I have continued to watch and follow the beautiful game, save for my first few months in Bangalore. This is supposed to be a metro. Well, apparently a metro where people don’t give a damn about football. After taking a cable connection, I soon realized that I will have to beg with the cable guy to put on ESPNStar so that I could watch EPL. Pretty soon, Hathway had some issues with ESPNStar, which meant there was no way I could watch ESPNStar. On the weekends, I tried to pursue the cable operator to put on NEO Sports, at least I could watch Bundes Liga and Serie A. He would not budge, and I had to endure the interesting argument that “NEO Cricket and NEO Sports are the same”. It was tough to accept - in the small village of Vadakkethala, where I hail from, I could watch as much football as I wanted. In Malappuram, if you are a cable TV operator and don’t put on channels with football on, God save you. So Bangalore’s apparent indifference to football was frustrating.
I have enjoyed playing the game since I was a small kid, and that habit too has taken a hit since I came to Bangalore. The first time I went to play on a weekend, a guy with a Red and Gold shawl draped around his neck came to the ground and ordered everyone who couldn’t speak Kannada out of the ground. Since then, I have come to realize and acknowledge the power of the Red and Gold colors in Bangalore.
I do manage to play the game once in a while, mainly at a ground in JP Nagar. I am planning to soon join fellow Malayalees playing in a ground in Koramangala.
As for watching Football, I have bought a Videocon d2h which gives me all the sports channels I want, and all the Malayalam channels the diamond pack offers is an added advantage. No more arguments with the cable TV guy about NEO Sports and NEO Cricket being two channels.
I hope to watch and play a lot of football.