<h2> Boat Race a Game of Bangladesh</h2>

Boat Race

                                           

A boat race forms an important item in the list of village games of our country. The village people of Bangladesh have got a rich tradition in boat race. As Bangladesh is a land of rivers, canals, beels and haors, her people are very much fond of this game during the rainy season.

The Competition of Boat Race

  The people of our country living by the side of the rivers and beels, take part in boat races. In the haor or beel areas like Mymensingh and Sylhet, people organize boat races in the month of August. Every family of hoar area has its own boat. In the rainy season boats are the main means of transport in the low-lying areas of Bangladesh. During the latter part of July harvesting of Aus crops is over. Agriculture fields and beels are filled with water then. Men have no work during this time. So people of neighboring villages organize boat race. On the scheduled date participants with their boats meet together. Each boat has an equal number of men to drive it. From a particular point the race starts and it ends in reaching the fixed destination. A number of boats are seen coming in the race. The participants try their best to drive their respective boats as fast as possible to reach the destination fast. They beat drums and other instruments to encourage the rowers. The people of Sylhet have a special type of slim and long boat for the purpose of race. Townsfolk sometimes organize boat race in lakes and jeels. This gives joy to the town dwellers who are tired of modern but mechanical forms of recreation.                                      

             The Students’ Union of our college organized a boat race last year on the closing day of the cultural week. Five villages of adjoining ‘Char’ area participated in the race. The race was organized in the Meghna river. Every boat had fifteen rowers. All wore shorts and tunics. Each rower had a paddle in his hand. The race started from a distance of two miles. Hundreds of spectators waited eagerly at the Thana ghat to enjoy the game. With the whistling by our game teacher Mr. Abdus Sattar the race started at 10.a.m. Our Principal and Professors bordered a launch and followed the boats. The party representing Karimpur village became first and those of Jagati and Alokbali became second and third respectively.

            Local elites, students and other people assembled in the prize giving ceremony at p.m. Before distributing prizes our Principal delivered a short speech thanking the local elites, spectators and participants in the race for organizing such an important traditional game. The champion team was given a Shield, the runners-up and the team holding the third place were given a Silver cup each. The occasion offered us scope for a lot of enjoyment. As free and sovereign country we should take steps to popularize our traditional games like ha-du-du and boat race side by side with modern games.