kolkata parimal dey was a quintessential crowdpuller in the maidan during the 1960s who with a cherubic face was famous for bringing the house down with his balance vision and outrageous skills for the older generation of east bengal faithful he was the redandgold teams answer to mohun bagans chuni goswami the two poster boys of the time who literally brought beauty to the game when india was still hailed as a powerhouse in asian football and beyondyet if playing for the country is a yardstick for measuring ones bearing deys contribution to the national team was barely limited to five matches all those matches came in 1966 when he scored a goal in the bronze medal playoff against south korea in the merdeka cup in kuala lumpur and took part in the asian games in bangkok many believed that he was a victim of politics involving two of the leading football administrators of the time east bengal secretary jyotish chandra guha and aiff boss manindra dutta ray better known as bechu dutta roy which prematurely cut short his association with the national teambut in the maidan which was the hub of indian football he ruled the roost like a king in his heyday especially during his time at east bengal from 1964 to 1970 he was a marvellous entertainer on the field taunting the opponents with his extraordinary goalscoring artistry and control of the ball like a piedpiper he used to make people come out of their homes and work places to watch him play and return to the club tent on the shoulders of overjoyed supportersfor the past few years dey lived a life in isolation away from the public glare which once elevated him to a celebrity status of unprecedented heightfollowing his prolonged agerelated ailments including alzheimers which took away from him his memories of those days in the past few years dey breathed his last on tuesday night he was 81 and is survived by son and daughterinlawdey belonged to an era when football existed in sepia tone and public memories with his passing indian football lost another gem of the time following the deaths of pk chuni subhas bhowmick and surajit senguptathe first thing that comes to mind about janglada as dey was fondly called was his dribbling skills he had a perfect nose for goal he was flamboyant and also unpredictable in the box and this made the opponents always worried about his next moves former india midfielder gautam sarkar another star of the time and deys teammate at east bengal recalledwhen dey joined east bengal in 1964 from wari ac the game in the maidan was going through a transition tulsidas balaram had already announced his unexpected retirement and the genius of other two members of the golden trinity of indian football golden era pk banerjee and chuni goswami was in declinedey filled up the void with his own artistry the year 1966 was undoubtedly the annus mirabilis