Everyone agrees football is a nice game. It’s an embodiment of speed, skill and stamina and above all a perfect harmony of playing eleven. It’s thus no wonder that Argentina’s drubbing of Serbia by six goals to nil was a toast to watch and hailed as the finest game so far in the present edition of the World Cup finals.
Not everyone however could enjoy the game. In the village Chhatna in Bankura district – a good 5 hours’ journeying from Kolkata – six young enthusiasts met an untimely end to their lives while listening to radio news that was extolling the high points of the game just played. Why radio? Because there is no electricity in the village, there is no TV either.
That didn’t stop the Argentine ‘fans’ to crowd around the radio to get the latest about their favorite team. It was then that the lightning struck amid heavy thundershower. And before anyone could react to what happened, the six youths were no more.
Bengal’s love for football is endemic and therefore it’s all the more painful that there would be such a tragic end to an unbridled joy of partaking in the monumental event. May their souls rest in peace.
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