LAWET

Kaustav Ghosh

My experience, my mohun bagan– The love for mohun bagan passes from generation to generation and in this case I was not an exception to this. Specially if you are a bengali, you will definitely have some affinity over football. Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari, a bengali, is the father of Indian football. Bengali means football for ages. A kid in a bengali family either will become East Bengal fan or Mohun Bagan fan.

When I was in nursery, which is today’s pre school, I used to spend lots of time with my grand father. He was a retired headmaster of a school. He even used to play football barefooted because Mohun Bagan club defeated mighty British team East Yorkshire 2-1 in I.F.A. Shield final by playing barefooted. He was the person who instilled love in my heart for mohun bagan., my beloved club. I still remember those days when we used to watch mohun bagan football match in t.v. and tried to find my father, who was at that time in the spectator gallery. I forget to add that glorious story of mohun bagan was the best bed time story for me at that time.

I have already told about generation but you may ask why? A club founded in 1889 solely for contributing to the cause of its country’s independence- is it not a phenomenon? A club which lighten up the fire for fighting against British imperialism; this was enough for that generation to live and die for that club. My great grand father instill the love for the club in the heart of my grandfather and my grandfather did the same with my father and me. I still remember those words coming from my late grand father’s mouth-

“Mohun bagan may be the one and only club in the world who have largely contributed for its country’s freedom struggle. They broke the myth and proved that British can be defeated. When your father was a kid like you, I took him with me to visit Mohun Bagan club tent, which is nothing but a holy temple for me. Yesterday, your father followed the same tradition with you. Defeating Britishers in the football match, it was unimaginable then. It is the courage of those brave heart and never say die attitude. They believed in themselves and prove that you can cross any hurdle if you believe you can. I taught Shailen(Manna), Shyam (Shyam Sunder Manna) in school and felt really happy when they left a great significance while playing for India and our beloved club. Your grand mother even cooked mutton curry for Shailen.

Now a days Shaktiman is the favourite superhero of the today’s kid, but when I was kid the great Shibdas Bhaduri, Gostho Paul was our super hero.”

Those words are remain fresh in my heart, in my mind. Mohun Bagan has become the part of my life. From my childhood, I could not digest 1 gm of rice when I saw Mohun Bagan is defeated by some team and stopped eating if the defeat was caused by our arch rival East Bengal.

Many foreign player played for mohun bagan and some of them created a legacy for their name. Many legendary player played against Mohun bagan in an exhibition match- Pele, Oliver Kahn and many. In the next edition, I will talk everything about them. Today I am finishing this edition with how it all started. Joy Mohun Bagan.