Book Buff: Kamalram Sajeev, Asst Editor, Mathrubhoomi Weekly Book: Football in Sun and Shadow Language: Spanish (El Fútbol A Sol Y Sombra) English translation by Mark Fried Author: Eduardo Galeano Where did the book find me: It found me hunting for Galeano’s books in stores after I was bowled over by his ‘Open Veins of Latin America’
Like the hurricane that passed, like the symphony that fell silent, like the ice cream that melted in your mouth, it has come and gone - the World Cup season.
To you, World Cup and those days and nights of pure ecstasy that refuses to die out, Bookie dedicates this edition.
Kamalram Sajiv, a confessed football worshipper who also happens to be a book buff, dribbles some football thoughts for us. To him, “Soccer is not about the statistics but the aesthetics, and that is precisely why my alltime favourite football book is Galean o ’ s Fo o t b a l l i n S u n a n d Shadow.” The book, as the title’s adage rightly says, is best described as an ‘emotional history of World Cup football’.
Galeano, born in Uruguay in 1940, like most Latin American boys, dreamt of becoming a football player when he grew up. It is his yearning for the game that is reflected in Football in Sun and Shadow, one of his early books. The book traces the history of the game, its evolution into a religion especially in Latin America and paints vivid sketches of the immortal football moments with poetic panache for which it is best loved.
“The book is an aesthetic enlargement of the game’s great moments, an analysis of the style of approach of players. It transports you to a different level, where it reads as beautifully as the game itself,” says Kamalram. “This book is the basis of much of the football philosophy that we see in Malayalam texts on the game, fiction and non-fiction.” Galeano has structured the book like a guide, kicking off from the features of the game, the player, the fan and the ball before launching on page-long essays on the history of the game. On the pages are reborn those flashes of delight that enthralled football lovers the world over. He writes of a goal, “Scottish player Archibal d Gemmill got the ball from his countryman Hartford and was polite enough to ask the Dutch to dance to the tune of a lone bagpiper. The book also includes social and political perspectives of the game - each World Cup essay starts by setting the scene with major world events,” Kamalram says. “It therefore appeals to a different intelligentsia who do not watch the game for the scores and are not always on the side of the winning team. My World Cup this year ended the day Brazil went out of the game. This book is for those who see the beauty of the game that lies beyond the robotics of Germany.” Hailing from Uruguay, Galeano offers an insight into the South American football psyche through little details and snippets. In Europe, the ball is just an inanimate object but not in Brazil where no one doubts the ball is a woman. He goes on to say that the Argentine fans heap praise on the goal Maradona scored with his hand in the '86 World Cup because the referee didn’t see it.
The author also takes a measured stance on the commercialisation of the game, noting that every player is a 'walking advertisement' but celebrates the fact that football remains an openair kingdom of human loyalty.
Kamalram informs that Galeano updates the book after every World Cup and hence it has mention of North Korean feats.
So readers can look forward to a revised edition with news of this season of the game included.
aswathy@expressbuzz.com
