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My cousins smile at my little joke and continue with their sports chatter. I've no idea who's playing who in the eternal round robin of the European football leagues, nor do I care. Don't get me wrong – I do think football is a beautiful game and once every four years I pick the wrong team and thank the lord above for giving us beer to drown our sorrows in. I just don't care to follow the undeniably talented yet obscenely paid mercenaries who gurn across the world's screens day in, day out.
It's impossible to say in what proportions a Manchester United fan, who's not a Mancunian, cares about the city of Manchester, the quality of football it purveys, and the glamour attached to its multi-billion dollar global franchise. One suspects there are plenty who claim to love football, but are equally enamoured of the glitz. Getting local United fans to follow the national leagues of Nepal might be the acid test. Would they rather head to a bar and be transported to Old Trafford or hike down to the Rangsala to catch Manang Marshyandi vs Police Club? Better still, how about a trip to Sonpur, Bihar, to see a youth club from Birganj battle against a 'running tie sheet' of regional Indian teams?
Oh, the glamour! The boys featured in Girish Giri's sports documentary Team Nepal, 2005, (pictured) reach Sonpur to find they are to put up in a train carriage for the duration of the 'Late JN Singh Memorial Football Tournament'. They do so, most cheerfully, and in full knowledge of just how far away they are from the glory of their Premier League idols. Fingering a football jersey, one of the lads quips:
"Maile Chelsea bata lyaeko!"
The others laugh. "Chelsea kun desh ma cha thahacha?"
"Malai Lampard le diyeko..."
"Lampard!"
"Chelsea ma toilet sapha garne thees hola haha!"
Jokes aside, the joy of playing for a local club (for Rs 100), and in their own understanding 'representing' Nepal against Bihar, elevates these boys above the mercenary footballers Nepali youth so idolise. If only we could bring ourselves to support the countless sportsmen and sportswomen who truly represent us, rather than saving our callow jingoism to counter perceived insults.
Sport, of course, in the words of Mandela, 'has the power to unite people in a way that little else does.' Search for Common Ground has taken this quite literally by supporting the production of parallel television series in seven countries that follow the trials of a football team cobbled together from all parts. NGO-fied it may be, but Nepal's Hamro Team is possibly the best-made program ever to be broadcast on Nepali television (which admittedly isn't saying much). Judging by the positive response, Hamro Team has tapped into a reservoir of passion not just for the sport of football, but for the ideal of a national team that draws on the full strength of Nepal's socio-cultural and ethnic diversity and works together to achieve, literally, 'goals'.
The irony of course is that Hamro Team is a microcosm of Nepal in much the same way the CA was meant to be. I am not going to insult the reader's intelligence by casting about with the hope that our past, present and future MPs and PMs will manage to coexist in a state of exalted harmony. A parliament represents a country in a rather more complicated manner than a national team does. But the lesson's there to be learnt. It may seem naïve to hope for life to imitate art, but in some sense Team Nepal the documentary is a real life reflection of Hamro Team the TV series. Even at this late stage, it's not impossible to believe that the aspirations of millions of individuals will not coalesce into collective achievement at the highest level.
Read also:
Flavor's Cafe
See also:
Crossborder football, NARESH NEWAR
A quaint film about a Birganj club playing in Bihar is the Nepali entry at Film South Asia next week
