Football Fever in Kerala: WC 2018 Russia

It’s world cup time again and only a day away from the D day. Over last one month Keralites celebrated it breaking all barriers of religion and politics. There was only one religion, that’s football but many gods 🙂

As we had a roller coaster world cup with more twists and turns than any edition as far as I could remember, we had to find new favorites to follow after almost every stage.

With the fall of Argentina, Portugal, Germany, Spain and Brazil most of the crazy football fans are in total disappointment. But that really didn’t stop them from watching the late night showdowns as they easily switched sides.

Their passion for football could be easily be noticed if you happened to travel in Kerala over last one month. Posters, cutouts, flex boards, painted walls with colors of different national flags and graffiti filled up each and every possible public space.

One thing I have to admit regretfully is the number of flex boards that were used and it’s environmental impact.

When I published a post four years back during Fifa WC 2014 Brazil the number of flex boards were much lesser.

But, there is a positive side as well. Many fan clubs and friend circles opted to do away with flex boards and used cloth banners and other creative means to show off their loyalty.

Hope to have fitting battle tomorrow and let’s see what Croatia could achieve on this grand stage.

Football Fever in Kerala

It’s fever time in Kerala,not the monsoon time fever, but football fever 🙂

With the World cup Football in full swing in Brazil, Keralites are having sleepless nights, literally.

Being in the opposite side of the globe where the real action happens, Keralites have to watch matches staying awake through out the night.

Even though vast majority of Indians doesn’t follow Football, it’s something special for the people of this small southern state of India.

There are fans for almost all major teams, but I could see the team with most number of fans or followers is Argentina, which is my favorite team too 🙂

Let me share a few images taken near my home place which shows the passion of the people for this game.

Beaches of North Kerala: Ettikulam Beach

I just applied sudden break, pulled the hand break, turned off the engine and got down from car and just stood breathless for a few moments.

My wife and cousins were not shocked by my reaction after negotiating a sharp bend, they just followed suit and stood beside me.

We all had, one of our best scenic view ever, right there in front of us.

It was my fourth trip to this beautiful beach but first time I was driving through the “top road” of Ezhimala Hills.

It was a pleasant weekend day and there was a lot of activity around.

All stars eleven playing on beach 🙂 and Messi scores…

There was a lot of action in sea as well, local fisher folks were busy with their work and it looked something adventurous for us.

We were lucky to witness one incredible sunset and started pack up.

Talking to the locals, I came to know that, we could have explored the other beaches with a short trek through the hillock.

Let’s do it next time 🙂

How to reach:

Nearest airports are in Mangalore and Kozhikkode (just over 100 km away).

Nearest Railway station is in Payyanur, which is around 12 km from the beach.

Ettikulam beach could be reached either from Payyanur town or from Kannur city through road.

From Kannur, you can follow the route below,

From Payyanur,

Where to stay:

Pazhayangadi and Payyanur are the nearest towns and there are some good options available in Payyanur for accommodation.

Kannur is the nearest city and you could find a wide range of options there.

Note: Most of the images are taken with my old point and shoot and resulted in poor quality as the lights faded.