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The Qila Raipur Sports Festival is a 72 year old institution. More popularly known as the Rural Olympics of Punjab, they are held in February each year. The Grewal Sports Stadium in Qila Raipur comes alive as hundreds of participants and thousands of spectators make a beeline for this community, only a short distance from Ludhiana. It is hosted by the village ... this year, Sukhvir Singh Grewal, a former international hockey player, was its chief coordinator. While the Bullock Race, first introduced by Bakshish Singh in 1946, is the most popular event of the games, there is a full gamut of competitive sports: athletics, gymnastics, horsemanship, dog races, tractor races, martial arts .... you name it and they have it! There's even a competition for loading and unloading tractor trailers. After all, a good portion of the transportation industry of the country is run by Punjabis. People come to Kila Raipur to see the special breed of bullocks, camels, dogs, mules and other animals competing in competitive events. The most prestigious winners have attended.The need for cultivating individual strength for labour on the fields, the interdependence within the community and need of defence, joint defence against onslaughts of a common foe and dangerous animals must have given birth to sports like wrestling, running, jumping, weightlifting and such performing arts as of measuring strength by holding wrists, twisting hands. Three types of competitions are held during rural meets, Purely rural games : Kabaddi, Wrestling, Weight-lifting etc. Modern sports like athletics, hockey, football, volleyball, cycling, handball etc. Performing sports like acrobatics, twisting an iron-rod by placing it on Adam's apple, passing tractor over the rib-ease, cracking a big stone by placing it on the chest etc. According to the Rural Olympics website: It was in 1933. Philanthropist Inder Singh Grewal visualised an annual recreational meet where farmers from areas surrounding Kila Raipur could get together and test their corporal endurance. The idea gave birth to Kila Raipur Sports, the undisputed "Rural Olympics". In over six decades the festival has grown from a toddler to a prancing, energetic youthful organisation. This pioneer rural sports festival has become an annual international event, which is normally held in the first weekend of February. A dynamic team of organisers -- Grewal Sports Association -- has taken yet again another pioneering step of giving rural women a break in sports. Today this festival of the rustics attracts more than 4,000 sportsmen and women, both of recognised and traditional sports. The three-day festival is witnessed by more than a million people. Besides, several million others watch it on television, read about it in newspapers and magazines. Whether you are in Punjab or in Toronto or in Southall, you will know the latest about Kila Raipur Sports. Its participants come from all over the globe. Since it takes several months for the immigrants in England, Canada or the USA to select, train and send their Kabbadi and Tug of War teams to this festival which of late has become a truly international, talks about destination KILA RAIPUR start much early. When Mr. Inder Singh Grewal and subsequently Grewal Sports Association visualised the Games, the solitary aim was, "healthy mind in a healthy body", the watchword has been "excellence", in accordance with the Olympic motto of "CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS". Besides, it was to provide a platform where boys and girls, men and even veterans could come and exhibit their acumen not only in recognised sporting events but also in traditional rural sports. So it has been always the best. Those who have been watching this festival grow from year to year can vouch that they have seen hundreds of Olympians and internationals in action on the bald but even playfields of perhaps the biggest Rural Sports Stadium in the country. For the Grewal Sports Association, it is not only the a...