World cup football is on and I am lucky to be in Mexico. A part of the world where a goal is pronounced..Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool and that too at a decibel level which is illegal in our country after 10 p.m. The people here might not know what Germany did in WW II but they will surely tell you the score of every single match they played with Germany in the last 100 years..and that too without you asking!!! The children here can rattle off the name of every member of the playing 11 and can even tell you who should have been in the team if the coach had any brains.:)
My wife and I got a chance to see the Mexico Argentina game on a large screen in a restaurant with a group of locals. The audience was composed of people from all ages and genders. Everyone had come as if prepared for battle. The tension during the game was palpable. Every tackle, every pass, every decision was cheered or jeered with equal vigor. We knew beforehand that we would feel like complete misfits especially with the commentary in rapid Spanish. And that's why we had a plan in place. On the previous day we had each bought a Mexican football team t-shirt which we proudly wore to the game. We had no clue what the commentators were saying but we started screaming some gibberish whenever everybody else did :). And it worked..
But when it comes to football Brazil is even more special. I will give you an example. Before every match day, there is a mailer sent out by the local HR department in my company informing the employees to arrive late to the office so that we can stay home and watch the match...can you believe such a thing would happen in Indian offices even for an India Pakistan world cup cricket match??
The depth of their passion makes you wonder..what happened to our national game?? why can't it have the same effect on us? More importantly why do we keep calling it our national game when we know that the loyalties lie somewhere else?
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