Nouka Baich is a traditional rowing sport of Bangladesh. It's held generally in the rainy season. The sport uses traditional Bangladeshi boats known as Nouka. For nouka baich boats are so long. Boats with motor engines are not allowed. There are no rule about how long the boat can be or how many people will it carry. Each boat can be manned by 7 to 100 persons.
Boats are usually named with attractive and boastful names. There is a very popular song of nouka baich is 'Ronger nao ronger boitha , ronge ronge bao' it means 'Cheerfully tune the colorful oars of the colorful boat' Generally The competitors sing this song and also sing another sari gan folk songs during the race . Normally this race is held in big river channels with neighbor villagers participation.
It is almost twelve years ago in my village, I experieced nouka baich for the very first time. That time i was read in school. But still I remember clearly about the beautuful experience. It was really a very wonderful day to memorize. There is a river next to the house of my village. The river is called Kumar river. Kumar river is very well known river because of it's big length. The Kumar river originates from the Mathabhanga river in Chudanga district and finished to near Magura. Every year people organized the nouka baich in this river.
All the boats were designed so beautifully. There was a different different team for the boat race compitition from many other villages. Some teams wear same color t-shirt but not every team weared. People surrounded from two sides from different different villages of the Kumar river to watch the nouka baich and cheerup them.
Peoples were so excited while the boats passing out. They are like screaming in the excitment. Mostly the children was so much happy to watch this. Competitors also cheerup themself through utter 'Haiyo, Haiyo'. I felt was as if the music was playing in the air. The colorful design of the boats made the water look so colorful that day. How much enjoyable it was, just can't explain.
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