It's about the people and their deity

KOLKATA: Which one will stay with time? The imprint of the famous left foot or the face in the hoarding that tells you this is the 'turn' that goes straight to The Times of India office?
No point in debating that.
One thing for sure, we did see Diego Maradona in flesh. And that's something no one can take away from us. Not even from you. And not from that 5000-odd crowd on an unusually warm December morning at Maheshtala.
After all these twenty years of madness, an overwhelmed colleague says he doesn't want anything more than to see Diego Maradona in flesh.The man you fought for, the man you loved for everything he did, the skills, the cocaine or the blabberings.
At 11.40 am, he was forty minutes late but Maradona was in front of you to keep the date; to lay the foundation stone for the Indian Football School. Waving to hysterical fans, a smiling Maradona did something out of the routine. He shook hands with the band members who were singing for him. They kissed his hand outrageously. That was the surprise for them, maybe. A kiss from the 'God.'
If those band members were over the moon, others were happy to just catch a glimpse. "We are waiting for him since 5.30 in the morning, you know," someone said, pushing you to have a better view.
"I didn't know I have so many fans here. Far away from my homeland," he said through his star-stuck interpreter as the crowd went into a delirium. Someone should have told him he is the first 'outsider' to split the country into two. Or maybe the world? No point debating. We saw Diego in flesh. Nothing else matters. The footprint, or the hoarding.