan, Gaurav has not been able to drain Brazil out of his system. ���It was a pain to see the team���s overdependence on that striker called Fred in the semifinal,��� he says talking about Brazil���s humiliation at the hands of Germany, muttering some choicest expletives under his breath.
But now that Brazil is out of the tournament, peace has been reinstated in Gaurav���s married life. But even then, Gaurav chooses to watch a match alone on a spare television set. Over the years, he seems to have learnt that in marriage too, you need to put your best foot forward!