From Saurav BoraFrom Saurav Bora
When it’s about World Cup soc cer, the passion for the beautiful game overrides anything else in Meghalaya. Shillongites particularly are bracing up for the quadrennial spectacle which gets underway on Thursday as the situation in the city is as good as normal after almost a week’s unrest. Lorenzo P Warjri, a former footballer who represented the state sub-junior team at Calicut in 1982, is eagerly waiting for the showdown in Russia and hopes that the soccer spectacle will be the perfect balm to soothe minds and hearts in a city recovering from a difficult phase. “I have been a die-hard Brazil fan since childhood and this time also I am supporting Brazil but what I can gauge from the discussions in town, many are supporting Argentina. The mood is picking up which is what is needed given that we have had a difficult phase to cope with,” Warjri told The Shillong Times on Tuesday.Echoing him, senior advocate of Meghalaya High Court VGK Kynta said, “The recent law and order disturbance in the city was masterminded by an interested few but has not changed the mood of football lovers in the Pine City. There is excitement all around and the usual discussion is football only.””In the bygone days we travelled to areas bordering Bangladesh just to watch the World Cup. It was real fun then with lots of merry-making and huddling. That’s all gone. Now we will watch the event from the comfort of our homes,” Kynta recalled.Trade and commerce activities have taken a hit though given that curfew was clamped for a greater number of hours during the first couple of days even as night curfew is on. However, sales of direct-to-home (DTH) sets across brands have picked up for the soccer show given that internet services on mobile phones have remained restricted since July 1 following circulation of fake news on social media, which apparently fuelled the unrest. The cable TV service, a section in the city say, is not that reliable at times, be it in terms of service or picture quality.”Since the past week or so, sales of DTH sets have risen in the city for the World Cup because internet services on mobile phones have been restricted after the violence,” a DTH dealer in Laitumkhrah said.However, the sales graph of LED TVs and inverters in the run-up to the World Cup has dipped somewhat in the past couple of weeks.(Contd on P-10)
Soccer mood picks up…(Contd from P-1) “LED TV sales have come down by about 25 per cent compared to the pre-June period. However, since the situation is now normal, we are expecting sales to pick up in the coming days,” said Muddith Bothra, a leading distributor in the state. Given the frequent power cuts, especially in the interior areas of Meghalaya, the sales of inverters in the football-crazy state are usually high in the run-up to the World Cup. But not this time though.”Compared to the previous World Cup season, the sales of inverters this time are down by almost 50 per cent. I used to sell three to four invertors every day before the unrest but now I hardly sell one or two in two days. Most of the consumers are from Jaintia Hills, Ri Bhoi and West Khasi Hills where power breakdowns are common,” said Ranjeet Surana, a distributor of a top national brand.Sports merchandise trade too has hit an all-time low with sales down by 40 per cent compared to the World Cup countdown periods of the past.”The unrest has impacted sales of merchandise by almost 40 per cent as there has been a cash crunch and people have been buying mostly essential items over the past week or so. High-end T-shirts, jackets, team jerseys of Argentina, Spain and Germany have had no takers so far,” said Karan Mordani, the proprietor of a branded sports accessories showroom in Police Bazar.
