Remember the Titans

If you have disposable time and flare for regional linguistic variations, take a ride through the roads, streets and lanes of this part of the globe. The glistening flex boards and rustling festoons transport you to another world where every other identity—otherwise rearing its ugly head every now and then—has erased itself. Football has percolated to the nook and cranny of Areekode and Kondotti and Manjeri. Behind the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze, portraits of Pele, Maradona, Roony and Kaka smile at the passer by—stop here or gently pass, if you can.

Mirth and frenzy apart, the visual extravaganza speaks volumes of the zeitgeist and weltanschauung of a cultural terrain that has carved a unique niche in the history of Kerala. Known as the Mecca of Kerala football, Areekode houses a string of education institutes that have been pivotal in the overall social harmony the place enjoys. Look around and you can’t help suspecting whether you have landed in Buenos Aires or Sao Paulo. That can well be an exaggeration. The Latin American cities are not perhaps as abuzz as the football crazy local towns, to go by the media reports trickling in.

Though hilarious and apparently innocuous, the hues and words strewn everywhere betray a silent dimension. An uncanny concoction of popular culture, adages, religion and identity, it can be poured into any number of carafes and written about reams on end.

The most pungent of the recipe is the heap of dialogues lifted out of blockbuster movies, especially mouthed by the senile superstars. They are not plagiarisms like the doctoral dissertations produced in Kerala but deftly customized with added nuances. Only those winding cinematic speeches which thrilled the audience by means of veiled references to warfare and religiosity have found a place in the hoardings. No wonder, some others have picked up religious rhetoric to lend credence to their claims. Argentinean fans are miles ahead in this regard. The fact that the disciples of Maradona sweated to the final round is treated not as a stroke of luck but interpreted as an inevitability, something divinely determined and executed. To remind and reinforce the reality (that is for the supporters of Brazil), they freely use the term “unbeliever”, a term that the Koran uses to address those who prefer to tread a path different from that blazed by the Prophet.

In Malayalam there is a proverb to the effect that half a quail is good enough for a thousand chickens: aayirum kozhikku ara kaakka. The Brazilians fanfares use it with a slight deviation: aarirum Messikku ara kakka, half a Kakka, the Brazilian defender is enough to tackle a thousand Lionel Messies! Not to be outdone, the other section has come up with a hoarding that features a beleaguered Kakka unsuccessfully trying to rein in a charging Messy. At the bottom we read kuthiraye thalakkan kakkayo (Can a crow control a horse?). Kakka, in Malayalam, means crow. As a rule, the Argentinean fans find their existence in relation to the five time champions Brazil. Virtually every single slogan seeks to downplay the Brazilian squad.
How do others fare? Of course there are hardcore fans of France, England, Germany, Italy and Mexico. Though the teams are strong enough to lift the title, the fans are sober and mature in their expressions. Instead of targeting other teams and staking whopping claims, they highlight the relative merit of each team and remain hopeful. The wait is almost over.