JOIN USIt all began three years ago when the love for sports brought together about 40 people from Elita Promenade, JP Nagar, which houses over 1,500 apartments, to play volleyball.
They played matches every Saturday, Sunday and on other public holidays. It soon resulted in a friendly neighbourhood visit for a competitive match with another complex, Purva Panorma, which had its own share of enthusiastic volleyball players.
This soon assumed larger proportions with increasingly more apartments participating, initially from South Bengaluru, but gradually from other parts of the city as well. These early friendship matches resulted in a demand for a more competitive game to bring out the best in all and an inter-apartment volleyball tournament was conceived about three years ago. This annual event has been aptly named ‘The Friendship Cup’.
This year, it was hosted at Elita Promenade and the nearby RBI Grounds in JP Nagar and saw 16 apartments participating with 24 teams in all. ‘Friends of EVG’ (EVG stands for Elita Volleyball Group) also participated in the event. Sanjay Jain, board member and treasurer of Elita Promenade Apartment Owners’ Association (EPAOA) and an avid volleyball enthusiast was also a part of the team.
The event lasted two full days with some teams coming from the other parts of the city like Prestige Shantiniketan in Whitefield and Adarsh Palm Retreat on Outer Ring Road. It saw a level of participation and enthusiasm that was unparalleled. National- level referees were brought in and that added greater fervour. Interestingly, many women were also a part of the game. The matches began in the morning and were conducted till late in the evening under flood lights. The whole atmosphere turned into a carnival of sorts with children and adults cheering for their favourite teams. This encouraged the teams further to put in their best.
The games seemed to have ignited some spark in the children and during breaks, it was satisfying to watch those children try their hands at volleyball. Demands for such an inter-apartment tournament began pouring in for other sports as well such as cricket, tennis and throwball.
Several parents were quite happy to see their children enjoying from the sidelines and edging their teams to go for it. It was nice to see them away from their electronic devices for a change.
Such a grand event would not have been possible without the support of the apartment owners’ association. And rightly so, the Elita Promenade Apartment Owners Association (EPAOA) actively supported the event.
This year’s cup was won by Mahaveer Rhyolite with Elita Promenade as the runners-up and Brigade Palm Springs in the third place. Each team put their best foot forward in the tournament.Elita Promenade, the hosts, did not regret losing the cup even one bit. The encouragement the event received from the children, their mothers and even grandparents more than made up for it. This is an event that the residents will remember for a long time.