It's a Friday night and most restobars in the city have chosen to beam IPL matches on giant, wall-mounted LED screens. But, at Khar's Raasta, the drama is being played out in front of us at the venue. On an elevated platform is an arm-wrestling table, where contestants, mostly burly men in black T-shirts, have come to grips and are out to pin the other down. As a warm-up, the challenge is thrown open to the guests, but this is soon followed by intense wrist-fights between the official teams, Punjabi Panjas and Haryanvi Panjas, and later between Mumbai Panjas and Pune Panjas. The matches are explosive and addictive and are wrapped up in a matter of milliseconds.

Not a cockfight
It's exactly what Prashant Kumar, one of the original members of the Indian MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) community, had envisioned for the launch of the Ultimate Panja League (UPL) a year ago. That he had finally chosen to do so in the throes of the IPL season was hardly a deterrent. "I had been planning this for a while now and after locking the format, I didn't want to sit on the project any longer," he says. An advertising professional, Kumar holds a black belt in taekwondo, and arm-wrestling has been more than a hobby for him. Like most people, he played the game in school and college, but its charm lingered. "I was drawn to it because, unlike popular perception, it's not a frivolous sport. It requires technique and skill like any other competitive game." It's not something that can be taken lightly. "It's like a fighter going for a fight. He's coming to put you down. You better be serious about it." He felt it was time the masses did, too. Fortunately, Kumar did not have to try too hard to sell the concept, at least among peers.