So far so good – the 15x15ft tenement in Austin Town, whose tiled roof is propped up by new bamboo poles, is holding up to the rains. The last time it rained heavily, the front wall of Nirmal Kumar’s house collapsed and the place was flooded.
But the repair has worked, thankfully, and 10 young men are huddled in the tenement watching their favourite team Argentina play. The footage on the small TV screen is grainy, and all are quiet as they watch, breaking into celebration only when Argentina go 1-0 up.
“We have to build a statue to Maradona,” contemplates Nirmal as he is reminded of the Pele statue in Gowtampura, which is entirely pro-Brazil. Austin Town, on the other hand, is crazy about Argentina, and Nirmal and his friends went around the area painted in blue-and-white, banging on drums. Everybody understands. Nearly every household in the lower middle-class locality has a football player. For this World Cup, they ordered 20 Argentina jerseys from someone in Kolkata.
