V for victory

V for victory. This was a notion that was in my mind from a long time.

But you learn new things all the time, and life had a new surprise for me. It was lucky that I did not learn the lesson in a hard way. I learnt it at the expense of others.

Enough intro - to the story. It all starts with Scotland's worldcup qualifiers. Two of their major players were caught boozing after a crucial match and were left out of the next game. They were on the bench for the game against the Iceland. Scotland won the game, but the two players were banned from ever playing for Scotland. Even they lost face in the local club they were playing. One player lost his captaincy in the local club. (For those who do not follow football - Football players will be playing for clubs and selected players from different clubs play for the country ).

Now what was the reason for this further punishment? Booze was the reason for the first punishemnt. What caused the eternal ban? They were caught making V signs during the WIN. I heard this and saw that in news. I was confused. I was expecting a more sinister story, like Scotland lost the match; as Iceland won and the players showed V sign, they were banned. Showing V signs when opponents won. So I looked up the news in net again. Who won ? Was it Iceland or Scotland ? As both the names end with 'Land', I may have heard wrong. No, I had not heard wrong, Scotland won ; suspended Scottish players showed V sign; they got life ban. Now really I was confused. So I went to the wiki; did a lookup on V sign. I was in for a husge surprise.

V sign is one of the most complex signs you can have. V sign - made with index and middle finger with all other fingers down. It can have two different meanings depending on the direction in which the palm faces.

When you make the sign, if the plam faces others , you are giving Victory sign, in a context of competition or war.

If the palm faces you, when you give the sign; you are in big trouble. You can be interpreted as giving the finger(up ur a--). You can be the devil or devil worshipper as the V now will stand for the horns of the devil. Or it can make you a pervert as the V can stand for female privates.

Ha ha, next time you try a gesture in a foreign land, understand the cultural significance and try it.