No wonder! The Malayalees are gone crazy - though the stripes on the jackfruit and the national food of Malayalees, turning striped - I consider as signs of ingenuity of the otherwise devious Malayalee (not exempting me)!
I was among the fortunate Malayalees to have had a first hand experience of this world festival, being resident in Doha, Qatar. In all the three matches I witnessed, live in the stadium (one in Lusail and 2 in Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium - Mall of Qatar), I found that almost a third or at 25% were Malayalees. Wherever I turned around, I found them, young bachelor groups, families out, as if on a picnic... The clever pravasi Malayalee had grabbed this rare opportunity, setting aside their typical thrify habits. I don't think there will ever be any such occasion for Malayalees or Indians to be part of this kayika mamaankam.
In my brief visit during the world football fest to Keralam, I assessed that on an average, every square kilometer of the state had at least one mega poster depicting either Argentina (Messi) or Brazil. When it comes to Kochi, it is almost thus. But go to Malappuram, Kannur... you will find this multiplied manifold. So, I feel that to assume there were at least 40000 such posters in the state would not be an exaggeration.
I felt disturbed at the amount of unnecessary solid/plastic waste added! Besides the posters there are also several other items of decoration - the striped danglers, hanging torans and several other items, all adding up to this global feast, but also adding to the unmanageable waste.
At least four crore rupees spent in the state merely in terms of decoration and posters calculated at the average of Rs. 1000.00 per location. That is the barest minimum. It would be much more, as usually, each spot would have the banners/posters of the rival groups.
The other spending had been in T-shirts, caps, lungis, flags etc. designed in the colours of the favoured team(s).
The wasteful and waste-generating festivities could have been directed at the goal of Keralam providing India with a team to be present in the world cup 2026 or 2030 - to catch 'em young and groom them into skilled players!
I came to know that in two of the Kochi colleges, the intra mural matches held in the spirit of the world cup ended up in fist fights among the teams - either based of the rival fan-groups or with the political alignments grabbing another opportunity to exhibit their only and acknowledged expertise in hooliganism. Football for unity, was turned into football for division.
The false claim of Kerala's enlightenment is very well revealed in such cheap exhibition of blind adulation of somebody's exploits!
Shame on the foolish, pretentious, backboneless, stupid Malayalee!
To cap it all, we have leaders, who lead the tomfoolery bandwagon with 'merciless' statements on Messi or Ali or any other sports icon, and the followers ready to defend and clarify such faux pas unfazed!! There should be a championship in cheap jingoism (malayalee edition), deviousness, and thickskin, where we would not only qualify, but would easily be the world no. 1!
P.S. Malayali Christians are taking their turn at having a dig at their own folly and foibles from a world-cup angle:
Green Goals of FIFA 2022 - My confrere and good friend, Fr. Joy, head of the Physical Education Department of Christ College, Irinjalakkuda, set green goals during FIFA and scored too - one goal, one tree! But attained a target much beyond according to what he claims, it has attained over 1500 fruit bearing local trees!! What a worthy way of celebrating the world mega fest!!
GREEN GOALS of FIFA 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA9UuKAJ9G4&t=434s
No comments:
Post a Comment