La Liga India’s Jose Antonio Cachaza on the things he would do if COVID-19 vanished tomorrow

Note to readers: While we accept the reality of the coronavirus, it is important to be optimistic. We must believe that there will be a day when the disease will no longer be the all-destroying scourge it is today. And when that day comes, we will be able to enjoy life, maybe with a few adjustments, the way we did before COVID-19. To that end, we are starting ‘If Covid Vanished ...’, a series of interviews with corporate heads and achievers, where we ask them where they’d like to travel or eat, who’d they like to meet, and so on, if the world became Corona-mukt.

If Lionel Messi is feeling trapped at Barcelona, Jose Antonio Cachaza is stuck in Madrid. The Bruce Springsteen and masala chai loving Spanish MD of La Liga India has been away from Delhi, his work base, for several months because of the coronavirus pandemic. A man of varying interests, Cachaza awaits a safer tomorrow so that life’s simple pleasures become accessible again. In this interview, he speaks about all the things he’d do if COVID-19 loses its sting or becomes more manageable.

If COVID ended tomorrow or became easily manageable, which city would you like to travel to first?

I am still stuck in Madrid, so I’d say I’d like to be back in Delhi.

Which restaurant/ bar would you go to first?

I’d love to have breakfast at the Oberoi Grand in Kolkata; their signature omelette is magnificent.

Which famous person would you like to invite home?

I do not tend to idolise celebrities, but I think I’d love to have a good long conversation, over chai or a drink, with Amitabh Bachchan and Barack Obama.

Who would you first hug?

All my Indian friends, colleagues and associates. I haven’t been with them since March and I miss them.

La Liga aside, what public performance/ occasion would you like to attend?

I’d love to go to the very next Bruce Springsteen show, hopefully he’ll be back on the road soon. Also I’d like to listen to Russian soprano Anna Netrebko singing opera in a theatre; thankfully I have tickets for her Tosca performances in Madrid next July. But I’m not too sure if I’ll be able to attend. Maybe we’d have a La Liga club playing in India on those dates.

What new skill would you like to learn?

I’d like to learn to play golf and to play guitar. The former maybe I’ll do one day.

The first song that comes to your mind when you think of a COVID-free world.

Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Land of hope and dreams’. When the song says, “Leave behind your sorrows, let this day be the last, tomorrow there'll be sunshine, And all this darkness past”, it summarises how I feel. Sun always rises, no matter how long and deep this Corona darkness may be.

What bad habit of yours will you work on eliminating?

I think I should be wiser and more patient; you never have enough of both qualities.

What will you do with your masks?

Burn them down! But keep one to remember that the impossible can happen, no matter how insane it may seem.

What would your motto be for life after the pandemic?

Live the fullest, there is not a single day to lose.