Cast: Ashis Nayak as True Fan (TF)
2007 autumn: and also the autumn of TF's life; his first and so far the only Videsh bhraman. TF was in Irish land on a real short one week business trip.
It was a Sunday evening, ideally TF should have been site-seeing (this being the only weekend TF had had before a gruelling one week of training). But as he is the TF, his religion always pulls down all the other endeavour he might sneak some interest in. It was the battle between the two EPL heavyweights "Manchester United" and "Chelsea". The venue was "Theatre of Dreams OT" for players and "Temple Street" for TF :P. Yes, it is in fact Temple Street where the pub is in. In fact, every 3rd building on that holy street is a pub, how apt!!! The pub TF walked in, was a roadside 2-storied small building. (Please forgive TF for not noticing the pub's name, afterall he is TF; the only thing he was thinking was, football). The pub was decently filled and TF managed to find a very high chair (jahan se uske paaon zameen pe nahi lag rahe the :P).
TF went to grab a beer and thought of trying the well-famous Irish "Guinness" beer. TF was getting frustrated at the time the barkeeper was taking to double-pour the Guinness; but as they say "good things come to those who wait". The beer tasted ultimayyte.
Finally the action began; the reds as always playing crisp and Chelsea the dull ugly boring football...as always. The crowd inside the pub was amazing, of all age ranging from 50 odd to even "hardly 10". TF mingled with an old man and a pretty lady (mother of the "hardly 10 kid"). Goshhh!!! those guys knew so much about football, this considering TF rates himself very highly in footballing knowledge. An awful tackle earned the X-united (at least for some hours) now Chelsea (for some cheap oil $$) Mikel a red-card; and up popped our "hardly 10 pumped-up kid" upfront the LCD, screaming "Come-on United, Fuck Chelsea, Fuck their ass, screw them" (all this in front of 30+ junta which included his pretty mom). For a moment, TF had to agree, there do exist bigger TFs than him.
The match had so many firsts: Lion Carlitos' first goal for red devils, Chelsea's first match post-mourinho era, TF's first experience of Irish pub, TF's first experience of catching up a live game in a pub, TF's first instance of agreement that, there are bigger TFs also do exist :P
The match ended up 2-0 to United and TF was delighted :)
3's company: TF, Fooball and Guinness: An evening can't get any better than this :)
