India, April 25 -- We were in Berlin during the last leg of our vacation in Europe with friends, and boarded a train to Frankfurt for our return flight. A group of young men were already in the coach, and to describe them as merely boisterous would be an understatement. They carried enough bottles of beer to last the journey, and their voices travelled easily across the entire coach.

We requested the conductor for a change of seats. He empathised, but could do little beyond politely asking them to lower their volume. Fortunately for us, the group got down after a couple of hours, leaving behind spilled beer, tissues, and a collective sense of relief among the passengers. They were football players and their supporters, carried away by th...