Seshadri's Musings

10. Staapu or Hopscotch – A very simplistic game where your body gets a full workout by jumping         and bending your back 😊. You just need a space where you can draw a diagram as shown below: -        The game is played by using a flat stone (staapu). You stand at the bottom side of the drawing and throw the staapu at the box number 1.  You have to ensure that the staapu falls just inside the box and not touch any of the lines of the box.  If it does, you are declared “out” and the other player gets the chance.  Once the staapu is inside the box, you jump to box no 2 on one leg, use the same leg to jump to box no 3.  Since 4 and 5 are together in one row, you can put one leg in box no 4 and one leg in box no 5, both legs on the ground at the same time.  Then you jump to box no 6 on the same one leg, and then with both legs to box nos 7 and 8.  Your left leg will be in box no 7 and right leg in bo...

7.       Maran PT – I am not sure of the actual name, but this is how I remember it.   Maybe it is a mixture of Maar (hit in Hind) and PT as in you do a lot of running in this game.   This game is played with a rubber or a tennis ball.   There are 2 teams with 5-6 players in each team.   This is generally played in a ground or a park.   You toss to see which team is going to hit the opposition team with the ball and which team will run and not get hit.   The objective of the game is to hit the opposite team player with the ball so that he becomes “out”. You keep on hitting them with the ball till the entire team is “out”.   The team which does the running, has to ensure that any ball that is coming to hit them is avoided by either jumping or ducking.   For hitting the opposition team, the team can pass the ball among themselves so that once the pass goes to the team member who is near the opposition team member, he can just hit h...

6.      Rumaal – Rumaal means handkerchief in English.   There are 2 games that I used to play in childhood.   Both are fun to play and can be played between 10-16 players. The first one is a team game and the next one is a group game.   In the team game, the kids are divided into 2 teams.   Both having same number of players.   In the center of the ground a circle is drawn and a handkerchief is placed inside it.   About 10-15 metres on either side, a line is drawn and the teams occupy these two sides, opposite to each other with the circle in between.   You can also do a toss to decide which team takes which side.   The team members decide among themselves and allot a number from 1 to 5 or 1 to 8, depending on 5 or 8 members in each team.   In effect, both teams have the numbers 1 to 5 or 1 to 8 allotted to their players.   There is also a referee who will call out the numbers.   Once he calls out a particular...

5.       Marbles – I am sure we all would have played with them in our childhood. Even if we had not played games with them, we would have certainly collected them.   I am now going to write about 2 games which I used to play regularly.   In addition to these games, one used the marbles for bartering to get different types of marbles, use them playing catch-catch with others or simply throwing them up in air and practice our catching. To play with marbles, you need to learn some techniques. You keep your left thumb on the ground and with your right hand, with the thumb and the “pointing” fingers, keep the marble at the top of the longest finger in the left hand. You push back this finger with the fingers of your right hand and then release the marble. When you release the marble, with the force of your left hand’s longest finger, you let the marble go the distance.                         ...