West Bengal holds an annual Immature Person of the Year festival and parade here in December, which was won in 2015 by a woman singing “I know a secret” over and over again and last year by two 50-something men not sharing a toy.
Southern Samity’s crest commemorates the original champion of 1928, who astonished and delighted the crowd when he broke wind and created flame from a lit match held to his anus by his assistant. At first there was a stunned silence and then the enormity of the moment hit those present and wild applause broke out.
It was tried again next year by an imitator but he was unplaced, as by this time the practice was considered a legitimate skill and not immature at all. West Bengal is one of the country’s lead exporters of finished leather goods, but this is not felt to be immature enough for its football team’s motif. Cameron Carter