Ronjan (pronounced ‘Ronyon’) had blue eyes, blond hair and
walked nonchalantly to join a group of Indian boys playing football on the
beach. He was probably 8 then and the rest averaged 11. Whereas some of these
Indian boys were only a little older than him, he firmly was the kid. Now, this
group had never really refused the company of anybody who had wanted to play. Not
even when 'Baboosh' who did wheelies on his cycle before descending to play with
the mortals, turned up and chose the team he wanted to play with and made some
positional adjustments – all before the first kick of the ball. Back to Ronjan.
That here was a kid with the latest Adidas football used in World Cup ’82 clinched
the deal that would anyway have been clinched.
Ronjan played well – stopped the ball, kicked it with some
sense of aim and ran all the time – and earned the somewhat begrudging respect
of the Indian boys. He did things which the other were not used to. For instance,
even when his team lost the ball, he wouldn’t scurry back to protect the goal
like the rest. Rather, he took up position somewhere near half way. Much later
on we realized that he was thinking a few steps ahead of us. He only spoke English
and introduced his favorites – Beckenbauer, Cruyff and others. Basically it
grew the pantheon of football heroes to the number four. Pele, of course was one
of the other names which was conveniently close to the Tamil ‘pela’, somebody
who showed off. It should come as no surprise that Baboosh was fully convinced
that he was Rossi.
Born to a Bengali man and a German woman (blonde and blue eyed), Ronjan spent three
to four months of the year in Madras (that’s what it was in the 80s). At his
home there were videos – football training videos and old television footage that he
invited us to watch. Quickly the group got divided into fans of Beckenbauer and
Cruyff. For some it was the color of the jersey, for some the identity of the
winner, for a few the athleticism of play (which meant they didn’t take sides)
and for some the ballet like aesthetic of No. 14 orange jersey. Football was
becoming complicated, simple, plain and beautiful…all at the same time. That was
around when color television came to India. And with it came Becker
and Maradona. India won the Cricket World Cup in England. Right
after school everyone played cricket. And though it is difficult to put a date
to it, for some playing football all evening at the beach became something you
just did. A few were really good at it but most of us were just having a good
time. Along came football shows discussing the games of the 70s.
The pantheon
grew. Ajax, Barcelona, the coach on the sidelines, stadium
tragedies, people in tears because the team they love lost, people in tears
because the team they love won, and what not. It was just as well that a little
8 year old had already gotten us hooked. I think it is impossible to rationally
quantify the impact that Ronjan and Cruyff had on that group of Indian boys,
just happy that it all happened.
RIP Johan Cruyff. RIP.
