{"id":2734,"date":"2016-06-27T03:46:51","date_gmt":"2016-06-26T22:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2734"},"modified":"2016-06-27T03:46:51","modified_gmt":"2016-06-26T22:16:51","slug":"fifa-world-cup-2018-russia-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=2734","title":{"rendered":"How I Turned My Gujarati Husband Madly Bengali About Football"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"container page-content\"><p><span class=\"dropcap\">I<\/span><\/p><\/div><p>n the sultry June of 2014, I was pregnant with joy for two reasons.\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First, I was actually <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/gender\/international-day-of-the-girl-child-haryana-female-foeticide-pregnant-agents\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pregnant<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The stork had come visiting and the world had suddenly opened up to possibilities I hadn\u2019t ever envisioned as an young adult \u2014 \u00a0of becoming a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/modern-family\/mother-mothers-day-india-mumbai-parenting-school-mom\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mother<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, doing motherly things like ensuring that every morsel of my food intake is healthy, and looking at sharp corners in the house with fear without even having a baby in my arms yet.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And second, it was time for the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/humour\/fifa-world-cup-2018-russia\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FIFA World Cup<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/humour\/bengali-bhodrolok-nyaka-obhimaan-byomkesh\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bengalis<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will tell you, our entire quota of sports in one glorious month. For us, it\u2019s much like one large hit of a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/series\/do-it-like-arre\/the-art-of-rolling\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">joint<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most Bengalis are brought up on a generous dose of maacher jhol and football. Battle lines are drawn early in our lives when we are mandated to choose our loyalties between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, sometimes even before we learn to pronounce the team names. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact for my father\u2019s side of the family, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/sports\/fifa-football-world-cup-religion\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">football<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is as much a priority as having clean air to breathe. While growing up, he spent the better part of his days regularly chasing the ball with his brothers. Naturally, the baton was passed to our generation: My cousins have kept the flag waving high by winning every neighbourhood trophy ever. One of my earliest memories of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/people\/bengali-new-year-subho-nababarsha-calcutta-west-bengal-india-rabindra-sangeet\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">summer vacations<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> spent in Kolkata, is of these two tall men downing huge glasses of milk and hitting the ground wearing their <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/sports\/fathers-mothers-fifa-football-brazil-world-cup\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brazilian jerseys<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> every evening.<\/span>\n\n<blockquote class=\"quote--center\"><p>With every match, he channelled his inner nerd and ensured that his football IQ kept getting better.<\/p><\/blockquote> \n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Staying true to our illustrious football-loving family legacy, my father taught us the game very early on in our lives. He ensured that we sat and watched every East Bengal vs Mohun Bagan match on television yelling \u201cgoal\u201d and \u201cpenalty\u201d while most children were glued to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/scroll.in\/reel\/802764\/the-dd-files-giant-robot-obey-into-the-air-and-up-and-away\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Giant Robot<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or screamed \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pop-culture\/holding-on-to-he-man\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He-Man<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2026 And the Master of the Universe\u201d. We were taught the significance of picking sides. \u201cDon\u2019t just choose Brazil or Argentina because that\u2019s what everyone does. Swim against the tide \u2014 pick a team who is sheer joy to your eyes,\u201d Baba would often say. In the next few years, I would zero in on Germany for their clinical teamwork as opposed to the freestyle magic of the South Americans.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Years went by and my football watching partners changed \u2013 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/humour\/group-tuitions-school-students-coaching-classes-childhood-nostalgia\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">school friends<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, college buddies, colleagues. They came and they went. But, last World Cup, I was looking forward to share my couch and love for football with the husband for the first time.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back in 2010, he was the boyfriend who adeptly found some or the other excuse to make sure date night did not clash with game night. At that time, courageously flinging between the late matches and early work mornings, I couldn\u2019t be too bothered to change his mind.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But 2014 became the year I welcomed the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/grub\/gujaratis-despise-non-vegetarians-and-support-vegetarian-food-habits\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gujarati man<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the house to Manna Dey\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ztAHhC_wmq4\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSob khelar sera Bangalir tumi football\u201d<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (For Bengalis, football you\u2019re our favourite sport). In a delicious case of role-reversal, I patiently explained to him the basic rules of the game \u2013 the offside rule, penalty kick, corners \u2013 and seeing how serious I was about my devotion, he meticulously read up the rest on the internet. Since Gujarat is as clueless about football as Bengal is about a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/grub\/bengali-vegetarian-food-cuisine-india\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cpure veg\u201d<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> meal, he was puzzled about which team to adopt or which player to worship. I even lent him my favourite team Germany for the occasion. \u201cYou can cheer for Joachim Low\u2019s boys and pick a favourite among them for this year,\u201d I told him. He grinned and declared that he might just have his own favourites soon. I obviously doubted that.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While I knew that our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/modern-family\/maharashtrian-marwari-culture-marriage\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cross-cultural marriage<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was going to be one in which we \u00a0\u2014 in Bollywood speak \u2014 \u201ccelebrate our differences\u201d, football was something I didn\u2019t want to compromise on. To me, it was important that the man who had replaced Baba in our TV room had a basic understanding of the beautiful game. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To my surprise, my <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/gender\/spider-man-mary-jane-house-husband\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">husband <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">went much beyond his brief.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With every match, he channelled his inner nerd and ensured that his football IQ kept getting better. He promptly started memorising names of the players like some sort of a Bengali bot. Penalty shootouts had replaced <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Argo<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as his new edge-of-seat drama and he went all out in rejoicing in our collective wins. Unless Germany clashes with Portugal. Yes, he has a favourite team now, just as he had predicted. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During this time, I also started feeling tiny kicks and it was decided in the spur of the moment \u00a0\u2014 much like how a goal is scored \u2014 that the baby would be called Ochoa. A namesake of the Mexican goalie <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/blog\/2014\/jun\/18\/mexico-goalkeeper-guillermo-ochoa-internets-world-cup-brazil\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guillermo Ochoa<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> whom we both crushed on for his saving skills and luminous locks. Such was our sentimental determination that we were even prepared to call our daughter Ochoa, if it ever came to that. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But, we had a boy and the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/people\/daak-naam-bengalis-nick-names-west-bengal\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">daak naam<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> stuck as perfectly as a Bengali\u2019s fondness for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pop-culture\/satyajit-ray-pather-panchali-bengalis\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Satyajit Ray<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. My son\u2019s daak naam was obviously a hit with the Mukherjees (my side of the family of course), but the Parikhs remained flummoxed about the need for a daak naam in the first place and that too, one that was dedicated to a random Mexican footballer.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, my husband is unstoppable. He laps up Premier League games, has a favourite club (Real Madrid), and has watched every <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/sports\/ronaldo-messi-fifa-ballon-dor-player-of-the-year\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cristiano Ronaldo <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">documentary ever made. He even cites trivia like the Colombian footballer Escobar\u2019s unfortunate death while we binge on<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pop-culture\/narcos-cali-cartel-netflix-jorge-salcedo-javier-pena-pablo-escobar-cocaine-war-on-drugs\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Narcos<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Or how Pele\u2019s father also cleaned toilets while we do chores on Sundays. In fact, it was my husband who sent me a link to our captain <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/sports\/sunil-chhetri-football-mumbai-sport\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sunil Chhetri\u2019s<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ardent plea to Indian football fans and called it a \u201cballer move\u201d. Hell, he even planned a trip to Russia around the World Cup until we realised it was the first month of school for our little Ochoa.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m aware that my case isn\u2019t new or exclusive. I know way too many families who have burdened their kids with names like Messi, Maradona, or Zidane. Take the seven-year-old Rooney who hands Maa bread and eggs from the grocery store downstairs, for instance. Even <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/football\/fifa-world-cup-2018-as-kick-off-nears-kerala-is-on-a-ball\/story-mhY6l2mr0cpXjLbGuMRcxL.html%20)\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kerala<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Goa, and the North-Eastern states have their own share of Zizous, Neymars and Pogbas.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what makes me delirious with joy is that I have created an oasis in the unlikeliest of places; in Gujarat, a city that is more than happy with its lacklustre IPL. In fact, thanks to our Ochoa, the entire Gujarati clan knows a thing or two about football and its messiahs. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, I am armed with a team that may not necessarily go to cafes to watch football matches on a large screen, but one that cries for the losses and wakes up tired but ecstatic about the wins with me. A team that has a three-year-old Ochoa who kicks the ball with inherent skill, thanks to lessons from his Dadu. A team that didn\u2019t just survive our cross-cultural constraints but also defeated them. A team that has become possible only because of the love for Joga Bonito \u00a0\u2014 differences in cultures be damned.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Right now, I\u2019m just waiting for the day Little Ochoa picks his own jersey. Wonder if it will be Portugal, Germany, or Mexico? <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My Gujarati husband knew as little about football as I knew about a \u201cpure veg\u201d meal. I taught him the basics, and to my surprise, my husband went much beyond the brief. Now as I cheer for Germany, he prays for Portugal, and our son is called Ochoa after the Mexican goalkeeper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":2735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[394],"tags":[18,5504,396,5529,5530,944,5531,1726,1307,2018,353,5532,1274],"class_list":["post-2734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-family","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-game","tag-generations","tag-husband","tag-matches","tag-parents","tag-russia","tag-shehenshah","tag-sports","tag-tradition","tag-world-cup"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How I Turned My Gujarati Husband Madly Bengali About Football<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My Gujarati husband knew as little about football as I knew about a \u201cpure veg\u201d meal. 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Now as I cheer for Germany, he prays for Portugal, and our son is called Ochoa after the Mexican goalkeeper.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Runa Mukherjee","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2734#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2734"},"author":{"name":"Runa Mukherjee","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/7e8caf10ff16f801f33cc477c5324276"},"headline":"How I Turned My Gujarati Husband Madly Bengali About Football","datePublished":"2016-06-26T22:16:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2734"},"wordCount":1260,"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2734#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1529293486.jpg","keywords":["family","FIFA","football","game","generations","Husband","matches","Parents","Russia","Shehenshah","sports","tradition","World Cup"],"articleSection":["Sports"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2734","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2734","name":"How I Turned My Gujarati Husband Madly Bengali About Football","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2734#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2734#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1529293486.jpg","datePublished":"2016-06-26T22:16:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/7e8caf10ff16f801f33cc477c5324276"},"description":"My Gujarati husband knew as little about football as I knew about a \u201cpure veg\u201d meal. I taught him the basics, and to my surprise, my husband went much beyond the brief. Now as I cheer for Germany, he prays for Portugal, and our son is called Ochoa after the Mexican goalkeeper.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2734#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2734"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2734#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1529293486.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1529293486.jpg","width":1520,"height":850},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2734#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How I Turned My Gujarati Husband Madly Bengali About Football"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/","name":"Arr\u00e9","description":"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/7e8caf10ff16f801f33cc477c5324276","name":"Runa Mukherjee","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/699478a00536678a67ee6e508ba4c112f4b83d932244348d32866d3deedd7b15?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/699478a00536678a67ee6e508ba4c112f4b83d932244348d32866d3deedd7b15?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/699478a00536678a67ee6e508ba4c112f4b83d932244348d32866d3deedd7b15?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Runa Mukherjee"},"url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?author=160"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1529293486.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}