A truly fantastic place with even more fantastic women. It is not difficult to figure out why people blame it on Rio!

RIO

The 18-hour long-haul service from Dubai to Rio landed here in driving rain. The flight was full of football supporters from various countries including the four of us who are here to watch some great football and soak up the World Cup atmosphere. The Rio weather has improved since — it is warm during the day and quite cool in the early mornings and evenings.

We are now getting to know how good a cook Shantanu is! He has taken control of the kitchen in our apartment and has been producing great stuff. It was nice seeing Amit Sen digging into scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage for breakfast — a huge improvement from a normal Calcutta diet of fruits and wife’s scolding! Shantanu is a fitness freak and I accompanied him this early morning to Barra Beach, which is about a 10-minute walk from the apartment.

(L-R) Shantanu Moitra, Amit Sen, Deepankar Nandi and Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury at Recife for the Germany vs USA match on June 26

It has been an amazing experience at the FIFA Fan Fest on the Copacabana beach. What an atmosphere! There must have been about two lakh people watching matches on the huge screen. It is a non-stop party, with Brahma beer and hot dog. And, beautiful bodies on display everywhere.

Rio is in World Cup mode with the national flag fluttering from cars, apartment windows and rooftops and the passion of World Cup football is on display everywhere. I love this place — a laid-back and relaxed city with gorgeous beaches and even more gorgeous women. It is not difficult to figure out why people blame it on Rio!

I am happy and fortunate to be here for the biggest show on earth. I am just sad that I can never come to this showcase event and shout for my country.

RIO/ FORTALEZA

Deepankar Nandi, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Amit Sen and Shantanu Moitra in a bar in Fortaleza with German fans. The bar is very popular with football fans

Shantanu and Amit continue to download English-to-Portuguese translations on their iPhones and Tony continues to speak to the local people in Bengali! Language poses the biggest problem in this country.

We had an eventful last couple of days. Having seen a game in the famous Estadio do Maracana in Rio on Sunday (June 22; Belgium vs Russia), we flew to Brasilia on Monday late morning to watch the Brazil vs Cameroon match there.

Probably Maracana is to football what Lord’s is to cricket. It was beautiful and majestic. So far the entry to all the stadiums has been smooth. The police force in charge of checking and security are courteous, pleasant and quick. There are no long queues even if there is a full house. Between our three resident cameramen, hundreds of photographs are being clicked to capture every mood of the ‘Copa do Mundo’.

Coming to the Brazil game, it is the sight and sound in and around the stadium which is difficult to explain. Eighty thousand people, a sea of yellow sing in unison for the entire 90 minutes and urging the players to rise to greater heights. After their win, everyone is in a happy frame of mind and at peace with themselves. The cafes/ pubs were overflowing with happy, beautiful people as they celebrated their win. It seemed that the entire nation was wearing the yellow team jersey with only the No. 10 of one Neymar Jr. printed on them.

After the match we took the midnight flight from Brasilia to Fortaleza, reaching the hotel at 3.30 in the morning. The location of Sambura Praia Hotel is outstanding — on the beachfront.

Having witnessed the thrilling match between Greece and Ivory Coast in the evening, we moved to the lovely city of Recife on Wednesday (June 25) for our next two matches. As we were in a hotel in Fortaleza, Shantanu got a two-day break from cooking (he is fantastic!), till we moved to an apartment in Recife.

All of us miss Rio. It is a beautiful city with mountains and sea and somehow it reminds me of Cape Town. Rio has these amazing beaches (so have the other places), lovely roads with many tunnels, great eating places and nightclubs. And, it is a non-stop party, especially during the World Cup. Truly a fantastic place. Then there is the famous statue of Jesus atop the mountain in Corcovado, blessing the entire city.

In spite of the language problem, everyone here tries to make you feel welcome. Finding someone who can manage a few words of broken English is like gold dust. During our last six days in this country, we did not come across any protests, the metro rail is running fine, people are not talking against the World Cup, the stadiums have been full for every game and everyone is in party mode.

A small ball it seems has united the nation and brought people together from across the globe. We are praying for Brazil to continue winning. Then everything will be fine with the world.

RECIFE

The quartet at a Recife Fan Fest

It started raining here around 4 in the morning and the intensity increased with every passing hour. It just poured. With the Germany vs USA match (June 26) starting at 1pm and some of the roads flooded, FIFA went into overdrive and arranged buses and additional metro services for supporters to reach the arena. It was extremely commendable and people had a hassle-free journey to and fro. We had great seats, just behind the goal. It was amazing to see the huge number of travelling US fans here to support their team. There was a continuous friendly shouting match going on between the supporters of the two teams on this rain-drenched day. Brahma and Budweiser at the stadium only added to the spirit. The last time I watched a World Cup match in such rain was in Nantes (France World Cup 1998) between Spain and Nigeria.

The nation came to a standstill from 1pm when Brazil took on Chile. It is difficult to explain the passion here. The Fan Fests are a world of their own and it is almost as much fun watching the matches here as in the stadium. The Fan Fests in Rio and Recife, being on the beach, probably offer a better visual delight for the guys!

Having had to do with hamburgers and beer for lunch at the match venue, our resident masterchef, Shantanu, rustled up fried chilli beef (with drinks) at home and a mean dimer dalna and rice for dinner. And the Bong brigade was happy! We do not know what we would have done without him.

We saw a Round 16 match here (June 29) before moving to Brasilia for another game (June 30). Recife is a heritage city with excellent beaches and a great nightlife (we believe)! Since it was nice and bright and an off-day for football, we hit the Boa Viagem beach today (June 27), spending the day sipping Caipirinhas, having a sea-food lunch and basically enjoying the sights.

We stayed in an apartment there. The landlady and her two lovely daughters did their best to look after us (through sign language and iPhone) — and we did fine.

The South American countries have done well so far and the four European countries that have qualified — Germany, France, Switzerland and Belgium — share a common border. Now at the business end of the Cup, the world waits to see some great football.

I must admit that in spite of all the apprehensions, protests, strikes preceding the tournament, the host nation has put up an excellent show. I, personally, was always confident about this because football cannot lose in Brazil.