A day at the Nehru Cup

An ardent supporter of the Indian football team, I have never missed a game since the 2009 Nehru Cup. However, in this article I’ll focus on my experience of attending the high-voltage India vs Nepal encounter in the capital.

With the kick-off slated at 7 PM, I was having serious doubts about whether or not I should go for it, following the torrential monsoon rain in the hours leading up to the game. Finally, at around 6:15 I finally decided to attend it, keeping my 100% attendance record intact.

Seating myself in the facing grandstand, I noticed that the Indians were spread out over the stands while the Nepalese had consolidated themselves in the North Stand. The Indian support, apart from being sparse, was not being vocal at all, but I was happy to spot the Sardarji in the Indian cricket kit jersey (the man who gets the whole crowd going in all India games). The first half went by, with what was basically a war of songs between Indian and Nepali fans. The Indians sang, the Nepalis sang and so it went on. To my ears, it was pretty loud from both sides. Apparently not.

After the first half finished, I went over to the sardarji and introduced myself, and found out his name was Amitoj. Just as we began talking however, my friend Suyash, who was incidentally a photographer for this very website, came over to our stand and kindly informed us that we were making no noise at all. What followed was one of the most patriotic feelings of all. Outnumbered in our own country? Hell no!

What we did then, was we gathered the few cheerleaders and people with vuvuzelas, flags and anything to garner support. We planned our operation to collect every Indian in the stadium and to fortify our sector. So Amitoj, Vivian, Soan, Anniruddh, a few co-operative policemen and I went to every corner of the stand and gathered every Indian.

A co-operative policeman

Many came, other stayed back however what followed was something historical. Around 2000 Indians all standing. All clapping and cheering. Indian domination on the field. A neck and neck battle of the fans off it.

Indian Ultras?

“India-India” – “Nepal-Nepal” – “Gorkhali-Gorkhali” – “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”

At the end of the game, the Blue Tigers came to applaud us, however it wasn’t nearly close to the cheers the Nepali team gave to their fans. What we wanted was a Dortmund-ish applause for the fans, but to have that kind of commitment from the team I think we need it off the field too.

I urge all my Indian brothers to come to the stadium to support your team for Friday’s encounter with Cameroon. After all, it’s your team, your people and that pride will never be replicated by supporting Man United, City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Milan and I could go on but I have a feeling that I’ve made my point!

We shall be meeting around 6 PM on Friday at the JLN Metro Station. Buy tickets for the East stand (Rs150) Be there! Be Blue and let’s be freakin loud!

Finally,Jeetega Bhai Jeetega!INDIA JEETEGA!