1. “The Goal of the Century”
BY DONBOKLANG MAJAW
The year started to rumble with the cries of the people in Mexico. It was this year that has given
birth to a soccer wizard, and people all across the globe rushed to see this prodigy in action. The
year was 1986 and the wizard was none other than Diego Maradona; the man who scored the
(in)famous “Hand of God” goal and the voted “Goal of the century” against England in the
FIFA World Cup quarters. Argentina beat West Germany by 3-2 in the finals in Mexico City.
No doubt, no one could afford to miss the games at such a historical olympiad. That accounts for
a really interesting happening in the periphery of Meghalaya and its capital. Television in India
had just become a mass commodity; but in Meghalaya only those with enough capital or enough
exposure to this new product could afford to get one. Especially in Shillong and in Sohra, only a
handful of households had a TV in their possession. Just when the FIFA tournament had began
to gain talks and occupy the peoples' daily conversation, around 30-40 people from Shillong
temporarily “migrated” to Sohra along with their TV sets to watch the World Cup there.
The reason for this “migration” was that TV sets in Shillong had a trouble time catching the early
Doordarshan signals; and the Indian “sky” had not been “invaded”. But down there in Sohra, a
couple of TV sets caught a signal from a Bangladesh channel, BTV: and this created a hullabaloo
in the capital. It needs not to be mention that our foreign neighbour had a TV historical
background similar to ours.
On a piece of land near Circuit House in Saitsohpen, Lower Cherra, there was a long line of
tents where people from the city stayed to watch their favorite teams playing. These campers
were those people who happened to have no relatives in Sohra. This was something that the
village locals haven’t seen before; for going to camp 50 km away from home to watch a World
Cup is something that the then generation would be proud to witness such an event, an event to
those people, perhaps greater than the World Cup itself.
They had witnessed history in the making that was soon to be forgotten by the new generation,
who watches 200 channels and skimming them just by the click of the button. Indeed this event
had made an impression in the minds of those people till now, for if someone asks them, “which
year Maradona scored the Goal of the century?” they would reply instantly, “in 1986....”, and
they would smile remembering the event which reminds them of the goal that Maradona scored.