Nine years ago this month, nearly 1.2 million Rohingya fled Rakhine State to Bangladesh to escape brutal military crackdowns in Myanmar. When they crossed the border, they believed they were seeking temporary shelter and would soon find an opportunity to return to their homeland. But nine years on, that wait remains unending. What was meant to be a temporary refuge has, over time, turned into a seemingly permanent exile.
We had a mathematics teacher named Dilip Kumar Ghosh. Whenever we found a problem difficult to solve, he would reassure us by saying, "This too is a problem! A puti fish is still a fish, a cockroach is still a bird!" We would laugh at his sarcasm, forgetting the complexities of equations. Now, after India's Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned in the face of the unstoppable Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) movement, I am reminded of Sir's words. A mockery indeed—one that turned into a protest that shook the fortified throne of New Delhi.
As night falls over Atlanta, the heat will build on the pitch. A heat that will not be contained within the stadium, it never has been throughout history! The latest chapter of one of football's greatest rivalries is set to unfold in the 2026 FIFA World Cup semi-final between Argentina and England.
The 'Maracanazo' of the 1950 World Cup final remains a deep wound in Brazilian memory. Yet from that wound was born the Football Emperor — Pelé. In that continuity, Brazil has repeatedly written stories of returning to World Cup glory. And on the night of June 29, 2026, in Houston, history perhaps witnessed the rise of a new Brazil. The Brazil that cried against Uruguay nine decades ago, with a last-gasp victory over Japan, announced that this is no longer the old Brazil. This Brazil does not cry; this Brazil fights, comes back, and wins.
History is sometimes written through a single game of football. A single goal can change the fate of a nation. A single defeat can leave such a deep wound in the hearts of millions that the pain is carried for generations. On July 16, 1950, such a day arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — a day that would be forever etched in history as the 'Maracanazo'. But history does not only tell stories of wounds. It also tells stories of rebirth. The story of a nation that rises from destruction is truly extraordinary. And the hero of that rise was Pelé.
The FIFA World Cup, the world's biggest sporting event, did not exist nearly a century ago. In those days, the Olympic Games were the only stage for determining the world's best football team. Seeing the massive global response to the sport, FIFA's first president, Jules Rimet, wondered: if football is so popular, why should it not have its own global stage?