In pictures: Behala Carrom Club wins big at The Carrom Street Fest

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After making it through multiple rounds of competition, Behala Carrom Club took home the grand cash prize of Rs 1 lakh at The Carrom Street Fest, the inaugural edition of the tournament that was started off with the idea of getting carrom out of closed doors and bringing it to the streets to help revive the dying game. Held on Jatin Bagchi Road near Hindustan Park in south Kolkata’s Gariahat area, the event got underway at noon on Sunday, March 3. The idea was to create a buzz about carrom and get people from all over the city involved. Preliminary rounds of the tournament were held at 32 different locations, 16 ‘paras’ and 16 colleges to get the best 16 teams to take part in Sunday’s festivities. In a knockout style tournament, where each team had two players, The Carrom Street Fest saw 64 different participants

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A curated event that was meant to keep carrom at its centre saw people from various walks of life come to celebrate the occasion as different kinds of performances took place right through the day while the carrom kept happening. A group of performers did a drum circle which kept the crowd enthralled with their beats added heat to the competitive nature of the carrom games being played. Other performances included Hoola Hoop Dancers, Beat Boxing, Bengali Folk band Mohul, Tridhara Women’s Folk Dance and a rap group who performed the theme song of the event

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93.5 Red FM were the title sponsors of the event and they had created a very nice ambiance for everyone to enjoy including putting up a selfie booth, food stalls of different kinds like The Biryani Canteen , Tea Junction, Denzong’s Kitchen and even Grub Club who brought out their Korean food truck for the event. RJ Anup, was the host of the event and irrespective of the sweltering sun or the amount of time he spent on stage, RJ Anup always kept the crowd hyped up with his humorous comments and engaged in conversations with the audience to keep the vibe going. The event extended to almost 10 hours and Anup and gang kept the energy high at all times

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While Red FM took things forward on a marketing front and kept the crowd engaged, the West Bengal Carrom Association (WBCA) along with several other clubs took up the competitive aspect as participants gave it everything while standing and taking their strikes to accumulate the highest number of points. The officiating happened smoothly as several members of the West Bengal Carrom Association were present to oversee proceedings including Ashish Chatterjee, the vice-president of WBCA. Ashish Chatterjee told My Kolkata: ‘Carrom was a sport which was almost lost because the interest in the sport was dying. We had to come up with a way to ensure that the interest rises and a Fest like this was the best way’

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In most places, carrom is played as a leisurely activity so people play it sitting down but there was a physical and mental aspect to the carrom played at The Carrom Street Fest. In the earlier rounds at each of the 32 locations, 16 colleges and 16 ‘paras’, each location would have eight teams playing quarter-finals, then semis and then the winner of the finals made it to the tournament final. The play started with 32 team,s hence the first round was a round of 16. Ashish Chatterjee added a technical aspect to the sport which most wouldn’t think about when it comes to carrom: ‘The games are played standing so the longer it goes the more you have to focus and those who think it isn’t difficult or there is no physical tardiness to the sport need to rethink. If you have to play 4 or 5 games in a single day and remain standing for the whole duration you need stamina and you also need to be mentally prepared’

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While carrom took centrestage at the event, there were street artistes who were making paintings, skateboarders and roller skaters were having a gala time as well, zipping through the audience with precision to show off their skills. A group of cyclists were also present at the event and they performed stunts that added even more adrenaline to the day’s event. Doing wheelies and coordinated stands were just the start of it for the cyclists who also put up a show for everyone present at Carrom Street Fest

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The event continued late into the night as did the competition but it was Behala Carrom Club who left with the biggest smiles and also the biggest cheque. Behala was represented by Md Farook (29) and Sk Majid (31), both of whom have been playing carrom from a very young age. ‘We have been playing carrom together for a long time but we never expected to be playing with the possibility of winning Rs 1 lakh for a tournament. If we win, the cheque will go straight to the Behala Carrom Association people who have supported us right through,’ said the boys from Behala before the final. Bhairav Ganguly College came up till the finals but unfortunately couldn’t jump the final hurdle. To their disadvantage, Nawab Hussain (21) and Subham Nandy (29) were partnering for the first time as one of the original participants fell sick. The college boys fought hard but couldn’t stand up to the experience of the Behala Carrom Association players