I was idling away my time one Saturday evening. I went to our nearby park, which was the hub of our soccer-adda during schooldays with
my football. I found a few 13-14 year old guys playing TT in the clubroom. The park was nearly empty otherwise. I told the guys to come and play soccer with me. I was taken aback with their response. None of the guys have ever played soccer in their life, and all of them replied emphatically saying "I do not know how to play football". Well, I said to myself, Welcome to Summer of 2008 in Saltlake, Kolkata!!!
Flash back 20 years, same place. Papun, Gogol, Guddu, Rittik, Bumba.....the place was abuzz with activity, read football. I was the only Mohun Bagan supporter among them. Dada and I used to go to Saltlake Stadium to watch the derby matches. I vividly remember the time when Manikjor-Bikash Panja & Krishanu Dey switched loyalties and joined Mohun Bagan. We went to watch the next match, confident that we will seal a victory. And so it happened, we won 2-1, with a last minute goal from none other than Panja himself. Those days, after every match on weekends, we went to Fulbagan to savour Hinger kochuri and Amriti(Life@ SaltLake had just started!). After the match, we caught a private bus. Not to mention, all Beleghataites are more or less hard core Bangals. So the mood in the bus was glum, with a near pin drop silence. Dada told me not to utter anything loose and keep quiet. The bus was rolling over very slowly. Then the conductor came and asked the guy sitting beside me, a typical parar mastan, for the bhara. The guy replied "Mood Off, aktu pore dicchi". The conductor replied "Mood Off to ki be, herechis akhun ticket kat".All of a sudden, the entire bus turned into a war zone, with the conductor being the sole enemy. Everybody started beating him, mouthing profanties and hurling abuses. Dada and I got down, and walked all the way.
Coming back to Summer 2008, are those days really a thing of past? Such passions, emotions, have they all died in the post modern era of globalisation?Is anybody listening?
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3 comments:
short but poignant!! and the Calcutta soccer has made me feel more biased to rate it as excellent. Well done!!
as one story ends so begins the another. kids are now watching something else.
just from my experience..
one day i was watching wwe with my 2 nephews and i said who watches all this... this is total crap. They both suddenly turned out so passionate, stating events and accidents, they tried to convince me how good is WWE.
And my another nephew watches pokemon... :P
They watch different things now..
well this one makes me nostalgic..
(But i sincerely thought my name would find a place in the 20 year back flashback names list)..
I think...football is still very much in the hearts of bengalis... only that the mode of expression has changed..
i myself don't watch EB-MB matches these days but given a chance I'd roll my sleeves and get on to the field to play.... and also I can spend sleepless nights over EuroCup or WorldCup.... because thats much more classy..
i guess saltlake has become a wrong sampling point to reach at the conclusion you've made.. vicinity areas like Beleghata, Baguiati, laketown.. one can much more demand.. children still play.. but may be the class of people have changed.. that is because the positioning of football has changed in the overall marketability point of view..
Associate big brands and big names with footer and again you'll see people finding pride to indulge in the game..
My 2 cents..
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