Games we used to play when we were kids....

Time was one thing which was available in plenty when we were kids and hence the genesis of lots of creative games to kill time. I can recollect few of them. I dnt know if these were played by majority of us, but they were quite famous when we were kids.

* Oonch neech ka papda: In this game, one kid gives the dime (we used to call it daii). We used to choose an uneven surface to play this game. (For those of you who are not that great in hindi, "oonch" means a surface which is comparatively higher and "neech" means the opposite.) The kid who gives daii will ask "oonch neech ka papda, oonch maangi neech" (he is asking ot

her players whether they prefer higer surface or the lower

one). Rest of kids will shout their choice, and the guy who is giving daii has to catch one who is not on the chosen surface. Well I could never end my daii and hence used to cheat and get over with it...:)

*Posham pa bhai posham pa: I think this was played mostly by girls. Two girls will raise their hands and clasp them together like a dome. Other will form a line and pass through the dome. While doing so, the two girls will sing:

"posham pa bhai posham pa,

daakiyon ne kya kiya,

100 rupee ki ghadi churai,

ab to jail mein aana padega,

jail ki roti khani padegi,

jail ka paani peena padega,

ab to jail mein aana padega"

The girl who is in the dome during last line will be jailed. She will go and hold one of the two girls from the back. This is repeated till the time all of them are jailed. Half of them will hold one girl and rest the other. Then begins a tug of war types with the arms as rope. The team which forces the other team out wins.

* Maram pitti : This is a common one. I guess everyone has played some variation of it. It primarily comprises of two teams and they hit each other with paper balls. i have even played it with stones.. So one team will try to hit the members of other team and whoever id hit is considered killed. The team with maximum members in the end wins. This game never has ended for atleast our group without a fight.

* French Cricket : This game was the heights of creativity. I think this was invented by someone very lazy but cricket lover. The batsman stands in a circle and feilders cumm bowlers are spread aroung him/her. One guy bowls to the batsman and s/he hits the ball. The runs are made by rotating bat around ones body. no. of rotations are the runs. important point to note here is that whoever gets the ball can pitch it to batsman. one who hits s/he body gets next turn. Nobody actually runs here and the batsman stays within his/her circle, which is rather small.

*Lukkam chuppi: This is haryanvi/hindi name of the famous hide and seek. I will not expalin it in detail but at our place, if the seeker finds the hider, he/she would say aies-paies and if the hider finds the seeker, he/she would say dhappa.

* Tube well games (in farms): This is a very original one and people who have been to villages and have seen tube wells can relate to it. I belong to a farmer's family and most of our summer vacations were spent in village and going to farms was a daily practice, specially during sowing season as the tube wells run during those days. Little introduction here, the water from tube well comes at a great pressure and its not so easy to hold your hand right at the beginning of the outlet. So the competition was that who can hold his/her head just below the outlet for maximum time. And mind you, other kids will not let you do so in peace. They might tickle you, try to nudge you to fall. But the strongerst one wins.

* Corner corner: Again a famous one. This can be played by 5 people. Four of them choose a corner each and the left one gives the daii. The kids on corners have to run from one corner to another and the daii wala has to catch an empty corner. Something like musical chairs, just that the no of corneers remain the same.

* Pithoo: Angreji mein kehte hain "seven stones". If anybody doesn't know about this one, his/her life is rally sad and he/she doesn't deserve to know what it is.

* Kokla chipake: This game can be played by atleast 15 kids. I remmeber it playing during the game periods in school. The kids sit in a circle and yes one guy gives daii here as well. All the kids sitting in circle have to close their eyes and the daii circles around them with a hankerchief in his/her hand. While doing so, he/she sings:

kokla chipake jimme rat aye hai,

aaye hai bhi aaye hai (all kids in chorus),

jeda aage piche dekhe usdi shamat aaye hai,

aaye hai bhi aaye hai (all kids in chorus).

While doing so, the daii will silently place hankerchief behind somebody. If the subject doesn't

get toknow of it and daii does one complete circle, he trasfers his/her daii to the other kid. But if the kid gets to know of the hankerchief, he/she will run after the daii with hankerchief and try to hit him/her with hankerchief to prevent daii.

* Superman superman: I think we all have played some versions of this game as well. We donot have any fixed rules for this one. For me, it was invented by my cousins(brothers) and me being the sole girl was always forced to become watchman (actually I realised it later that I was never part of game, I was fooled into becoming actual watchman to see if grandma is coming or not) . The

y always distrubuted all powers among themselves and in the end nothing was left for me. But being a watchman, I could see what they are playing. One of them, mostly the eldest orheaviest one would become superman and rest others were villians. Ans since superman has got maximum powers, other had to take the beating (sometimes literally).

* Elastic : This is again a girly game. Very creative one. it requires a long elastic ties to form a loop. Two girls will hold the elastic inthier feet and the other will form pre decided patterns with their

feet and get out of the loop as well. Not an east one huh...you can only touch the elastic on which you are standing else you are out. Its something like this:

There were other customized games like choosing a side of the lane and counting the no. of cars that cross my lane (total time pass), counting no of goods and stars one has got ih his/her notebook etc etc. I have tried to remember some of the major ones, if you guys know more, please let me know. I would love to run down the nostalgia lane.

Cheers,

SM