Biggest Football Derby Match in the World !!!

Salt Lake Stadium, Calcutta hosting the Derby Match

Well on paper, one can say that its not the biggest. I know that Indian Football does not contain the kind of money and professionalism it requires to make me announce that its the biggest. But yes, if on the derby day somehow you manage to be in Calcutta, chances are that a crowd of supporters painted in red green or red yellow will force you to move only in one direction, towards the Salt Lake Stadium.

I haven't got the chance to visit and enjoy this moment, and I never knew that such is the passion you can see on the streets of Calcutta on a derby day! But then the moment I searched "Kolkata Derby or Calcutta Derby" I got a huge list of videos which literally gave me goosebumps! And then i researched through the history and came to this conclusion that yes, it is, the biggest match in the world in that season of football!

So, for those who do not know, the Kolkata Derby is the name given to the football match between the Mohun Bagan Club and the East Bengal Club. Now before getting into detail, I would like to share this trailer of a documentary video, which tried to explain why it is the biggest derby match...

Source : Youtube ; http://mohunbaganvseastbengal.com/

Well let us now understand the history of both the clubs.

Nickname : "THE MARINERS"

Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is one of the oldest football clubs in Asia. Established in the year 1889, it was the first Indian team to defeat a European team, when they defeated the East Yorkshire Regiment, 2-1 to lift the 1911 IFA Shield. Among many matches and cups, in 1977 Mohun Bagan played a friendly match against the famous North American Soccer League club New York Cosmos which featured Pelé.The match, which took place at Eden Gardens, had a match attendance of 80,000. The match ended 2-2 and a lot of the Bagan players got a lot of praise by the star packed Cosmos. 

Nickname : "Lal Holud"

East Bengal Football Club, on the other hand is founded in 1920 as East Bengal Club. More International in statistics, the club has represented India the most number of times in the Asian competitions, with its best performance being a semi-final berth in the AFC Cup 2013. East Bengal had also won ASEAN Club Championship in 2003. There are some interesting stories i found on the net associated with this club and i would like to share them here. The first about how the club was formed.On 28 July 1920 Mohun Bagan were scheduled to play Jorabagan in the Coochbehar Cup. Jorabagan sent out their starting eleven but with the notable exclusion of defender Sailesh Bose who was dropped from the squad for reasons not disclosed. The vice-president of Jorabagan, Suresh Chandra Chaudhuri, asked for Bose to be included in the line-up but the club coaches did not listen. Chaudhuri left the club due to this and, along with Raja Manmatha Nath Chaudhuri, Ramesh Chandra Sen, and Aurobinda Ghosh, formed East Bengal on 1 August 1920.
Another story is about the club emblem, the torch. This story also reflect the rivalry between EBC with Bagan. In 1930, India was swept over by Gandhi’s Satyagraha which had an effect on football. Indian clubs boycotted the ongoing Calcutta Football League midway through the season due to this. Amidst much confusion, Royal Regiment was declared winners in the first division. However, East Bengal, in spite of being well ahead in the second division, was not allowed to be promoted to the First Division. They suspected Mohun Bagan’s hand behind the league boycott to thwart East Bengal’s promotion to the First Division. Thousands of East Bengal fans and officials decided to hold a protest march at the East Bengal Ground. It was at this march that flaming torches were carried by the protestors. This gave the club officials the idea of a torch being the club emblem, which has stuck to this day.

THE RIVALRY

The two clubs currently meet at least 3 times a year, 2 in I-league and once in state league each. and more often if the clubs meet in other competitions like Federation Cup, IFA Shield, Durand Cup etc. Rivalry between the two teams is 89 years old, and features in the FIFA's classic derby list. The matches witness large audience attendance and rivalry between patrons.

Both the Kolkata superpowers have huge fan base across spreading all over the world. Both the clubs represent a specific class of Bengali people, Mohun Bagan represents people existing in the western part of Bengal while East Bengal is supported by people hailing from the eastern part of Bengal now Bangladesh. This is the fight between the natives and the immigrants.

The first major meeting between the two clubs occurred in 1925 and resulted in a 1-0 win for East Bengal in a Calcutta League match.In the return league of 1925 Mohun Bagan defeated East Bengal by 1-0. The result was repeated when the pair met for the first time in the prestigious IFA Shield in 1944. East Bengal’s semi-final triumph was all the more poignant due to Mohun Bagan’s historic and deep-seated affiliation with the tournament.

Though exact figures are disputed, the Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal clash reaches a historic milestone of 300 derby matches. East Bengal fans have got their noses comfortably ahead as they have won more than their city rivals. Till now, the Kolkata rivals East Bengal and Mohun Bagan have played 308 matches against each other. East Bengal has won 116, Mohun Bagan has won 86 and 106 matches have been drawn. East Bengal has scored 282 goals and Mohun Bagan 232.

The 1960s proved a golden period for Mohun Bagan and it concluded in perfect fashion for the Mariners. Having already won the league, Mohun then did the double, defeating their rivals on their own ground in the IFA Shield final. The 3-1 victory credited to the then revolutionary 4-2-4 formation employed by innovative coach Amal Dutta.

The wheel eventually turned, as happens in most such rivalries, and the 1970s was East Bengal’s decade. They lost only 1 derby in six years which culminated in a 5-0 IFA Shieldwin over their great rivals. The Red and Golds roared to a record 5-0 scoreline and, with it, a record of five consecutive Shield victories. Such was the ignominy surrounding the heavy defeat that several Mohun Bagan players spent the night holed up on a boat on the Ganges River trying to escape the wrath of shell-shocked supporters.

Arguably, the most memorable Kolkata derby of all took place in 1997 when a remarkable crowd of 131,000 – a record attendance for any sport in India – filled a heaving Salt Lake Stadium. Appropriately enough, India’s most recognisable footballer, Baichung Bhutia, took centre stage, scoring a hat-trick as East Bengal triumphed 4-1 in the semi-final of the Federation Cup. But he was unable to repeat his goal scoring heroics in the final, however, and his side lost against Salgaocar. Other memorable derbies got played in 2009 and 2005 when Mohun Bagan won 5-3 and East Bengal sealed the latter with 4-1.

The biggest margin of win was the victory of East Bengal by 5 goals to one. this match was played on 5th September 1975. One important aspect of this match was that one of the player from East Bengal played this match even though his mother passed away a few days ago. The winning side failed to scored one penalty also in the 11th minute, which if scored may had worsen the humiliation for their neighbors. Even the the shock of this match was so much for the Mohunbagan fans, that one fan committed a suicide after the match, writing on his suicide note that he will take the revenge in his next life by playing for the Mariners.

A fatal pandemonium occurred in the derby on 16th August, 1980 taking a toll of 16 young lives. This marks the darkest day of Indian football. As the referee gave Dilip Palit and Bidesh Basu the marching orders in the second half, the gallery burst into agitation. A stampede at the Eden Gardens resulted in the disaster.

Well, so such is the rivalry, and such is the passion of the crowd which goes to the Salt Lake Stadium to watch and their support their team. Searching on the figures I found out that now, this passion is somehow diminishing in the lights of Cricket, IPL, or ISL for that matter. But the one thing which remained at a constant level is the kind of aggression the two teams show in the field on the Derby Day. I never got a chance to see this with my eyes, but I would love to, and I hope that next time when I may get a chance to see this match, I experience the same old environment, one for which this is considered as the Biggest Football Derby Match !!!

And yes, if you want to know what it feels like to be a part of that mad crowd, watch this video:

And before I leave, to include in the end, i found many songs dedicated for these two clubs, and perhaps in the history of Indian Sports, including the so-called 'popular' teams of IPL, i don't think any team has such a large number of songs representing it...!!!
Here are some of those songs:

 

And lastly, still you think its not the world's biggest football rivalry, well...

This man took his club's flag and hoisted it on Mount Everest !!!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=861536&l=7af7ff193a&id=140954695932203

So, where is MohunBagan??? Well, they too went there and hoisted their flag !!!

Source : 
http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/clubs/rivalries/newsid=1414458/index.html

http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/1064/i-league/2015/02/17/3737569/updated-11-facts-you-must-know-about-the-kolkata-derby

http://eastbengalvsmohunbagan.blogspot.in/

http://calcuttawalks.com/tag/kolkata-derby/

Book Review - Ramayana : The Game of Life : Shattered Dreams (Book 2)

Title: Ramayana: The Game of Life: Shattered Dreams (Book 2)
Author: Shubha Vilas
Publisher: Jaico Publishing House
ISBN: 978-81-8495-531-6
Number of Pages: 387
Price: 350 [INR]
Genre: Mythology


To Start with, when you see a book with a title something like this, first thought which will come into your mind is it can be another rendition of a mythological tale, but then the the phrase "game of life" which is very nicely fitted into the cover page, hints of something unusual of that usual tale we listened throughout our life. And yes it is, its like a pundit giving life lessons referencing to various events of that epic, Ramayana. 

The book is the sequel to the national bestseller, Rise of the Sun Prince, and the story starts with the riveting drama of Rama's exile, subsequent to the twelve years since wedding of Rama and Sita which was covered in the first part.

Before letting you to taste the dish, i would like to you to first smell the aroma. The Book is not about a mythological story, but its a motivational lesson for one towards the hardships of life. With the events which happened with the Rama's life, the author tries to teach us some life lessons, of how to tackle those reversals, of how to proceed with positivity, of how to handle the various temptations, of how to think out of our zone.

The Ramayana story majorly inspired by Valmiki Ramayana, it involves work from Kamba Ramayana and Ramacharitmanas. Along with this it involves the philosophical anecdotes from the Loka Pramana tales , all threaded together to depict the relevance of this ancient epic into modern life.

The Book is divided into nine chapters, all having a lesson to handle the reversals positively. 

It all starts with the event when Dasarath asks Rama to leave home, because of the the schemes of Manthara and Kaikayee, the two characters who halted the Dasarath's plans of making Rama, the king, and let the helpless father see his sons leaving home. And yes, no matter how many times you would have listened to these stories, the beautiful description of all the characters and events will surely stick you with the  book. The obliged son, Rama who accepted this as an order by his father; the sorrow of the people of Ayodhya; True devotee of his elder brother, Bharatha getting angry over the things, his sincerity; as well as Laxman's undying love to his brother which let Urmila sacrifice; these all events; the writer has done complete justice to the all these scenes and very beautifully described their relevance in the current life scenario on the first hand. These are in the form of footnotes, which include the lessons which we can take from these events. With so many great ideas and lessons with the story, time spent reading these with the events will completely leave you spellbound.

“…she then wove an imaginary garland around Rama’s neck by moving her beautiful eyes and smiled again”.

The Romance of Rama and Sita has been portrayed beautifully with some very poetic lines as given above.

And there is lot more to read which will completely mesmerize you while you turn every new page.

What a fantastic description is given for every character and event which we would have never listened to, no matter how many times we heard this story, you will surely get some interesting new knowledge about the story. Another good thing is that even if you hadn't read the first part, it would hardly affect your reading. Also if you dislike books that teach life lessons, you can have a try to read a completely new narration of the story with some great detailing at various places. 

The language and narration of the book is fantastic and will surely make it interesting till you turn the last page. I will surely recommend this book to all type of readers. 

My Rating : 3.5/5

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program  for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books

एक पोटली

""जाने का दिन है आज,एक पोटली लेकर जा रहा हूँ...
यादों की पोटली,
दोस्तों की पोटली,
वो पल जब सब थे, हम थे,

ज़िंदगी ने कई दिन दिखाए हैं,
दोस्तों के संग कई रंग दिखाये हैं,
इन रंगों को अपनी पोटली में ठूस के,
जाने का दिन है आज, ये पोटली लेकर जा रहा हूँ...

खुशियों के मौसम देखे हैं मैंने यहाँ,
गमों की धूप में, सुकून की छाप देखि है मैंने यहाँ,
कुछ पल मस्ती के, कुछ पल सुस्ती के देखे हैं मैंने यहाँ,
इन पलों को लेके जा रहा हूँ आज,
जाने का दिन है आज, ये पोटली लेकर जा रहा हूँ....

एक प्यार मिला था मुझे यहाँ,
कितना साफ दिल मिला था मुझे यहाँ,
आज बिछड़ना पड़ेगा, लेकिन,
इस दिल में तेरे प्यार को लेकर जा रहा हूँ,
जाने का दिन है आज, ये पोटली लेकर जा रहा हूँ....

कितने सारे लोग थे वहाँ,
कितने अच्छे, कितने सच्चे,
इस सच्चाई को लेकर जा रहा हूँ आज,
इन पलों को, इन दिनों को, इन लम्हों को लेकर जा रहा हूँ आज,
जाने का दिन है आज, एक पोटली लेकर जा रहा हूँ आज....!!!!

बचपन

नादानी.... पागलपन..... दिल का नाकाफीपन.....!!!!!

अनमोल..... सुनहरा..... बचपन.....!!!!

LIFE...??

#Life
दिनभर घूमने के बाद आज दिन भर के दो दृश्य मन पर हावी हो रहे हैं..... भरी बरसात के बीच सड़कों पर भीगते हुए किसी दूसरे गाँव की चाय की दुकान पर मौसम का मज़ा लेते लेते आज दो ज़िंदगियों को देखकर मन मैं एक सवाल उठा.... पहले दृश्य मैं एक बूढ़े बाबा, आर्थिक रूप से कमजोर रहे होंगे, मोटे लेंस के चश्मे मैं, आगे के दाँत टूटे हुए, मन पर ऐसा गुस्सा मानो बादलों को डांट रहे हों, मैले से, गीले, कुर्ते और धोती में, साथ में उनके, एक लड़की थी, जवान, बाल बिखरे हुए, गंदा सा, कीचड़ साने कपड़े पहने हुए, पर उसके हाव भाव देखकर पता चला की वो शायद मानसिक रूप से थोड़ी कमजोर थी, बूढ़े बाबा, सहारे की आस में, अपनी बेटी को सहारा देते, उसका हांथ पकड़ कर क्खींचते हुए चले जा रहे थे, शायद उसको, उसके सबसे सुरक्षित ठिकाने, अपने घर जा रहे थे, और धीरे धीरे वे ओझल हो गए.... खैर मैं फिर गरमा गरम मंगोड़ों के मज़े लेते दुकान पर बाहर हो रही बारिश में खो गया.... दूसरे दृश्य में इसी बीच उस दुकान पर, एक अधेड़ उम्र की, 45-50 साल की महिला रही होगी, गाँव की सादी शैली मैं, उनके साथ एक छोटा 8-10 साल का बच्चा रहा होगा, शायद उनका पोता, या नाती था, तेज़ बारिश से बचते गाँव जाने के साधन की तलाश में, गरमा गरम मंगोड़े निकलते देखे, तो ममता भी जाग गयी, अपने पोते को मनाते हुए, प्यार करते, ध्यान देते हुए, अपने पल्लू की गांठ खोलकर, पैसे निकाकर, उसे बड़े प्यार से मंगोड़े खिला रही थी, नि-स्वार्थ..... मेरा निकालने का समय हो गया था, बारिश के बीच गाड़ी में बैठकर, मैं निकाल तो आया, पर सोच से नहीं निकाल पाया, ज़िंदगी या ज़िंदगियाँ, हम हमारे तक सीमित रहते हैं, बाकी अपने तक, पर सब अपने लिए रहते हुए भी, अपने से जुड़ी ज़िंदगियों की परवाह करते हैं, प्यार से, ममता से, सुरक्षा देने की भावना से, अपने चारों ओर कितनी सारी ज़िंदगियाँ रहती हैं, सब अपनी अपनी ज़िंदगी लीन.....

""ये एक लौ है क्या ....???
जो कभी बुझती ही नहीं...
ये एक धार है क्या...??
जो कभी रुकती ही नहीं...
ये एक कारवां है क्या....???
जिसकी कोई मंज़िल नहीं...
एक कोई निशान है क्या...??
जितना मिटाओ, कभी मिटता नहीं...
ये एक, रास्ता है क्या...???
अंत जिसका कभी किसी ने देखा नहीं...
जरा पता तो लगाओ.... ये कौनसी बला है....
जो हर तरफ दिखती है, और कभी टलती नहीं....
पता तो लगाओ... कहीं ज़िंदगी तो नहीं....???!!!

Book Review : Shoes of the Dead by Neelima Kota

Title : SHOES of the DEAD
Author : Kota Neelima
Publisher : Rupa Publishing

ISBN :978-81-291-2396-1

Genre : Political Fiction
Pages : 274
Language : English
Edition : Hardcover
Price : Rs. 495
Website : www.kotaneelima.com

Book Source : BlogAdda

About the Author :
Kota Neelima is a political editor with The Sunday Guardian and a Research Fellow for South Asia Studies at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC. Her previously published work includes the novels Riverstones and Death of a Moneylender.

My Review :
A Political Fiction... This book will show you the true path of Rural India,part of our country  untouched by the "governing gods" and there is an inside story behind the manipulation of facts for the sake of political agenda. There is nothing mystery, no thriller, its a straight forward story, rather a serious one, which will tell you the story behind the curtains of so-called "Democratically elected representatives" and their "Hard-Work" for the upliftment of the society. Starting with the Cover, you will see the contrasting pictures of a dry arid farm land, and the mecca of democracy, it is on its own a sarcastic picture of our country.

The story is about the rising number of deaths, particularly the suicides by the farmers, because of their huge amounts of debts to the banks and the money lenders, the humiliation caused to them, for the loan recovery is also one of the important reason for their suicides. Obviously, this number of farmer suicides can be vary disturbing for a nation building up its image as a leading country of the world, and when it comes to the farmers death, it affect the local authorities as well, pressurize them to do something, and the one who is at the centre of this, is the local representative. And the main reason for the pressure is the increasing opposition by the locals, by the families of the farmers, and by the political opponents. The story moves with the plot and revolves around the every powerful conspiring corner, telling the readers, each and every tactics by the powerful to shut the mouth of the weaker, to change the story within nights, and to glorify self-image as the helper rather than making an image of an inoperative representative.

The whole plot is set around a newly elected MP, who is also a son of a powerful leader of the governing party, this MP, named Keyur Kashinath, is facing problems with the increasing number of farmers' suicide in his constituency, and the increasing number of media stories about it, and was therefore, searching for the ways, to change his inert image, and show the media that he is doing something. Previously, he was getting help by a local money lender, and a maha-sarpanch of that district, both are the members of the district level committee along with money lenders, bank mangers, district collector, agriculture officer etc., and which was set up to examine each suicide case, and declaring whether it is because of infertile land or loan-debts, and thereby giving the compensation for the respective widows and their families, these two as instructed by Keyur were constantly disqualifying the suicide cases as a case because of loan-debts and therefore making down the farmer suicide toll. One such disqualified case, was of Sudhakar Bhadra who commits suicide because of the loan debts. To get the justice, his brother Gangiri, a teacher in city, comes to village, and fights with the system, with his limited resources. Somehow, Gangiri manage to become a part of this committee, and then after his arrival, he influence, other votes and thereby most of the cases are now qualifying as the debt related suicides, and the number of farmers suicides rise again in the area, worrying the MP, Keyur, for which he start conspiring against Gangiri. But, somehow, with the help of a reporter Nazar Prabhakar, and a researcher and wife of the local industrialist, Videhi, Gangiri learn out the whole plot against him, and get necessary measures for his safety. Failing in his conspiracy, Keyur, make mistakes one-by-one leading to a situation where he comes to the spotlight in the media, and get his image spoiling because of his mistakes. The Story, then leads to a very uneasy end, never expected, but what a brave, a rebel, against our system, leads to, the sacrifices, its very sad, though it is much realistic, in our system.

The Characterization is beautiful, and the story never get weak in any part. However, you will find a slow pace of the story in the beginning, but it turns out to be an important part to understand the whole plot, and characters. There are some very good moments, where you will never put the book down. There were some very good descriptive parts, for things like ending evenings, or lonely homes. The fact is, inspite of raising too many questions to the system, Neelima made it still an enjoyable read. Overall, this is a good read and I do recommend it.
 
My Rating : 3.5/5


This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

Soldiers are in our Society !

When I am writing this post, a thing which is not tolerable is again happened in our country. I am talking about the ghoulish crime report of rape in our national capital. A brutal crime with a 5 year old girl child. How can one do that...??? Why...??? Where is the Humanity...??? For God Sake.... How one can get such disgusting ideas in mind...??!! And then, who can forget "Damini" who fought with the death just to make sure that the world that the enemies of mankind will get punished. And yes though she is not here, her enemies are feeling the guilt. infact, one of them attempted suicide death. But the thing arise, why, with such disgusting mind, how...???
But the system is corrupt, full of faults, and the people know it. That is why the Protests, Heavy protest started again, and who can forget that historical moment, when scores of people gathered at the Rajpath to show the sympathy with Damini, to show anger against the system, to get assurance from the nation's supreme. And if this mob includes women, it also had a large amount of men. My Salute is to all those Men who stood up against such a brutality, with one voice, with one vision to change such divagate minds among their fraternity. These men stood up, with one voice, that they will never let the same thing happen, that they will restore the status of Devi, that they will always respect the devi, the feminine power.

I would also like to give respect to that man, the friend of the "Damini", who stood up, despite thinking of what would others will consider him as, and showed up on the TV with all those wounds he got from the system, from the humanity, and described how was they treated that night. His Intentions were clear, to show the society its real face, the dark side, where no one cares, where there is no sensitivity. He stood up to save, to respect the half population. He is a hero.

 And then, this photograph, look at the anger, on the face of that girl child, angry because, she knew that she came into a society where the Goddesses are worshiped, and where the women are used as toys, but i am damn sure that she knew, she was in the safer hands, assured by her father. I would consider her father as a Hero, that he stood up against such crime in delhi, and then came along his doll, to show up that he is there, men like him are there, and they will always be there, to assure the half population, that they will be respected, that they will be much safer, and will be protected against the devils of society.
I am not specifying anyone, take this in broader way, that the soldiers, who can stand up for the women, are here, in our society only, they can be a father, friend, brother, they also knew that some among them are criminals, and they also want to assure that those criminal minds would learn the lesson, the lesson to respect,
and with such soldiers available in the society, i am sure, the change is near.

This post is a part of #Soldierforwomen in association with BlogAdda.com