By Maitreyee Boruah,IANS,
Bangalore : Roll up your sleeves and let the abuses fly. Don’t worry, you won’t receive a sound thrashing, but in fact if your choice of expletives are entertaining enough and inoffensive, you might just be awarded in this unique competition in Karnataka.
Titled ‘Hubli Vichitra Baigula’ (Hubli Unusual Abuse), the competition is organised by the trustees of the Dakshina Vaishnodevi Temple in Hubli, 370 km from here, where participants have to hurl abuses to win prizes. The prize, a garland of flowers.
The competition Dec 27 at the Ashirvad community hall in the temple premises “will be a fun-filled one,” Gangadhar Hiremath, secretary of Hubli Vichitra Baigula, told IANS over phone.
“We’ll be testing the intellect of the participants in using words of abuse, which should not be offensive at all. The participant has to make the entire abuse session innovative and the audience should be able to enjoy the abuses hurled by the competitors,” he said.
The participants have to be cautious in using words of abuse. They have to stay away from making any comments on sensitive issues like religion, caste, politics, gender and other issues that could hurt groups or individuals.
“We have no intention of hurting anybody,” clarified Hiremath.
Since the declaration of the event five days back, the organisers have been flooded with enquiries.
“We are happy to generate so much curiosity. We’re expecting some 400-500 participants from all over Karnataka,” said Hiremath, claiming that the competition is only one of its kind in the entire country.
The competition is open to all and there is no age limit to participate in the event.
Participants can take the stage either solo or the abuses could be hurled between two individuals, be it husband-wife duo, friends or brother-sister.
Participants can use English, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam or any other Indian language to abuse.
There is no entry fee for the competition.
A group of distinguished personalities, whose names the organisers do not want to disclose, will judge the “war of words”.
Asked what made them think of such an unusual competition, Gangadhar said “we are trying to find a peaceful language in today’s troubled times”.
“Most often a verbal duel turns offensive and leads to physical fights. Thus we want to encourage people to make their habit of abusing or scolding fellow human beings without any malice and thereby also enjoy and have fun in the process,” said Manju Tarangi, a member of the organising committee.
“Friendly bantering should be encouraged between people to vent their anger. And that is always useful and amusing,” added Tarangi.
Almost 15 years back, a similar contest was held in Hubli, a commercial centre in north Karnataka.
“In 1993 a similar kind of event was held in Hubli. It attracted some 700 participants and went on for hours. Spectators had a great time then. We hope to recreate the same kind of magic and fun through this war of words,” said Gangadhar.
“We are not going to have any prize money or big gift hampers for the winners. We will honour them for entertaining people with huge flower garlands which we usually offer to gods and goddesses,” said Gangadhar.