Aisa Bhee Hota hay...
By Malik Tahseen Raza
MUZAFFARGARH, Feb 12: Tens of thousands of camel wrestling fans were standing breathlessly around a ring where two camels were trying their skills to down each other at a fair held in the suburban area of the town on Sunday.
The annual camel fighting fair, also called Patwari Wala Dangal, attracted thousands of the fans wherein over a dozen brightly adorned camels with bells on their humps, mirrored blankets covering their backs and colourful pompoms woven into their tails, took part in the event. The participanting camels came from Bahawalpur, Kashmor, Rajanpur, Nawabshah (Sindh) and Deepalpur. The most interesting fight was held between Patwari Wala and Tehsildar Wala camels that continued for 40 minutes and ended when Patwari Wala kicked and trampled the Tehsildar Wala. Soon the defeated camel growled and ran out of the ring to avoid the wrath of his opponent, the roaring supporters of the Patwari Wala ran towards the winner to celebrate the win.
This was the second camel fighting fair in Muzaffargarh this year. Before it, a camel fair was held at the shrine of Muhammad Musa near the thermal power station. Two more fairs will follow the Jaalwala fair to be held at Khanpur Bagga Sher and Basti Barian.
Besides Muzaffargarh, such fairs are held in Bahawalpur, Rajanpur, Layyah, Jalalpur Pirwala, Okara, Nawabshah and Kashmor.
In the cold winter months, which is also the mating season, there is jealousy as well as anger among camels. Rival males who are trying to engage the attention of a female begin to quarrel. This is when people take advantage of the seasonal changes and encourage them to fight each other.
It seems that camel, once called the ship of desert and bred for its skin, meat and milk and for transportation, has become a wrestling and money-making object.
“Now, my camel is strong and will charge Rs200,000 for a fight,” said Ibrahim Patwari, the master of the winner camel.
Mostly, in camel sport, the owner of a well-known camel charges Rs150,000 to Rs300,000 for a fight. This money is not subject to victory but a defeat costs a well-known camel costly as the animal loses its reputation and participatory charges.
A fight between two camels continues till the time a camel roars helplessly or runs away from the ring. A trained camel knows a number of moves such as how to trip his opponent, how to force his submission, how to throw him to the ground by pushing his head between his legs, how to force him to his knees by means of head and neck power.
A referee who is also called ‘assessor’ oversees the fight. The masters of fighting camels are not allowed to step into the ring.
“In camel fighting, the masters of the camels are kept away, because it is against the game rules,” said Malik Mureed Hussain Numberdar, an expert on camel fighting. He said mostly the camel masters did not even watch their ‘pets’ fighting because a defeat would cause them a heart attack.
Zawar Kazim from Budh Basti rears a wrestler camel called Mawali. He has dedicated the income of his buffalo farm to the camel.
“Rearing a fighter camel is very costly because you have to feed it properly,” said Kazim. The diet of fighting camels is very special and a huge amount is spent on that.
“I feed my camel on one kg dates, fresh greens, five litres milk, two kg desi ghee and one dozen eggs every day,” he said.
“Although it is expensive to bring up wrestling camels, I still do it because I feel indebted to this creature as it has given me recognition all over the country. Wherever Mawali goes, people come to see it,” he says proudly. Kazim has engaged two attendants to take care of the camel who feed it, take it for a five-kilometre jogging every day.
Wrestling camels arrive at the venue of a fair one month ago.
“This is an advertisement stunt as the news of the arrival of a fighting camel runs like a fire in the jungle and more and more people come to the fair,” said Makdoom Qalandar, whose camel fair will be held on Feb 17.
During their stay, the diet and expenditure of the wrestler and its coach are borne by the organiser.
Patwari said that the cost of hosting of camel’s owners was shared by other local people.
“People very proudly offer to host the camels and their masters,” he said.
Besides Mawali, other famous fighter camels are Wanwairri of Malik Baggi, Sohna of Makhdoom Qalander Sheikh, Patwariwala of Ibrahim Patwari and Rohi ka Raja of Faiz Kurai.
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