A Little Messi Fan’s Dream Fulfilled

              When five year old Murtaza Ahmadi made an Argentina football team jersey out of a plastic bag, little did he know that the entire world, including his hero Lionel Messi, would start looking for him! Photographs of Murtaza wearing a plastic blue and white striped makeshift jersey went viral all over the interwebs; the jersey had the name Messi scribbled on it, along with his number 10.

The internet population took it into their hands to find the little boy who was found to have come from the Jaghori district in Afghanistan. The search initially found out that the boy was an Iraqi Kurd and claims went on to say that the Barcelona star wanted to meet the boy himself, in person. 

Later, the source of the information that the boy was from Iraq, confirmed that the news was made up, and he really belonged to Afghanistan.

Murtaza was eventually identified by his uncle Azim Ahmadi who is a resident in Australia, who put BBC Trending in touch with his brother Arif, Murtaza’s father. Since Lionel Messi is a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, he and his management were finally able to locate the little boy and send

him two signed official Argentine jerseys. Messi also filled the package with some extra shirts, which will possible by used by Murtaza’s older brother and other family members. 

Murtaza posed wearing the shirt signed by the legendary football master and seemed very excited. He hopes to meet Messi in person sometime, and said, “I love Messi and my shirt says Messi loves me.” Football and cricket are the most popular sports in the war-torn country and the story of Murtaza inspires many to love football even more. 

Action Hero Singer

The life of a South Indian coolie worker turned around in unexpected ways when he got an opportunity to appear in a film, singing his own song. Known to his friends  nd family as ‘Aristo’ Suresh, this man is now a sensational actor and singer in the South Indian film industry.

Suresh was always interested in music and writing songs. ‘Muthe, ponne, pinangalle…’ is only one of the more than 500 songs that have tuned into his creativity and imagination. He is ecstatic that the simple song he had beensinging to himself and his friends for years, has now found a way out into the world. 

Suresh belongs to a poor family in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, and he is the fifth of six siblings, who turned to coolie work after his father left his mother. This devoted 

family man has worked his back off ever since to provide for his mother and five sisters. Suresh had attempted to enter the cinema industry a couple of times and though opportunities were available, his

'Aristo' Suresh

 life situations kept pulling him back.

When his friend told him about a chance to be part of a Malayalam movie, Suresh thought it was just to sing; but when he met the director of the now-superhit movie ‘Action Hero Biju’ Abrid Shine, he was surprised to hear that he was also supposed to play a character along with his song featuring in it. The song was sung with absolutely no musical instruments supporting him, except for his own desk-drumming skills. 

The song ‘Muthe, ponne, pinangalle…’ holds nothing extraordinary in terms of lyrics, but the straightforward words are what make it extraordinary. Director Abrid Shine also gave him the freedom to present the song as he liked it, with no acting directions forced upon him. More than becoming an actor, Suresh wants to be a scriptwriter and see his stories on the big screen. Even though he is a star at this point, Suresh is not ready to give up his coolie work at all. He says no matter what, people will find him at ‘Aristo’ junction, doing loading work at the place that gave him his nickname.