Grandfather, Gold Cup and Alu Chewra
The All India Governor's Gold Cup will kick off very soon, and I just felt like writing a bit about my earliest memories of this tournament, which were with my grandfather, Late Prakash Rai. Whenever I have had the opportunity, I have always shared with people how much my grandfather loved football. A small-time footballer himself in his younger days, football lived in his heart till his last breath. It had almost become a ritual in the 1990s that my grandfather would visit us during the Gold Cup in Gangtok. My father was no less a football fan, so the three of us would troop off to the Polo Ground in the afternoon to watch the matches. My father used to get off from his office after showing the match tickets. So Mr. Purna Rai would rush down from his office to join us and head for the stadium. Grandfather always carried his ubiquitous umbrella while going to the matches, though the chance of rain in October in Gangtok was very slim. No rain, no problem. The umbrella became hi...