Guests watch a football match at the Spice Court restaurant at the hotel Maurya on Thursday. The restaurant - and the hotel - is ringing in the Fifa World Cup 2018 fever with special menus every day based on cuisine from countries that are playing on that day.

The tables have been named after the biggest football stars, complete with pictures, and a big screen will show the matches. Gautam Sarkar, a former Indian football team captain, was invited to address football lovers to mark the beginning of the World Cup at a programme titled "Russia nahi to Maurya sahi"(If not Russia, then Maurya it is).

Text by S.M. Shahbaz, picture by Manoj Kumar