I-League 2017/18: 5 ways in which East Bengal and Mohun Bagan fans play the banter game
Kolkata Derby is always a tense affair with no team willing to lose the highly contested match. Sometimes tensions on the field, influence the fans off the park generating intense banter amongst themselves. With a rich history behind them, Kolkata Derby have always managed to divide the Bengali society into two groups - 'Bangals' and 'Ghotis', vying for sporting supremacy.
Often these factors lead to banter and online trolls as heated debates take place between the fans. Let's have a look how both sets of fans play the 'Banter Game'.
#1 'Macha' - East Bengal fans' favourite word to tease their rivals
The East Bengal fans often taunt the Mohun Bagan fans by calling them 'Macha'. Mohun Bagan represents the native population of West Bengal while East Bengal represents the immigrated population of the British Province of Bengal who migrated to the Indian state of West Bengal during the Partition of India in 1947 and also during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.
As per several notions, the natives used to gossip on top of the trees earlier by building some sort of shed using logs, which are known as 'macha'.
Macha is a colloquial Bengali expression for a mast of a boat, derived from the original Bengali word - 'mecho' which signifies oaring a boat as seen in the logo of Mohun Bagan.
Several online trolls and memes are shared on the basis of these stories by East Bengal fans to taunt the Mariners.