Though the World Cup is happening miles away, in Qatar, football fever has spread to every nook and cranny in football-crazy Kerala. A man's letter seeking leave of absence from school for his son Parthi, an ardent Argentina fan, has gone viral on social media.
Ahead of the Argentina and Saudi Arabia match on Tuesday, Parthi, a class 5 student, had told his parents that he won't be going to school. His father Sunil Kumar, who works at an electrical shop in Kozhikode, told him to ask his teacher, at the Govindapuram UP school.
His teacher, in turn, asked Parthi to get a request letter from his father.
"He is an ardent football fan, especially Argentina," Sunil wrote in the letter. "It's from last year's World Cup, that he was gripped by the football fever. From last week onwards, he was saying that he would sit at home to watch the game of his favourite team.
"Last Friday, he had come to me saying he wants a leave letter. I told him that I will pick him up from school by 1pm and will make some arrangements to bring him back home. But he didn't agree to that. He wanted me to write the letter," said Sunil to a regional news portal.
"He came in the morning with pen and paper for me to write it down and that is how I ended up writing it," Sunil said.