Bairi Sanam: The hate of a lover

Chapter XVIII: Khel- khel mein

Tejasvin

I walked towards the podium on the stage where I had to make the announcement to begin the event. The viewers settled down at their respective places on the tarpaulin while the sarpanchs of other villages took places on the side of the stage on a long sofa. The noise of chatter died down as soon as I stood on the podium facing the crowd.

"I declare the games open," I said in the mike and the audience broke into cheer and applause. I took my seat on the other side of the stage opposite to the other sarpanchs on a single sofa and Govardhan kaka stood next to me. Taking my glasses out from the pocket, I wore them as the sun was directly shining over us.

Soon the announcer took over and announced the first game, which was races. The track was drawn using white limestone powder and all the participants stood at their position behind the white lines where they were supposed to start.

"On your marks, get set, go," the announcer spoke into the mike and shot gun up in the air. They all began running around the track completing a full circle with determination and desire to win. As they were close to completing one round, two people who were standing on either side of the track held a red ribbon up. The winner touched the ribbon with his chest, which ended the race. He kneeled on the ground and shouted in victory. The crowd was overjoyed and began hooting and whistling. The winner was made to come and stand on the stage along with two other people who came second and third.

"Now I would like our sarpanch to come and give these medals to the winners," the announcer spoke and getting up from my seat I went towards the middle of the stage. A person came with a plate in his hand which had gold, silver, and bronze-coloured medals on it.

"Sattu from Jahaanpur is our winner," he announced and picking the gold one up, I put it around the neck of the winner.

I moved to the person who came second and picking the silver medal up, I made him wear it when the announcer announced his name and village followed by the man who scored third position.

The second game began in which people were made to put burlap sacks over their legs and jump their way to the finish line. Some people struggled to hold it in place while jumping and some even fell on their way, earning laughter from the crowd. Again, the winners were announced, and I distributed the medals. So far no one had won a single position from our village, making the crowd disappointed. Some of them even began to leave as they lost interest while watching their people fail so miserably. 

The next game was kabaddi that was taking place between two villages. The first match was between Jahaanpur and Somgarh and whoever wins would compete against Raghavaiah.

The match began and both the teams were ferociously completing against each other. The players were only wearing shorts and their legs and upper bodies got covered in dust every time they fell. The team of Somgarh won with a difference of several points.

"Sarkaar our village has not won a single match of kabaddi so far," Govardhan kaka spoke leaning towards me.

"Kaka," I called him, and he leaned in again to listen to me. "I have a task for you."

Ketaki

I was sitting in the crowd cheering and whistling for the players when I saw Govardhan kaka walk up to the announcer and say something in his ear. Soon a huge smile covered his face, and he began speaking in the mike.

"Hold your hearts everyone because I have an announcement to make. Something that has never happened before, something that no one has ever seen before," he announced, and the crowd began gossiping in anticipation of what it could be. "We have a new player in our team. Please welcome, our sarpanch," he announced, and the entire ground began applauding.

"Huh? What is he going to do?" I said to Subhadra and Reva who were sitting next to me on the tarpaulin.

"We will win this time for sure," Reva said getting all excited and Subhadra agreed making me roll my eyes.

He got up from the sofa and taking off his glasses, he handed them to Govardhan kaka. He began unbuttoning the sleeves of his kurta followed by the middle buttons and all the eyes were just fixated on him. In one go, he took it off making the crowd gasp. His muscles were shining under the sunlight, and I observed all the woman drooling over it.

"Sarkaar has such a strong body," I heard a woman speak from behind me.

"He does. I'd die to touch it once," the other one spoke, and I turned around to face them.

"I'm going to faint soon. This is too much for me to handle," another one added, making me annoyed for some reason.

"Did you not bring it with you?" I asked and they all frowned in confusion.

"What Ketaki?" One of them said. 

"Sharam. Ghar par chhod aayi ho ya bech aayi ho tum log?" I spoke and they lowered their gazes which gave me some satisfaction.

(Pudency. Did you leave it at home, or have you sold it out?)

Why the hell am I even being so defensive?

I turned around and found him standing in just his lowers. Though every player was only wearing shorts, he was standing out the most.

He made his way down to the ground but before entering it, he touched the soil and touched it to his forehead showing respect for the land. One of the players was taken out and replaced by him. All the seven players were ready to attack the team of Somgarh and with the firing of the gun, the game began.

A player from the opponent's team crossed the white line to enter the area where all the seven players of our village were standing. They formed a half circle around him, and he kept looking for a chance to touch at least one player in order to score. He was able to touch the player that was standing on the farthest end of the circle and was about to run back into his area, when sahib held him from behind. He circled his arms around his waist and threw him onto the ground. His biceps accentuated with every moment.

"Ye patka," the commentator spoke getting all hyper and crowd began cheering and whistling.

He put some weight on him to keep him on the ground and despite his many attempts to come out of his hold, he was unsuccessful. The timer went off and our team scored a goal. More people began to join as the match got more interesting due to him. I noticed people standing on the roofs of their houses to watch it. Some more people began to sit on the tarpaulin and I felt being pushed to make more space.

One person from our team went to their side and unfortunately, he returned without scoring a point. The opponent team scored the next point and for the next round, he decided to go.

He was all drenched in sweat now. The sweat beads were settled on his chest and kept sliding down to his abdomen, making him look more attractive somehow. As he entered the area of the opposite team, he slapped his thigh which scared them off. He advanced towards the players who had surrounded him by now. He was able to touch one of them and began running backwards when one of them pulled on his leg making him fall on his back.

"Oh no," the crowd and the commentator said in unison.

His upper body got smeared with soil and the sweat made it turn wet on his skin. The rage was visible on his face now. Sahib sat up and removed both his hands that were gripping his leg. Taking that chance, he pushed himself up by putting both his hands on the ground and came back to the area, making the team score a point.

I couldn't deny that the match was getting extremely interesting with every passing moment. I clenched my fists feeling the energy of the crowd and began hooting with them. I didn't realise when I stood up and began shouting on top of my lungs. Curling my fingers inside my mouth, I whistled loudly when I realised that the entire crowd was quiet, and I grabbed all the attention of the people present there. All their heads turned in my direction and I rubbed the back of my neck with a nervous smile.

"Seems like people are too excited about today's match," the commentator spoke in his mike, and I felt embarrassed as the crowd giggled. My eyes moved to him, and I noticed that he was looking back at me with a smirk on his face.