MUMBAI, July 2: Had it been possible, Gayatri Ruia, would have shown a red card to her husband long back. For a fortnight now, he's been keeping late nights, watching too much television and ignoring her completely.Gayatri, wife of Atul Ruia, director of Phoenix Mills, is one of the several football widows in the city who have lost their husbands to the live telecast of world cup matches on Doordarshan. And it's going to be a long wait before they could claim them back, for the quarter-finals begin only tomorrow and the action in France is only hotting up.``I think Atul has been more faithful to his football then he has been to me,'' complains a bitter Gayatri. She has already begun planning for the 2002 World Cup. It will be a long vacation lasting through the tournament.``Now that Atul has realised how uninterested I am in the game, he either calls his friends over to watch the game or goes to one of the pubs which have put up large television screens for the event, leaving me alone,'' saysGayatri. She says that she turns to a good book every time Atul switches on the box. ``I can not see any point in the game. It would do Atul more good if he went out and kicked the ball himself,'' she said.Swati Joshi too is not looking forward to this weekend. ``We will be stuck at home as my husband, Umesh, will insist on watching the matches,'' she says. She says she cannot wait for the World Cup to end so that she and her husband could resume their normal social life.For Farah Khan it is not only her personal life, but her work too that is being disrupted. Farah, daughter of actor, film-maker Sanjay Khan, is engaged to Aqueel Ali and is busy conceptualising a celebrity-based television show with her fiancee. ``The only problem is that my executive producer, who's really into football, has gone off to France.'' And then after work Aqueel too is glued to the television. ``It annoys me when Aqueel ignores me because he is too busy staring at a screen,'' says Farah.For twenty-three-year old PreetiSukwani, however, the status of a football widow is nothing new. Her husband, Ajay spends every Sunday out on the field kicking the ball. Now she has begun taking active interest in the game and is even getting excited about the final. ``I have even tried playing the game once. I was made a goalkeeper. The only problem is that the other guys were so scared of hurting me they did not even try to score a goal!"Czaee Shah, wife of Mukand's Suketu Shah, is a football fan herself. ``There are no football widows in this house,'' she says. ``Having spent a lot of time in Europe I became very interested in football. My husband is not so keen on the game, but now he keeps me company.''
