100 pahalwans fight it out

This story was another treat because when I was roaming the streets of Bhopal in search of some stand alone visuals I saw an huge crowd entering a dingy alley surrounded by old broken buildings which had a small but sizeable ground to fit around thousand people. I quickly entered in and found to my luck that the traditional wrestling was on and they were fans across a spectrum of age group vociferously egging their pahalwans to get the gold for them. So after interacting with many people in the event which otherwise is not known to many except for those who have visited this venue over the years. This story was published in the Hindustan Times, Bhopal edition in 2003.

Ecstatic crowds cheered their guts out at the jam-packed Banne Pahalwan’s Akhada as the foremost pahalwans of the City of Nawabs wrestled in the mud in a surcharged atmosphere at the prestigious annual wrestling event held on Sunday.
The Akhada, which produced greats like Muhamad Ali Pahalwan was again enlivened on Sunday as scores of bouts of scintillating ‘kushti’, were witnessed in a thrilling atmosphere.
As the pahalwans flexed their muscles, roared and pounced upon their opponents with vengeance, the crowd enjoyed each and every moment of the scores of bouts of traditional kushtis.
No less than 100 wrestlers flexed their muscles at the competition, which brought back nostalgic memories of yore when ‘Kushti’ was the most popular of sports activities in Bhopal.

And when Vijay Pahalwan trounced Afsar Pahalwan in the end to emerge the winner the kushti loving Bhopalites became wild with joy. Even after the kushti ended, the audience howled on as if they were in a trance enjoying every second of the one hour drama in which pahalwans pinned their opponents with electrifying application of ‘daaon-pench’ and ‘paintra-baazi’.
As per the rules no bout could be extend beyond 10 minutes and pahalwans fought at a dazzling pace with many ‘kushtis’ ending within minutes.
Even there was no age bar. Loud cheers were heard with the end of each bout. No wonder the atmosphere was so charged that even after the event ended, the audience was craving for more.
Not only the winners were honored, the losers were also given trophies in this unique event.
‘All the participants are given trophies as that no one goes disheartened’, says Ayaz Pahalwan, the organizing secretary of the event.
Banne Pahalwan who organizes the event feels that the State Government is not bothered about promoting traditional wrestling.
‘It is the intrest of a few people which is keeping the even going through all these years’, he adds.