Summer vacations 2010, I decided to explore a part of Delhi which probably not many of us would be well aware of. The locality of Nawada is situated right in between Uttam Nagar West Metro Station and Dwarka Mod station. A curious new kid in the city, the place did not really fascinate me much; in fact, it had a more of rural North Indian feeling than a cosmopolitan national capital.
Tiny concrete huts, dusty roads
and dry playgrounds; that would probably the geography of the place. There was
nothing in particular in that place which I could connect to, considering that
fact that I came from a place, which is lush green, usually rainy and surely
not extremely hot. As I walked through the tiny lanes in the soaring heat of
Delhi, I heard screams and laughs of kids from a distance. As I moved closer, I
came across this bunch of kids enjoying their vacations with something that instantly
made me nostalgic. This was something that I could connect to, something which
I can easily connect to.
There is this small village in
Assam called Merkuchi, some 80kms west of Guwahati and 3kms south of the Bhutan
border. The location probably is self explanatory as to how remote this place
is. The biggest festival that is celebrated in this village is ‘Rongali Bihu’,
a festival Assam is known for. Every year, there is a three day fair in
Merkuchi to celebrate this Bihu and as a part of this fair, numerous sporting
activities are organized, as means of connecting people and to celebrate the
onset of the new year.
It was here that I first came
across Kabaddi, probably the national game of rural India. It was so fascinating
for me to see teams lining up from far off villages for a game of Kabaddi.
Sixteen years down the line, as I moved to Delhi, in one of the remotest part
of the city, I found something which instantly connected to my experience of
rural Assam; kids playing a serious game of Kabaddi. It was hot, it was dry, and
the terrain was rocky. Yet, kids from Nawada, very dedicatedly and enthusiastically
engaged themselves in the game.
As the cliché saying goes, the
real India resides in its villages, and there I was with a game, that connected
a village in an urban north Indian setting with one in the remotest of the
North East.
However, for most of us, Kabaddi
never really was a professional game. It was a game which we knew because of
its cultural proximity. Also at the same time, for someone living in a urban
setting it was really difficult for them to associate the game Kabaddi as a
part of the popular culture. It was rare when the game was played, and rarely
did anyone talk about it.
Today as I browse though the
micro blogging site Twitter, there is an active thread, #ProKabaddi. The micro
blogging janta is talking about this recent booming phenomenon where in a game,
which roots its origins in the ‘Gaon ki Chaupal’ have made its entry into posh
indoor stadiums of cities. The onset of the Pro Kabaddi League has not just
redefined the cultural game of Kabaddi into a professional game, but also
expanded the audience horizon from just enthusiastic village crowd to urban
sports fanatics and to cosy TV audiences.
#ProKabaddi Tweets
How do you view this evolution? Did anyone of us trace this phenomenal transformation process of the game? Or can anyone of us at least talk about the link which probably can be co-related to the raise of the game in the popular discourse?
How do you view this evolution? Did anyone of us trace this phenomenal transformation process of the game? Or can anyone of us at least talk about the link which probably can be co-related to the raise of the game in the popular discourse?
For me, it was the picture below.
The picture of the Indian Women Kabaddi Team waiting for an auto after winning
the World Cup beating England in the finals. This picture made me realize the
plight of Kabaddi as a professional sport. And I feel, this picture probably
bridged the gap of Kabaddi from just a rural setting to the urban setting.
The game was always in our
hearts. Kabaddi was in cultural sphere was immensely popular amongst certain
group. Just as that it was not properly curetted to be a part of the popular
culture. The Pro Kabaddi league is probably the first step in this long process
of reintroduction of game in the popular discourse. Marketing, celebrity and
finance are the perfect catalysts here. Today, you might not know the game, you
might not know the names of the players, but you know what the phenomenon
called Pro Kabaddi League is.
Go out, support your team. As the
Delhi franchise of the League Dabang Delhi calls it, let’s make Kabaddi the
national Ru-Urban Sport of the country.
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