It is most likely that you would assume an Indian sporting fixture that regularly attracts more than a lakh could only be a game of cricket. Certainly not in Kolkata, where on Saturday, hundreds of thousands thronged the city's Salt Lake Stadium for the latest instalment of the 'Boro Derby', as East Bengal locked horns with Mohun Bagan in what might well be the most heavily-attended and historically significant derby one has never heard of.

In fact, there appears to be a bubbling effervescence escaping the stadium each time the two take the field that makes fans want to jump the ticket barriers to get in. “The first derby game I attended was in January 1998. Four of us went, my dad and I the maroons, and my uncle and my cousin the reds. At the half time, with Bagan winning 1-0 and our stand being a sea of green and maroon scarves, everything seemed so sweet. At the final whistle, Bagan had won 2-1, I remember I was in floods of tears and inconsolable. I was only six at that time,” Prasun Sengupta told Mid-Day.