Kerala   

Victims of football fever

Sport can do strange things to people. It can make them look even stranger.

Don't be surprised if you see a group or two of young men with tonsured heads or half-shaven moustaches walking on the street on one of these days. Be assured, those poor souls are the victims of the football World Cup. "You could see quite a few of them here in my neighbourhood," says K. Khalid, a dejected Brazil fan from Kalpetta. "The fans of Argentina and Brazil were those unlucky ones."

A couple of Brazil fans in Koyilandi were even unluckier: they had to flee their town, unable to tolerate the insulting remarks from their friends after the Latin American giant fell in the quarterfinals, according to the manager of a local cinema, who met the two young men shortly before they took off late in the night.

The betting on the World Cup is mostly financial though. Says a businessman from Wayanad: "You can put your money on a certain team winning the title, but there are separate bets available for every match as well. You could even bet on which team or player would score the first goal."

P.K. Ajith Kumar

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