When Football Becomes Family: East Bengal Fans Giving Logens Mashi Her Vision Back

Football is often referred to as a 90-minute game. But for those who really live it, football starts long before the referee blows the whistle and continues long after the final whistle.

It lives in the stands, in the Maidan addas, in the celebrations, in the heartbreaks, and sometimes, in the quiet moments when one supporter stands beside another.

Logens Mashi, or Jamuna Das, has been part of life at Kolkata’s Maidan football for years. But lately the game she loved was becoming a kind of blur.

Logens Mashi had full-blown cataracts in both eyes and was counting the days until her vision would disappear altogether. Surgery was called for, but it was too expensive for her to afford. Cataract procedures in India are expensive.

Then her football family heard her story.

Probashe East Bengal, a community of East Bengal supporters across India and across the world decided that they couldn’t just watch from a distance.

“You gotta go when your family needs you. “It’s that simple,” said Joydip Sengupta, one of the people behind the initiative.

It started with a member of the group, Ankan, reading a piece on Logens Mashi in a Bengali daily. It was a thought that became a mission in no time. Anirban Sen and Joydip took charge. But there was a problem. The two were in Bengaluru while Logens Mashi needed someone beside her in Kolkata.

That was when Mohammed Adil, a driver who was her constant companion and her only mode of communication with the hospital and others.

And then there was Dr Jyotish Kumar Khilar, an ophthalmologist at Susrut Eye Foundation & Research Center and Anirban Sen’s relative. He offered to carry out the operation on at least one eye free of charge.

Logens Mashi will have surgery on her right eye on September 5. The process of treating her left eye will start after Durga Puja with Probashe East Bengal planning to raise the funds through crowdfunding.

This isn’t the first time this group has been kind. They translated renowned sports journalist Novy Kapadia’s book Barefoot to Boots into Bengali to help raise funds during his illness. Their Delhi-NCR wing also helped an ex-Mohun Bagan player admitted to AIIMS Delhi during the COVID-19 pandemic by arranging blood through supporters.

These stories won’t appear on the biggest headlines.

But perhaps they should.

Football is not just about trophies, transfers, and scorelines; it’s also about people.

It involves Ankan seeing a story and not taking his eyes off it, Anirban and Joydip turning an idea into action, Adil walking beside a person who needed help, and Dr Khilar using his noble profession to provide someone with something invaluable.

For Logens Mashi the upcoming football season might look a bit different.

Whenever she looks at East Bengal once more, she will realise that at some point in time her football family was there for her when she needed them most.

The post When Football Becomes Family: East Bengal Fans Giving Logens Mashi Her Vision Back appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.