There was no Nintendo, PS or X Box for us born in the sixties. Nor did we have Facebook, Insta or Whatsapp. What we did have were a host of delightful, inexpensive and ‘make rules as you play’ games to prevent us from becoming all-work-and-no-play dull Jacks. These games taught us everything that is important in life; brotherhood, team work, cheating.
Sadly, most of these simple games have vanished. Remember ‘maaram pithi?. All that this game needed was one rubber ball. A team could have five, ten, twenty or as many players as desired. All players would be divided into two teams and one team would try to strike any member of the other team with the said ball. Every opposing player so struck would be ruled out till one team lost all players. The game needed, team work like basketball, fakes and deception like badminton, stamina of a steeplechase athlete, quicksilver reflexes of squash, and judgement of distances of a parkour specialist. However, for us simpletons, the joys of landing a full blooded throw on the fleshy posterior of an opponent, thus sending him ‘aaii aaii’ while rubbing his tender parts, were the only things that mattered!
And what about ‘Jhaad Bandar’? (Somehow when translated to English, ‘Tree Monkey’ doesn’t sound as much fun). All that this game needed was a tall tree and astounding stupidity. The ‘den’ in this game had to tag others by chasing them up a tree! Some falls, scrapes and bruises were just par for the course. Tell me if you have ever come across a game needing more daring, more fitness, and more foolhardiness? Alas, will any ‘woke’ parent in today’s world allow their kids such ‘adventurous’ games? And even if they did, where are the trees in today’s towns and cities!
We of course also had the far more sedate marbles and tops (lattoo). While I was quite the champion at marbles, and had collected hundreds of them as bounty, the intricacies of the lattoo always left me befuddled. Now don’t get me wrong. I could spin the lattoo, and that too furiously, but for some infuriating reason, only upside down! Something to do with suppleness of the wrist I guess, cause I could never fully convert the potential energy of the lattoo into kinetic energy or deliver the requisite angular momentum to send the lattoo into precession; or some such nonsense. I have seen my particularly gifted friends flick the wrist and make the lattoo land directly on their palms, whirling away. Not me! Based on the advice of some seemingly sincere friends, I tried a short run up, a long run up, wrist flicks, finger snaps and the round arm action; only to, as always, have the lattoo land upside down.
For most of us a catapult (gulel) was all that was needed to become a gun slinger. With one tucked into our waistband we could let our imaginations run wild as we strode our neighbourhood like Clint Eastwood. I recall I was thus wasting away a languid summer afternoon in our garden when my mom called me into the house. I jokingly pointed my single shooter at her cocked and loaded with a stone. Unfortunately for the both of us, the projectile holder slipped from my fingers and the innocent stone following Newton’s law of motion kept flying till it affected rendezvous straight with my mother’s lower lip. Once it met this external force, it dropped to the ground, along with two of my mom’s teeth. Panicked, I thought this was an opportune moment to ‘run away’ from my house and that is what I did. I ran for about 300 metres before some basic questions wrt logistics made me realise that I had not thought my plan through; What about spare underwear? Money for groceries? So I sat under a tree brooding, only to be found by my father two hours later. Now fathers those days did not worry much about abstract things like the ‘psychology of the child’. They believed in robust action. My father being more robust than most, attached himself to my left ear and with the suppleness of wrist that would make a champion lattoo exponent proud, and yanked me to my feet using my ear as a lever. The 300 metres were retraced in this comical (to others, not me) fashion with no loosening of the grip on my father’s part.
Occasionally, we ventured into cricket if one of our friends had benevolent parents who bought their offsprings, a cricket bat. Our cricket was governed by two distinct sets of rules. One set as laid down by consensus, was for all of us. The second set was for the bat owner, modified as convenient on the fly. He batted in both innings, fielded in none. He also double banked as the umpire and ruled himself out only when bored, howsoever vociferous the appeal. And because overly serious remonstrations with the umpire would lead him to pick up his bat and head home, no one really pressed too hard with ‘appeals’. ‘Spirit of the game’ you ask? Pshaw!!
We scoffed at the concept of bad light that international matches adhered to; cause our ‘matches’ generally started at about the time Gavaskar would appeal for bad light, viz 1730 hrs. We used to play well past twilight and consequently, with the ball being virtually invisible, the batting as well as fielding was accomplished more by guesswork rather than sight.
Other honourable mentions include Gilly Danda, Stapu, Langdi, Vish Amrit, Kokla Chapaki, Dog and the Bone, etc. No costly and fancy gadgets, no expensive turfs/pitches, no hard and fast rules. Just unadulterated fun, bonds of friendships and joy unbound. Sadly most are forgotten now and relived only in memories.
Another good one Rakesh, takes one down the memory lane .
Thanx Sabnis.
Very beautifully written… Life mantra has to be…bachpan ke din bhula na dene..aur hum bhi agar bache hote…
Aur… koi lauta de mere beetey hue din!
Great one. Made me run down the memory lane.
Thank you Harry
Deja Vu. 🥃🥃
Indeed
A well articulated article sir. Following were also games leading to creativity
– Preparation of arrows with coaltar head to achieve longer range during Ramlilas
-Game of elastic
Of course! And many many more.
Thank you very much
कोई लौटा दे मेरे बीते हुए दिन…! Nostalgic ! 👌🏻
Aise bhi din they kabhi, meri duniya thi meri. Bheete hue din woh hai pyaare pal chin
Thank you very much
RKD is unbeatable. Great going Bro
Thank you Sir!
Well scripted Rakesh, reminds me of my earlier forays with blogging, where I had expressed similar emotions , Games we played, where was boredom!
https://senseinthenonsense.blogspot.com/2011/06/.
Do take a peek. Alas today’s kids won’t get this opportunity ever.
Thank you Suyash.
Took a peek. Enjoyed it thoroughly. Those were indeed the days!
Dear Rakesh,
Brilliant stuff. Thanks. Keep’em coming.
Warmest regards,
G Prakash
Dear Rakesh,
Brilliant stuff. Thanks. Keep’em coming.
Warmest regards,
G Prakash
Thank you very much Sir.
Brilliantly written sir.
Thanx Jyotin
Ah…this took me back to my initial years of rural upbringing. In addition to the games mentioned by you, I used to love flying kites and my mother was dead against it due to frequent accidents involved. Too many lies had to be told to fulfill my love for kite -flying. I think she could see-through them but let it pass once in a while.
These days on 26 Jan I get to fly kites to my heart’s content 🤪
Thanks for re-kindling those childhood memories !
👍 Cheers to kite flying
Nice one Rakesh. Don’t see anything on these lines these days. Remember coming back home sweating, cuts, bruises sometimes, soily clothes . The nicker generally used to get worn out in the posterior and in some cases you could see patch work done by moms. The nicker would be particularly dirty around the pockets where you deposit marbles. You need to walk into the washroom straight and wash your hands and legs before sitting down for studies.
There were some more games like gobar danda, where you had to run with a stick and keep it on cow dung to not to get out and reach the target. Race teep ala Hide n seek. Kite flying with competetion. Lattoo if you loose then your lattoo would be dug with the sharp nail of the winners lattoo and it was a big emotional farewell to your latto. The nail is sharpened and maintained to be strong. Hockey, football, cricket were played by all. The fortunate well off ones would indulge in tennis, shuttle, swimming, basketball ball and maybe billiards. There was one more game called ball badminton which was played with a small wooden ball with five players in each team.
Thanx Sir. Great times those. Never played gobar danda though!
Nice one Rakesh. Don’t see anything on these lines these days. Remember coming back home sweating, cuts, bruises sometimes, soily clothes . The nicker generally used to get worn out in the posterior and in some cases you could see patch work done by moms. The nicker would be particularly dirty around the pockets where you deposit marbles. You need to walk into the washroom straight and wash your hands and legs before sitting down for studies.
There were some more games like gobar danda, where you had to run with a stick and keep it on cow dung to not to get out and reach the target. Race teep ala Hide n seek. Kite flying with competetion. Lattoo if you loose then your lattoo would be dug with the sharp nail of the winners lattoo and it was a big emotional farewell to your latto. The nail is sharpened and maintained to be strong. Hockey, football, cricket were played by all. The fortunate well off ones would indulge in tennis, shuttle, swimming, basketball ball and maybe billiards. There was one more game called ball badminton which was played with a small wooden ball with five players in each team.
Beautiful piece Sir. Relived our childhood. Simple yet most enjoyable games which bound all friends together.
Beautiful piece Sir. Relived our childhood. Simple yet most enjoyable games which bound all friends together.
Oh yes Sobti. Simple times. Enjoyable times
A delightful read Sir !!! Nothing compares to those games….or those days.
Agree. Nothing
Sir,
Wonderful article. It took me down the memory lane. Read the article alongwith my 7 year old daughter. She has now tasked me to get lattoo and demonstrate my skills.
Shows that you are more skilled than I am! Never could master the darned thing. Thanx Dani
Nice article well articulated. Enjoyed every bit of it whilst being lost in my childhood days.
Those were the days. Simple games. Simple joys
Wonderful recollection, Maram Peti would make our back red with several hits! We used to hit a opponent lattoo with our lattoo, gulli danda was also a weapon that caused facial injuries 😀
Thank you Sir! I loved gilly danda. One needed tremendous hand eye coordination, surpassing that of Tendulkar too!
Nice one RK . Nostalgic walk rather hop down the memory lane.
Thanx Navjot. Yes, nostalgic. Those were different days!
Great read RK.Nostalgic.
You took me back to the childhood memory lane. Gili danda kanchey, hide n seek etc…All these at the cost of getting whipped ….Still gave a great thrill to continuously repeat these childhood adventures … Kaaash woh din Laut aate…
Yes, koi lauta de mere beetey hue din! Waise I’ve heard that some of these resorts have started offering these old childhood games for corporate events. Should be really fun
Don’t fret. Some of these indigenous activities could make it into the Olympics in the future.
That would be interesting. As such I’ve heard of some Resorts including such games in Corporate team building events
Great one sir, as usual.
Thank you Vatsayan
Thanks Rakesh, did all that, uncoiling a lattoo on the palm was so easy for me….and riding a cycle standing straight on the carrier , landing in a ditch sometimes, never deterred me from doing it again.
Never could master the lattoo! Nor golf, nor billiards. Will write about them some day