Kushti (Wrestling)

A taste of sport from the Subcontinent
Word to the wise: The crowd is usually friendly and respectful to outsiders. Return the favour. Women especially should ensure dressing modestly when attending.

Friday afternoon, in a patch of sand behind the Deira Fish Market, hundreds of Dubai’s Pakistani labourers, taxi drivers, and fish merchants perch on the sand in an arena made of bodies and parked cars, and cheer on as a couple of men in loincloths grapple at each other.
The sport is called Kushti, and it’s a form of wrestling popular in India and Pakistan. It certainly makes for a surreal sight in Dubai, and is one of the rare opportunities in the city to glimpse the everyday life of the labouring masses that keep Dubai running.

The crowd is mainly male and mainly Asian, though as word has caught on of the weekly matches, increasing numbers of snap-happy Westerners have been seen milling around the crowd. It matters little, as the spectators are proud of their pastime, and usually extremely friendly to onlookers of any race and gender.