India awaits Samba on Twelfth Night

Almeida is just one of the millions of Indians who are waiting for a Brazilian victory in tomorrow’s World Cup final against France. For them, only one team on earth matters. They have been with them, World Cup after World Cup through the generations of Pele and Zico and Ronaldo. No other nation gets such a passionate response from Indians as Brazil does the support is across the country and almost unanimous.

Ask three-time World amateur billiards champion Michael Fereira why he throwshis weight behind Brazil “They’ve given us so much pleasure in terms of a beautiful style of play, ball control and lovely skills. It would be sad if they lost,” says Fereira.

Ex-Test cricketer Dilip Vengsarkar, has been a Brazilian fan all through. Ask him about the World Cup final and he shows a thumbs up sign. “I would be rooting for Brazil,” he says. Actor Akshaye Khanna who finds time to watch the World Cup matches despite his busy schedule says he will support the Brazilians “as they have Samba in their football.”

In Calcutta, actress Madhabi Chakraborty says, “Brazil is the team of my love.” Age does not matter for the passion called Brazil. “I was to go to my maths tutor the morning after the final,” says Aniket Sengupta, a Class XI student of South Point School in Calcutta, “but my tutor says I can skip it that day only if Brazil wins. He and I hope Brazil makes it.”

Theatre personality Rudraprasad Sengupta is a trifle worried though. “(Zinedine) Zidane is such a schemer. And,Ronaldo hasn’t quite given his best, maybe because of his knee injury. But I pray to God he blazes at the final. I pray he gets both the golden boot and the golden ball,” says Rudraprasad.

Calcutta does not celebrate any other team. The city walls on south Calcutta’s Harish Mukherjee Road, which come alive during all major sport events, have portraits of only the Brazilian heroes. It is virtually the same scene on World Cup graffiti everywhere else in the city. The scene is quite similar in faraway Kochi or Pune, though the fans are not so open about their favourites like the Calcuttans. Rahul Kondwilkar, a Pune student, says: “There is no question of choice. Brazil is four-time champs and France has rarely shown interest in the event.”

Across India, they have different reasons for rooting for Brazil. For some it is the empathy for a developing country. “Indian hearts will be with Brazil. Emotionally we tend to side developing countries which may not exactly be a good thing from a purely sportingpoint of view,” says Fereira.

For others, seduced by the charm of Brazilian football, it’s just an addiction. Cricketer Ajit Agarkar likes “Brazil for their beautiful style of play.” Model and actor Rahl Bose loves “their style as they have so much of rhythm and dance in their game.”

“No other team in the world plays such a colourful game as Brazilians play. You cannot miss a single minute of match when Brazil is playing,” adds Bose.

Though some Indians have another favourite in Argentina, most of them seem to shift their loyalty to Latin America’s football giant when their team falls in the World Cup. In the beats of the Brazilian samba, the lone voices of support for other countries just drown. Like veejay and actress Ruby Bhatia’s. “I am supporting France despite knowing that Brazil are the favourite to win the World Cup,” she says.