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Feature: The Mohun Bagan Fanatic
These days football clubs are often run by non-footballing people. But not so in the case of Mohun Bagan as Goal.com’s Subhankar Mondal finds out…..
21-Aug-2008 11:38:03 PM
It seems as if someone has taken a brush and painted him in Green and Maroon. Or, someone has dipped him in a bucket of green and maroon paint and hung him across the sky like a two-coloured rainbow for the entire world to observe. Or, turned him into a planet and asked him to revolve around a sun called Mohun Bagan.
Anjan Mitra might be the General Secretary of Mohun Bagan and might be busy most of the day with administrative tasks but in his heart of hearts he is a ‘hardcore’ Mohun Bagan supporter, someone who has Mohun Bagan encrypted into his DNA.
Speaking to Mr. Anjan Mitra, one can very well realize just how much Mohun Bagan means to this middle aged white-collared man. His voice cracks when he expresses his innate love for Mohun Bagan and describes, although very modestly, to what degree his life is linked to Mohun Bagan.
“I was a Mohun Bagan supporter from my birth. I became a member of the club in 1976 and in 1995 I became the General Secretary of the club.”
Very, very modestly and laconically put by Mr. Mitra but these few words eclipse a lifetime of love and dedication for one of the biggest, if not the biggest, football clubs in India.
Anjan Mitra, as he himself explains, was born as a Mohun Bagan supporter. For him, choosing a club or gunning for another team was never ever an option. So much so that he became a member in 1976.
Since then of course it has been a Mohun Bagan fairy tale through and through. In 1995 Mr. Mitra, for much of the work that he had poured in the intervening years for the club, was selected as the General Secretary of the club and two years fast forward he was entrusted with boardroom duties.
Taking over a responsibility is one thing, sustaining it is quite another. But for Mr. Mitra, shunning his tasks has never been anywhere in the horizon. He works for 18 hours a day for Mohun Bagan but insists that he is perfectly happy with this.
As a General Secretary of the club, Mr. Anjan Mitra has to do a hell lot of administrative work, which for a club as big as Mohun Bagan is miles away from being a regular easy-go-lucky job. Yet even then he finds time to look after the youth developmental projects that Mohun Bagan are spearheading in India (and abroad).
“I was in Manchester with our U-15 team who won 5-0. Our U-12 boys are going to play in Paris on September 2 and I shall be there too.”
Yet even amid such hosts of responsibilities, Mr. Mitra still ekes out time to go to Mohun Bagan matches in Kolkata as well as travel with the team across the nation on certain occasions. He has been in the administrative department of the club for over 12 years now but he still resembles that wild-eyed Mohun Bagan fanatic in Kolkata.
And a proud Mohun Bagan fanatic too. His voice trembles with satisfaction when he proclaims Mohun Bagan as the “only Premier League club to play nursery level football”. He revels in the fact that Mohun Bagan have one of the best grounds in the nation, prides himself as being part of a project that gifted Oliver Kahn and Bayern Munich to the Indian public, relishes the club’s deep rivalry with East Bengal.
As a Mohun Bagan supporter, Mr. Anjan Mitra grew up with the rivalry and has certainly witnessed several derby matches. So when asked whether the passion and intensity has somewhat been tempered by the tides of time, Anjan Mitra remarked, “Before Independence, the British were our rivals. After Independence, East Bengal are our main rivals.
“The passion is still there. One lakh supporters come to see the derby.”
As a Mohun Bagan supporter Mr. Anjan Mitra is obviously proud of the achievements of the club so far but as an administrator of his love-club he is very much aware of the need to climb to an even higher level.
Mr. Anjan Mitra hints that Mohun Bagan shall now try and do something big on the Asian stage. He underpins the importance of Mohun making it big in the AFC Champions League and understandably after dominating Indian football for decades, it is now time for the club to achieve something in Asian football.
Mr. Mitra appears to be a visionary and a workaholic, rather a Mohun Bagan-holic. There are of course legions of Mohun Bagan fans all contributing in their own way in furthering the glories of this club but Mr. Anjan Mitra decided long back that he wanted to take his love and support for the club to a whole new level.
And so he has.
Subhankar Mondal
Anjan Mitra might be the General Secretary of Mohun Bagan and might be busy most of the day with administrative tasks but in his heart of hearts he is a ‘hardcore’ Mohun Bagan supporter, someone who has Mohun Bagan encrypted into his DNA.
Speaking to Mr. Anjan Mitra, one can very well realize just how much Mohun Bagan means to this middle aged white-collared man. His voice cracks when he expresses his innate love for Mohun Bagan and describes, although very modestly, to what degree his life is linked to Mohun Bagan.
“I was a Mohun Bagan supporter from my birth. I became a member of the club in 1976 and in 1995 I became the General Secretary of the club.”
Very, very modestly and laconically put by Mr. Mitra but these few words eclipse a lifetime of love and dedication for one of the biggest, if not the biggest, football clubs in India.
Anjan Mitra, as he himself explains, was born as a Mohun Bagan supporter. For him, choosing a club or gunning for another team was never ever an option. So much so that he became a member in 1976.
Since then of course it has been a Mohun Bagan fairy tale through and through. In 1995 Mr. Mitra, for much of the work that he had poured in the intervening years for the club, was selected as the General Secretary of the club and two years fast forward he was entrusted with boardroom duties.
Taking over a responsibility is one thing, sustaining it is quite another. But for Mr. Mitra, shunning his tasks has never been anywhere in the horizon. He works for 18 hours a day for Mohun Bagan but insists that he is perfectly happy with this.
As a General Secretary of the club, Mr. Anjan Mitra has to do a hell lot of administrative work, which for a club as big as Mohun Bagan is miles away from being a regular easy-go-lucky job. Yet even then he finds time to look after the youth developmental projects that Mohun Bagan are spearheading in India (and abroad).
“I was in Manchester with our U-15 team who won 5-0. Our U-12 boys are going to play in Paris on September 2 and I shall be there too.”
Yet even amid such hosts of responsibilities, Mr. Mitra still ekes out time to go to Mohun Bagan matches in Kolkata as well as travel with the team across the nation on certain occasions. He has been in the administrative department of the club for over 12 years now but he still resembles that wild-eyed Mohun Bagan fanatic in Kolkata.
And a proud Mohun Bagan fanatic too. His voice trembles with satisfaction when he proclaims Mohun Bagan as the “only Premier League club to play nursery level football”. He revels in the fact that Mohun Bagan have one of the best grounds in the nation, prides himself as being part of a project that gifted Oliver Kahn and Bayern Munich to the Indian public, relishes the club’s deep rivalry with East Bengal.
As a Mohun Bagan supporter, Mr. Anjan Mitra grew up with the rivalry and has certainly witnessed several derby matches. So when asked whether the passion and intensity has somewhat been tempered by the tides of time, Anjan Mitra remarked, “Before Independence, the British were our rivals. After Independence, East Bengal are our main rivals.
“The passion is still there. One lakh supporters come to see the derby.”
As a Mohun Bagan supporter Mr. Anjan Mitra is obviously proud of the achievements of the club so far but as an administrator of his love-club he is very much aware of the need to climb to an even higher level.
Mr. Anjan Mitra hints that Mohun Bagan shall now try and do something big on the Asian stage. He underpins the importance of Mohun making it big in the AFC Champions League and understandably after dominating Indian football for decades, it is now time for the club to achieve something in Asian football.
Mr. Mitra appears to be a visionary and a workaholic, rather a Mohun Bagan-holic. There are of course legions of Mohun Bagan fans all contributing in their own way in furthering the glories of this club but Mr. Anjan Mitra decided long back that he wanted to take his love and support for the club to a whole new level.
And so he has.
Subhankar Mondal
Inside Goal.Com
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