The games we played

Long before multimillion endorsements made millionaires out of cricketers and soccer players reached demi-god status, many a now-forgotten game kept children engaged in activities which were better than watching cartoons and squabbling over video games. I can bet that even my own children have never heard of these games.

But maybe someday they will have some time to read about them if I scribble a few lines - before I forget too! I say this, because like dinosaurs, these games have also either vanished, or are on the verge of extinction.

I'll begin with “seven stones”. It was a game played with seven relatively flat-shaped stones, piled one top of the other, and the “stone-tower” was encircled with chalk. How this colonial name was coined in the remote villages of Assam baffles me; maybe it was one of the few legacies that the British left behind! Whatever its history might have been, our lazy afternoons were occupied by fervent (and mostly unsuccessful) attempts to dislodge the “stone-tower” from a distance with the help of a ball. Two teams, each consisting of at least two players, formed an attack team and a defense team.  The attack team were allowed three attempts to knock down the stone-tower; if they failed, then the defense and attack team changed places and continued to play. As soon as the ball knocked over the pile of stones, the defenders tried to get the opposition ‘out’ by hitting the players below the knee with the ball . The aim of the attacking team was to rearrange the pile of stones and trace the circle three times with their fingers before the defense ousted their team. Though it was the boys' domain, I managed to remain “not-out” by quarrelling or crying, as the situation demanded.

A girl besotted with Barbie may not be familiar with the game 'kutkut', but it used to be very popular among girls at my school. 'Kutkut' may seem simple, but those who played it knew it was not an easy game to master. A box with eight squares was chalked out. Any number of players could take part in the game. Each player had to toss a pebble into the first square and push it through to the last square in the box using one foot, while hopping on the other. The player was out if the pebble touched any line of the box, or if their raised foot dropped to the ground. The player also had to hold his/her breath and say 'kutkut' while pushing the pebble. The player could rest after reaching the last square and take a breath. Then, it was back to the first square to repeat your journey. I tried explaining the game to my nine year old niece, but she gave me an exasperated look and, without batting an eyelid, continued playing on her mother’s iPhone!

Dolls have been popular with little girls since time immemorial, but I can still see the shock on the face of my four year old neighbour when I told her that I used to play with rag doll; they were made from discarded scraps of cloth and thread, with crudely drawn faces. We did not have plastic or rubber dolls, but our  rag-dolls were by no means inferior. Often, we made a whole family of dolls  with the help of grownups in the family.  

Another favourite game among the girls was “paach guti”,  which we played with five small pebbles. Two players played against each other. The first player had to throw five pebbles lightly on the floor. Then she had to toss a pebble in the air, pick up one pebble from the ground and catch the air-borne pebble before it hit the ground. If the pebble touched the ground, then the player was ‘out’. The game had five (or was it six?) rounds – ‘ek guti’, ‘dui guti’, ‘tini guti’, ‘saari guti’, ‘dolong’, etc.

‘Kori khel’  is another game that is disappearing. Google search may lead you to a Pakistani village by the same name (yes, Pakistan has a city called Kori Khel!), but the back of my hands are marked by numerous scratches from schoolmates who loved playing this exciting game all through my high school days. We used four small sea shells; any number of players could participate. The rule was to hit one ‘kori’ with another, with each hit carrying one point. If all four koris fell  open side up, then it was a four-point-each-kori round, and the rush to grab the ‘kori’ led to casualties!

Our childhoods were devoid of remote-controlled cars, but thanks to Nestle, each packet of Maggi noodles was welcomed with a wide smile because it came with a small toy car. And, if your parents were feeling generous, a few lucky ones amongst even got a ‘Hot-Wheels’ car!

Yes, I know a Beyblade top spins like a skilled ballerina nowadays. But I know that my wooden tops and the ones made from litchi seeds and match-sticks were almost as fast in their spin and their speed…