HURRAH BRIDGE - A VILLAGE STORY

Two women bridge players from Raibidpura, a village in MP's Khargone district, will compete in Asian Games. Firoz Mirza tracks the history of sport at the place which presently has around 250-300 players...

- Firoz Mirza

RAIBIDPURA village is around 25 kilometres from the district headquarters, Khargone, in the Nimar region of Madhya Pradesh. From outside, it might look like a typical Indian village with most of its inhabitants being farmers. But it’s not. There is an amalgamation of tradition and experimentation. Farmers here are not afraid of experimenting with non-traditional crops such as safed musli, a rare herb from the country which is used in traditional systems of medicine like Ayurveda. Apart from farming, most of the adult males from the village with around 700 houses and a population of nearly 5000 are employed in the government sector. A lot of them are government teachers too. The literacy rate is quite high and the crime rate is almost negligible.

All these virtues can directly or indirectly be attributed to villagers’ obsession with bridge, a form of card game — a sport played between two contestants.

Asian Games reignites hope

Last month when the Bridge Federation of India announced the Indian team for the upcoming Asian Games scheduled in Hangzhou, China from September 23 to October 8, the village erupted into rapturous celebration. And why not? Two of their fellow women villagers — Kalpana Gurjar and Vidya Patel — have been selected in the national squad for the quadrennial event. While the duo has been representing the country in national and international events, their selection in the Asian Games is a momentous occasion in the history of the village.

“Bridge has been an integral part of this village for decades. But it has been on the decline as youngsters are shying away from the sport due to varied reasons. Now Kalpana and Vidya’s success has the ability to restore the lost connection,” Kamal Verma, an assistant teacher from Girls’ Middle School in the village, who also plays bridge, told this daily.