Retd couple get ready for World Cup No. 7

Pannalal Chatterjee, 73, and wife Chaitali Chatterjee, 63, don’t play football. Nor have they won any of the special ‘‘go-to-World Cup’’ offers.

Pannalal Chatterjee, 73, and wife Chaitali Chatterjee, 63, don’t play football. Nor have they won any of the special ‘‘go-to-World Cup’’ offers. But the passion to watch the ball rolling on the ground is drawing this middle-class couple to Germany. In fact, this is the seventh time that they will be watching the World Cup at the match venue itself.

For decades, the Chatterjees have been economising on their monthly expenditures, keeping aside a certain sum to make it to the World Cup venues every four years. Pannalal is now retired, but saves part of his pension every month.

‘‘During my youth, I played football. A friend of ours suggested that we should watch the matches live, instead of on television. So I started saving a part of my salary, and we went for the 1982 World Cup in Spain. This was just the beginning,’’ said Pannalal.

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The couple followed up the Spain visit with the other World Cups — in Mexico, Italy, America, France, Japan. And now they are ready to leave for Germany on June 22. The Chatterjees say other football fans too can afford this. ‘‘Travel agencies’ packages are costly. There are ways to manage cheaply. Surf the Internet, stay as paying guests, spend wisely,’’ advised Chaitali.

CPM, Trinamool rooting for Brazil

KOLKATA: Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee may be an exception. Football does not interest him like cricket does. But the rest of his party comrades at Alimuddin Street, like most of the state, are in the grip of the World Cup fever. Leading from the front is CPI(M) State secretary Biman Bose, an ardent football fan. Though he usually rallies behind socialist nations like Russia and China, he seems to be undecided on who to support this time.

Prisoners to watch matches too

KOLKATA: This World Cup brings good news for those behind bars in jails across the state. For the first time, they will be allowed to watch the matches on TV. Earlier, some inmates had appealed to both Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi and Minister for Jails Biswanath Choudhury regarding the same. The State Government has now sanctioned TV sets for the jails. ‘‘The inmates made an appeal to the Governor during his visit to the Darjeeling jail. The minister got similar request during visits to different jails.