PANJIM: They shuffle cards as adeptly as they wield the pick axe. A team of farmers from a small village of Raibidpura in Madhya Pradesh was the most unusual and interesting among the 175 participants at the three-day South Zone Championship and Goa Bridge Festival 2022 under the aegis of the Bridge Federation of India concluded on Sunday in Miramar. The Farmers team comprised Kailash Verma, Kamal Verma, Hariram Patel and Natwar Jawara. Raibidpura with a population of approximately 5,000 has around 200 players with around 40 of them very young players.
This suggests that the village has the highest density of Bridge players in the world. This game is reputed to have transformed the village ever since it was introduced there by a Bridge-playing veterinary who was transferred to Raibidpura and soon got bored of living there.
More than 175 enthusiasts including several national level players turned up from all parts of India and enjoyed themselves thoroughly in spite of the rains and the Covid fears.
The Goan pair of Lina Mayadas and Ravi Dudhane took the Shri Padmashri Vasantrao Dempo Memorial Trophy in the IMP event, while the pair of Shankar Acharya and Shambhu Sarkar from Kolkata lifted the Shri Rajaram Hede Memorial trophy for the Match Point event.
The team comprising Kastubh Bindre, Ashok Viadya, Kaushik Mukherjee, Sampath Srinivasan, Nitin Shirole, Vikrant Mehta from Pune beat Tornados in the final of the Shri Manohar Keni Memorial trophy for the grueling team-of-four event, comprising players from West Bengal, Mumbai, Bengaluru and captained by our very own Goan player Prasad Keni. But much as the winners grabbed attention, the farmers story is nothing short of compelling. We learn that alcoholism and violence against women is low in Raibidpura, thanks to Bridge that has become a traditional pursuit there. Folklore has it that parents prefer Bridge players as grooms for their daughters.
That the hardy farmers reached the semi-finals in the team of four is nothing short of inspirational. After all, it proves that the cerebral game of Bridge can be played by those tilling the land. David Delaniy, Vice-President Goa Bridge Association said, “Their attempts to popularize the game was stymied by the perception that since it involved cards, it would be another form of gambling. There was however interest in the sport amongst certain sections of society.”
Happily, misconceptions were eradicated and lady luck smiled on the destiny of Raibidpura.
