Games children played Charlane Pereira
I remember when I was a tiny tot, we children used to play games such as ‘ hide-and-seek’, marbles, etc. Such games helped us have playmates of our own age and also helped in the physical development of children of our generation and the generations of children before us. I have heard my dad speaking of his childhood days and revealing that they would climb trees, run, play football, etc. He often speaks of the days gone by where he narrates childhood memories with nostalgia.
I have heard old men talking of how they had learnt to swim in the earlier days. Swimming pools and swimming classes were very few and not so popular during those days, so the boys in the village had to make do with what they had. They would gleefully gather five dried up empty coconuts, tie them around their waist and go for a swim in the pond. This simple pastime helped them buoy up physically and mentally unlike our modern life jackets, which sometimes fail to serve the right purpose.
There were games like ‘ tonbar’ and ‘ meettani’. These games are rarely heard of nowadays except among the older generations who fondly remember games such as these that they played as children. For those of the younger generations who have no idea what these games are all about, ‘ Tonbar’ was an outdoor game which was played with oneand- a- half foot bamboo stick and a shorter stick. The longer stick played the role of our modern cricket bat while the short stick lay on the ground. The player had to hit the short stick to make jump in the air, and then hit a shot as far as he could. Points were allotted for scoring shots. There was another variation of this game called ‘ sonbar which was similar to ‘tonbar’, except that coconut coir was used instead of the small short stick. The game was played in a similar manner to ‘ tonbar’.
‘Meettani’ was another popular outdoor game which involved drawing a square on ground with six cells in it. The player had to throw a stone in a cell, hop on one leg and kick the stone out from that cell, pass it to other cells.
Another popular game ‘ gulani’, It was played indoors and involved playing with five small sea smooth conches. The player needed to roll the conches. If all the conches fell face down or face up, five points were allotted. It also involved hitting each of the conches to score points. The game of marbles too operated on similar lines. Each player had to hit the marbles on the ground with a marble in their hand.
There were other variations of this game which involved playing with cashew seeds. The seeds were lined up in a long row. The player had to hit them from a distance to score points. Another variation of this game involved drawing a circle and a raw cashew seed (‘ beebo’) was laid in the middle of the circle. The player had to knock the raw seed with his cashew seed.
Another variation was lining up of small five to six stones one on top of the other. The players had to stand at a distance of six to seven feet and knock the pile down. Points were allotted as per the rules of the game.
Gone are those days! Gone are those games only to be replaced by modern games-video games, games on the cell phone, computerized games, etc.
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