India News | Revellers Continue Celebrations Across Bengal, Day After Argentina's World Cup Glory
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Football fans in soccer-crazy Bengal on Monday continued the party that started minutes after Argentina trounced France in a nail-biting final, as celebrations of varied nature were on display across the state.
Kolkata, Dec 19 (PTI) Football fans in soccer-crazy Bengal on Monday continued the party that started minutes after Argentina trounced France in a nail-biting final, as celebrations of varied nature were on display across the state.
Overnight revelry with cars honking their approval of football wizard Lionel Messi's feat, people making merry on the streets and crackers being burst went on till the early hours of the morning.
Morning walkers at Kolkata's Rabindra Sarobar sported Argentina colours, while tea shops that opened early saw fans congregating to celebrate the South American nation's world cup win after 36 years.
In Deshapriya Park area of the metropolis, a tea shop is offering the beverage free of cost for the entire day on Monday to commemorate Argentina's victory. “Tea free for Argentina win”, read small banners placed on the shop's wooden exterior.
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Most clubs and many 'paras' (localities) had put up big screens and projectors to show the final match on Sunday night.
CPI(M) leader and social worker Saira Shah Halim, who is also actor Naseeruddin Shah's niece, said she celebrated her “favourite footballer and team's victory” at the CCFC Club near her home in south Kolkata, where “almost all members had converged to watch the big game”.
“The party will continue today after my work for the day ends,” said Halim, who fought the recent assembly by-election from Ballygunge for her party.
Bengali actor Saheb Bhattacharya, son of former India striker Subroto Bhattacharya, said he rushed back from a show to watch the closing minutes of the “grand final” and once assured that his “team Argentina had won an astounding victory”, organised an impromptu street party of fellow actors and actresses.
“We will party on with an Argentine menu, which my mother has promised to cook,” Saheb, who acted in a few movies directed by Satyajit Ray's son Sandip, said.
The border town of Siliguri in north Bengal, which is the gateway to the equally football-loving northeast, too, had riotous celebrations, with motorcyclists and car drivers circling around the streets.
In the industrial town of Asansol, ladoos were distributed in the morning in several localities as fans danced to the tune of drums and waved Argentine flags.
However, 35 km away from Kolkata in Chandannagore – a former French colony with Parisian ties - gloom settled in at midnight, even as the rest of the country celebrated Argentina's triumph.
A morose Bikas Shaw, resident of Chandannagore said, “Yes, there is a sense of gloom... but Chandannagore is proud of France's performance yesterday."
Meanwhile, prices in fish markets across Kolkata shot up, especially of ‘Hilsa' and prawn, which are delicacies favoured by fans of the popular East Bengal and Mohun Bagan football clubs.
“Fishes and poultry has been selling briskly through the day. World cup win celebrations are not going to end anytime soon it seems,” said Sukumar Das, 54, a fish-seller at Baishnabghata market in Kolkata.
Liquor sales, too, were breezy since Sunday evening in bars and wine shops.
“Sales spiked, especially in popular restaurants and pubs, and at places where large screens were installed for the final match,” the owner of a Kolkata-based food chain said.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)