Lure Of Indoor Sport At Vibha Khel Mela
The Atlanta chapter of Vibha, a US based non-profit organization, held its second annual sporting event, Khel Mela 2004, at the Global Mall on February 28 and 29. The overwhelming participation and big turnout for the event reflected the community's competitive spirit and undeterred patronage for Vibha and the passionate causes that it represents ? that of grass root support for education, health, shelter and child labor prevention for the underprivileged children in the remotest of villages in India.
The local community's support for Vibha was evident with the sponsorship endorsement by Global Mall, Omni Soft and Andy's Grill. Speaking at the valedictory ceremony, Shiv Aggarwal of Global Mall appreciated the spirit and dedication of volunteers for Vibha. He applauded the efforts of volunteers to raise awareness and resources for the Vibha causes in India.
"The three events that made up Khel Mela 2004 ? Chess, Caroms, and Table Tennis saw some 125 participants displaying their finest skills," said Pawan Saluja, one of the coordinators of the event. The first day saw the emergence of a chess champion in Karan Pahawa, who won the junior category and Sanjeev Dambal who won the adult league.
The most popular sport in terms of participation turned out to be Table Tennis. On day two, Prachi Fulay who plays in the professional table tennis league emerged winner in the Under 15 final. She packed topspins and backhands that smacked the table and bounced off to unreachable trajectories for her opponent Jonathan Yan.
It was a fine test of a player's understanding of the laws of momentum in the carrom board event. Eshwar won the carrom men's singles event and Sandhya won the women's singles event. Keen competition was also witnessed in the junior's and doubles event.
Vibha Inc, Atlanta, is an organization whose every day activities are run by volunteering efforts - volunteers who come from diverse backgrounds - including financial analysts, bio-statisticians, software engineers and graduate students. Reflecting the thoughts of many volunteers, Sujan Battacharya, a civil engineer, who was the coordinator for this year's event, said "It has been a wonderful experience for me putting this event together. I am looking forward to support to organize more events for Vibha."
The following were the winners at Khel Mela 2004.
Chess Seniors ? Sanjeev Dambal, Chess Juniors - Karan Pahawa, Carrom Men's Singles - Eswar Korduru, Carrom Women's Singles ? Sandhya, Carrom Junior Singles ? Pratik, Carrom Senior Doubles - Rao & Eswar Korduru, Carrom Junior Doubles - Gowtham Govind Rajan / Madhumita Govind Rajan, Table Tennis Men's Singles - Ritesh Shukla, Table Tennis Women's Singles - Kumadini Fulay, Table Tennis Men's Doubles - Ritesh Shukla and Rishi Srivastava,
Table Tennis Mixed Doubles - Uday Gupte and Bindu Kandula.
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