The strangest journeys are not made by individuals however by love. They cross oceans without passports, endure languages they do not speak and get here in locations they were never ever anticipated to reach. Someplace along that unlikely path, Lionel Messi took a trip from Rosario to a narrow lane in Ichhapur, where a tea seller painted his home in Argentina’s colours and waited years for the possibility to inform the world’s biggest footballer a basic Bengali true blessing,”bhalo theko(remain well).
Shib Shankar Patra serves tea at his stall underneath a signed picture of Lionel Messi including the tea seller’s Argentina themed home in Ichhapur.|Picture Credit: Shreya Banerjee
On Messi’s 39th birthday on June 24, that love changed Ichhapur’s Nawabganj, a commercial area situated in North Barrackpore town of North 24 Paraganas, into a little station of Argentina.
Messi after winning the FIFA World Cup in 2022|Image Credit: Special Arrangement
The lanes were curtained in blue and white. Banners fluttered overhead, banners crisscrossed narrow streets, and posters bearing Messi’s face monitored the events. A priest carried out a puja before a life-sized statue of the footballer as neighbours, football fans and curious visitors collected to mark Argentina’s the majority of powerful forward’s 39th birthday. And this is not the very first time, 52 years of age tea seller and Messi devotee Shib Shankar Patra has actually been arranging Messi’s birthday for the last 12 years.
Shibe da’s home|Picture Credit: Shreya Banerjee
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Shib Shankar Patra’s commitment has actually made the yearly events a regional organization. “He is God to me,” Shib Shankar or’Shibe da’ as he is fondly referred to as, states. This year’s celebrations, nevertheless, were tinged with the possibility of an ending. 
“This is most likely the in 2015 he will play and as he stops football, I will stop commemorating his birthday also, “he states, preventing his look.
Decors for Messi’s birthday|Picture Credit: Shreya Banerjee
Shib’s dream was satisfied in December 2025 when Messi gotten here in Kolkata as a part of Messi’s G.O.A.T India trip arranged by sports promoter Satadru Dutta. In the middle of the crowds and the craze surrounding the legend’s check out, he discovered himself deal with to face with the male whose images, posters and treasured minutes had actually long hung from the walls of his home and tea stall in Ichhapur. Of all the photos provided that day, Messi signed just one linked to him which was a framed photo of Shib’s Argentina themed 
home and stall.
Shibe da holding a framed phtotograph of his Argentina themed home signed by Lionel Messi|Image Credit: Neha Patra/ Instagram
Shib remembers with fantastic pride,”He called me and I moved forward. I shook hands with him and blessed him, positioning my hand on his head and stating’bhalo theko,” Patra remembers. “Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul existed too. I blessed them also and stated’bhalo theko. God assisted me reach Messi.”He stops briefly before including, “He is the best gamer of perpetuity. I had actually stated so in 2010 and I am stating so once again.”
The encounter obtained a practically unlikely quality in hindsight. Messi’s see to Kolkata in December 2025 had actually left numerous fans sad, with thousands investing substantial amounts and taking a trip cross countries just to capture short lived looks of the footballer. Grievances followed after his quick look at Yuva Bharati Krirangan, where lots of felt the barriers in between the star and his admirers had actually been scheduled for political leaders, dignitaries and their households. Versus that background of dissatisfaction, Shib fulfilled his hero and strolled home with a signed photo and a memory that has actually because gotten the radiance of household folklore.
Messi’s life sized idol as part of the clebrations.|Image Credit: Shreya Banerjee
