Dirty Evenings and Dark Nights
Evenings were wonderful times in villages; mornings were all about physical labor for the grown-ups and mostly school for the kids unless we skip classes and go for fishing (Wish I did it at least once). Evenings were so interesting till late 90s until television and cricket ruined the country in every aspect. As a routine, soon after coming from school, we throw the school bag at house (sometimes literally) and run back to the street or school ground playing till it's very dark. Tough thing for parents is to get us home for dinner. And mostly, immediately after dinner, we again hit the streets.
There were plenty of games, some sessional and some regular. One of them is கோலி குண்டு (Golli Gundu), it’s my favorite as it doesn't require much physical strength, just accuracy and timing. Only thing required is small sized round in shape glass pieces that are called "Gollis". With this material, there were so many varieties of games that we used to play each with different set of rules. Objective is to gain as many Gollies as possible. I guess they used to cost 1 pisa per goli. So all that we require is a very small packet money, 10 Pisa commission on helping mother for getting groceries from the shop next street. Surprisingly I was lefty only for this game. To list all varieties of games played with Golli and their rules would be a good article for the future generations.
Other than that there were many other games, such as "Bambaram", which is made from wood with a big sharp nail. Here the objective is different, it's to break other's Bumbarams, it's obviously for BIG guys and I never became good at it except for the basics. Kabadi is another game for the strong; probably one game that always gets gold for India at Common Wealth games even today. But the change is that the game is not played that frequently by kids these days as it used to be. Kotti Billa (A telugu name) is another interesting game which is gone with time, all that is require is a strong foot and a half long stick which is sharp at one end and a small one fourth of the stick, sharp at both ends.
Another famous one which is totally dead today is "எங்க வீட்டு நாய்"(Dog from my house), that we play with sticks. It's again a very simple game; all that we need is a small piece of stick and a lengthy one for each kid. One guy will be identified initially through a simple game of "Saa Boo Three". He has to protect the small piece of stick from being towed away. So when someone approaches the small stick, he will try to touch them. If he touches anyone who is not having their stick touching to a stone or rock is considered out. Objective of all others is to distract him and push the small piece of stick to as far distance as possible and the objective of the guy who is caught initially is to protect the small stick and to try to touch someone as early as possible. They game doesn't end there, once the guy touches someone, from that point to the starting place, the guy has to walk in one leg and never placing his other feet on the ground while all other kids sing following rhyme that starts with "எங்க வீட்டு நாய்..."(Dog from my house) after which the game is named.
எங்க வீடு நாய் (Dog from my house)
எதோ தின்ன போச்சி (Went out to eat dirt)
கல்லால் அடிச்சேன் (I hit him with a stone)
கால் ரெண்டும் போச்சி.... (Dog lost both the legs)
I don't remember if it had more lines than this, would have to check with my friends. I'm writing this game in detail because the game is no more and if someone researches on native games, this may be of good use to them.
At night we used to play "Ice Boy", always wondered how the game got an English name. Even till mid-90s, most houses were yet to get electricity and there were full of hide outs around the streets which were very dark at night. This was the most fun and interesting game to play at night. Again here, the team identifies one guy with "Saa boo three" and the victim has to find all other guys before any of them jump from their hide outs and touch him. I'm not sure if kids play this game today, I guess this is another game that is almost forgotten.
There were many other games like தாயம் (Matix) played by all ages, பல்லாங்குழி (Pallanguzi) for girls, Back Puncher for guys and many others that I couldn’t recollect. Also there was another famous game called “குரங்காட்டம்” (Monkey Jump) similar to the above one but the difference is instead of long stick, kids would have to climb on trees. This game has the record for broken arm as falling from tree while jumping between branches is common. Every game mostly would end due to some misunderstanding and some small fight or quarrel or because it’s too dark, but always starts again next day at the same time forgetting all about yesterday. And we would have to receive some scolding on returning home for coming late and more over for turning our white uniform shirt into color one filled with dirt and strains.
While the kids find several of games to play during day and at night, the elders would gather in groups in the street corners under the street light and spend time chatting. There were gatherings in every street till they go to bed. They share varieties of stories and their adventures of their youthful days and much more. It's the place where gossips spread too. Sarcasm of older people would be really interesting. Voices were usually high at times as if there was some quarrel but were just intensified arguments. But that helped bring the community together and build relationships.
Scene today is very different even in villages, people are mostly inside the house as soon as it gets dark, spending time in front of televisions mostly watching boring serials. In last 10 years or so, the streets have become cement roads in my village, seems like they are very narrow compared to old days, just like our minds today. Road contractors might have shortened them to get more profit by saving cement and other commodities. The culture that existed for centuries is gone in few years in the name of modernization, houses are well lit today with bridge lights, most houses equipped with UPS to cope up with power cuts, and streets are bright too but mostly empty. And one game called Cricket has killed varieties of native games that were there from ancient times and were helping children build up physically and mentally. I hardly see kids today playing any other games.
In spite of all these, when I went home last summer, I was happy to see some people and kids at my street corner. It was once a very popular spot of my village, that even attracted people from other streets, is still bit active, at least with few people, mostly men who are not interested watching TV, woman who are trying to feed their toddlers, youngsters like me who return to native catching up with friends and children too playing there though very carefully not to get hurt on the cement paved street.
