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.

Snake Dance at Cubbon Park

This story and pictures so happened when I was sitting and whiling away time at the Press Club of Bangalore in Cubbon Park, with old friends from the same fraternity as me on the 24th of November, 2207.
All of a sudden there was commotion in the park area just outside the club premises and as all photojournalists react to any emergency situation we all ran out and witnessed an interesting fight between a Snake and two parakeets that were perched atop the same tree. This was nature at its best since we the humans have occupied their space and so the onus was left to them to fight for their living space.
A bloody battle raged for more than one hour before a snake catcher came to the rescue and the parakeets were given their space atop the tree. But not before the parakeets had wounded the snake in its tail and had chased it from one tree branch to another tree branch thus showing us that one need not be strong to defeat the guile of the faces of terror or for that matter a schemer who is plotting another’s downfall, but instead work as a team to defeat it or them.
A lesson learnt from the parakeets I discussed this story with the Editor K R Srinivas of the Bangalore Mirror were I was previously working, he reacted and said that take the help of Vaishalli Chandra to write the copy and we will run it as our page one story for the day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two parakeets versus a snake. Not a fair battle, is it? Certainly not! Bangaloreans who were strolling through Cubbon Park on a lazy Saturday afternoon thought so too. That’s why they rescued the poor snake from the angry parakeets.
It may appear bizarre, but the logic-defying scene was witnessed by several people at Cubbon Park. A seven-foot-long rat snake in search of lunch was making its way up a tree, only it chose the wrong nest. For the nest belonged to two parakeets who were determined to protect their young.
A crowd gathered below while the wild ones battled it out above. Slithering from tree to tree, the hapless rat snake tried to reach the while the green pair did their best to dissuade their unwelcome guest. The people watched – some excited, some scared, but most of them had a chill run down their spine just being in the presence of a snake.
However nothing deterred the birds. Face-to face with the snake, they were just lunch. Clearly, they had their strategy worked out. So they went for its tail instead. Taking turns, they had the rat snake nicely cornered. The crowd could only look on in awe at the strategic placement of the birds. Perched on the adjacent branches, the birds took turns to attack the snake. The ringed Indian parakeets went full throttle attacking the snake and injuring it tail, all in a bid to save their nest.
The drama was, however, far from over. While the good Samaritan was placing the snake in the bag, the hassled and scared snake attacked its saviour. Though trained to rescue snakes, the bite left Mohan a little shaken.
On reaching the ground, he cleaned his wound. He also brought the snake out of the bag and cleaned its tail. Mohan assured the crowd that the bite wasn’t poisonous. An impromptu lesson in snake safety and he was on his way. The snake treated and released in the wilderness around Bangalore.

The rat snake making its way up the tree branches in search of its lunch as it comes face to face with the two parakeets perched atop the same tree.

The rat snake tries to approach the parakeets who were guarding their nest.

The Rat snake slithers cunningly across from one branch to another to get to it lunch even as the two parakeets watch carefully on the move and size up on how to counter attack it.

The assault on the creepy reptile with one parakeet facing him and the other pecking at it's tail. this they did for more than 10 minutes taking turns to fly around in a circle thus ensuring the snake to move little at a time and also making sure that the snake retreat in a haste.




Finally the rescue of the frightened and hurt snake by snake catcher Mohan who climbs the tree to get the rat snake then give a few moments to relax in a bag and wash its wounds on it tail inflicted by the two member team parakeets, before showing the rescued snake to the frenzy fotog clicking away to the tummy fill.

Fruitless Fight

The picture below happened when I was roaming the streets of the City Market looking for some standalone, when suddenly I saw a few Bangalore City Corporation men (now Bruhath Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike), trying to snatch all the illegal pavement sellers of fruits and other perishable items. What moved me in this image was the pain the daily bread winner had to go through to ensure that his living is not stolen away. This picture was used in the Times of India, Bangalore edition in 1991.

A lawbreaker in City Market hangs on for dear life, as a Bangalore city corporation employee takes a pot shot at his means of earning his daily bread.