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The year 1992 was a watershed for English- language literature about world soccer. The Independent in London took note of two books in a year-end literary review. The first was Fever Pitch, by Nick Hornby. At the urging of his therapist, Hornby had collected chronological meditations on the symbiosis between his world-weary psyche and the Arsenal soccer club of north London. For its meticulous treatment of both the perils and benefits of sporting obsession, Fever Pitch became a classic. In the United States, due to Hornby's reputation as a best-seller, it is the soccer book most likely to be in stock.
The second title in the Independent's review was Hem and Football, by Nalinaksha Bhattacharya, a Bengali writer who received literary training while climbing the ladder of India's civil service. In 1995 he published a second novel, Hem and Maxine, which continued to track the anti-establishment course of Hemprova Mitra, the central character. In soccer Hem discovers an identity and community that elude her in school, work, and intimate relationships. "The two Hem novels show a modern, daring, Indian female flaunting her sexuality, taking pride in her tomboyishness, cocking a snook at social norms, playing football of all games," wrote India Today in 1997.
Bhattacharya evokes a hidden history of women's sport-women have played organized soccer in India at least since 1929-as well as the place of soccer in Calcutta, especially on the Maidan, an open recreation area staked out by amateur players and sweet-sellers. For Bhattacharya, in contrast to the saccharine fantasy of the popular 2002 film Bend It Like Beckham, women's soccer is political ("I am trying to translate class hatred into my footwork," one player tells her Marxist coach) and violent.
John Turnbull: What was your exposure to football and especially to women's football in West Bengal and Calcutta before and during composition of the novels Hem and Football and Hem and Maxine?
Nalinaksha Bhattacharya: Though football was (and still is) a very popular game in Bengal, particularly in Calcutta (now Kolkata), my exposure to the game was limited to playing it as a kid with my schoolmates or the neighborhood kids. I was not good at sports and was never picked up for the school football team, so watching the game...