Labourers hog limelight on bridge table

  • | Sunday | 22nd July, 2018

Dressed inappropriately for the elite card game played by the rich and famous, Gupta got curious as they didn’t seem to belong to the club. It’s called the Johri Bridge Club, and they play the game while sitting on the floor between 8pm and 11pm. Panaji: Last week at a bridge tournament in Delhi, Anil Gupta, a veteran on the circuit, was going through his hand when he heard his rival pair make a bid in rustic Hindi. Dheeraj himself learnt the sport in 2013.Back home, they now have their own bridge club. Bridge needs plenty of skill,” said Modi.The surroundings at the Clube Tennis de Gaspar Dias in Miramar where the tournament is being played clearly unnerved the ‘visitors’.

Panaji: Last week at a bridge tournament in Delhi, Anil Gupta, a veteran on the circuit, was going through his hand when he heard his rival pair make a bid in rustic Hindi. Dressed inappropriately for the elite card game played by the rich and famous, Gupta got curious as they didn’t seem to belong to the club. He stopped the game midway and enquired about the duo.What he got to know, floored him. “These guys were labourers from Uttar Pradesh. Every night, these boys would gamble. But now, bridge has given their lives a new meaning,” Gupta told TOI.Rajeev Kumar, Vipin Kumar and Bittu Kumar, all daily wagers hailing from Johri village in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh—60 km from the national capital—have taken everyone by surprise at the KK Modi Goa Bridge Festival.They are making heads turn amongst a motley crowd that includes a tycoon, super-rich businessmen, ex-police officers, former bureaucrats and IITians.Partnering his coach Dheeraj Kumar, a constable with Delhi police, Rajeev is leading the charts after two rounds at the championship, while the second pair isn’t too far behind.It was on Gupta’s insistence that business tycoon KK Modi, who was sponsoring a national bridge tournament in Goa, provided four of them with flight tickets, paid for their high entry fees and put them up at a starred hotel.“This is beyond our wildest dreams. I’ve played a little bit of bridge in Delhi, but these three have come so far for the first time, and they have shown that they can be quite good,” said Dheeraj.All four of them admit it’s odd to be seated in the hall that has some of the most successful people in their respective fields.“If this game can become famous and change lives of these people, who are known to gamble and lose their money, we will all be delighted. Bridge needs plenty of skill,” said Modi.The surroundings at the Clube Tennis de Gaspar Dias in Miramar where the tournament is being played clearly unnerved the ‘visitors’. They felt a bit out of place as everyone conversed in English, moved to the restaurant for lunch and walked around with a spring in their step.The quartet, not surprisingly, kept to themselves. But once inside the hall, they are as good, if not better, than anyone else.“It felt a bit unreal to be in the same group as the VIPs. But once the game starts, we blank our mind and focus only on the game,” said Rajeev, who won a national tournament in Nainital on his first attempt.It has been only a little over a year that the trio were introduced to the sport by their ‘guru’ Dheeraj. On most nights, the trio would gamble their money away playing ‘rummy’, but since Dheeraj showed them a new way, they haven’t looked back. Dheeraj himself learnt the sport in 2013.Back home, they now have their own bridge club. It’s called the Johri Bridge Club, and they play the game while sitting on the floor between 8pm and 11pm. Investing in chairs with the limited money they have doesn’t make sense.“We have quite some work to do, so we have started to learn English. We have to change our mannerisms too. These are all highly-successful people, so when you are in the same hall as them, we should know how to behave,” explained Dheeraj, who has taken the help of their village’s retired mathematics teacher, Master Yashpal, to teach them the tricks of the trade.There was a time when Baghpat was notorious for its gun-toting dacoits and famous as the constituency of former Prime Minister Charan Singh. Then came the revolution that saw the district produce champion shooters. Now, three labourers and a police constable could add another glorious chapter.

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