Indian Games

[jaiganes]

Looking at the modern children, one striking difference between the childhood that the previous generation had and the one that this generation is having is the lack of Indian or native games. In our generation (i.e, 1980s and before) we used to play a variety of inddor and outdoor games that were the games of this soil. Whereas today almost all kids play games like cricket, tennis and football. Nobody is playing games like Kabaddi, Goli, Ghilli or the indoor games like the Dhaayakattam , paramapadham, pallanguzhi, paandi or aadu puli aattam. These games have a rich culture and heritage value and were tools of passing on some ancestral knowledge or the other. They also sharpened our observational and math skills unlike the hit and run games of the west that are unidimensional and strengthen only hand eye coordination. I would like to see our hubbers come out with details of their favourite native games and how they enjoyed it. Let the games begin.....

[Roshan]

What is Kho Kho??? :roll:

Anyways I have played all those games during my childhood days - except gilli. :D I have played cricket too with my brother and his friends. :P

It's so sad that nowadays the kids dont indulge themselves in such 'kiddish' games but stick to TV and computer games. Besides they are more occupied with tution classes and they've got hardly any time for playing. :cry: :cry:

[hehehewalrus]

Your forgot 2 important ones:
Olinjukandu
Thirudanpolees
:lol2: :lol2:

Ice-adiching while playing Olinjukandu is an art in itself demanding consummate wizardry!

[blahblah]

Your forgot 2 important ones:
Olinjukandu
Thirudanpolees
:lol2: :lol2:

Ice-adiching while playing Olinjukandu is an art in itself demanding consummate wizardry!

Is olinjukandu a typical Indian native game? I thought it was the Hide n'seek game itself?

[jaiganes]

walrus !!
what is olinju kandu ?
If it is hide and seek, we used to call it Iceboys.
Had a chilling incident once when we played hide and seek (iceboys) at our home. There are basic rules for our safety like not hiding inside vessels like drums and not hiding on trees. One smart friend of ours climbed the stairs and hid in the sunshade (a kind of loft above windows outside the house). The person who has to seek spotted everyone except the first kid. When he got a wind (through an ettappan)and was climbing the stairs, the other kid tried to shift his place, and in a moment, suddenly slipped out of the balcony! He fell down and to our shock was motionless for a minute. Thankfully my parents and neighbours took him to the hospital and luckily he hadn't broken his head. Even now when I think of that incident i am shocked. After many years, I met him on the train to chennai and he was working in Oracle. I reminded him of that incident and he started laughing.
My favourite indoor game in summer is the dhaayakattam, my cousins and me would start playing it in the morning after breakfast and till evening we will continue. I somehow had the blessings of "Shakuni maama from mahabarath" I used to take "pazhams" and "daayams" were a commonplace when I roled the "chokkattan".

Roshan wrote:

what is Kho Kho
It is a game usually played by girls in schools.
There would be a line of girls sitting with alternate persons facing opposite side. There will be a "rider" whose aim is to catch the one other person who is free to run around in a clockwise dierction. If the rider is tired, she can touch any person in squatting position and that person will now start "riding". The uniqueness of the game is the fact that players sitting are in such a position that the rider wil have to think before passing the chase on to the next person as to who in their clockwise running would be able to catch the runner quickly. It is an interesting and difficult game to play.

[Roshan]

It is a game usually played by girls in schools.
There would be a line of girls sitting with alternate persons facing opposite side. There will be a "rider" whose aim is to catch the one other person who is free to run around in a clockwise dierction. If the rider is tired, she can touch any person in squatting position and that person will now start "riding". The uniqueness of the game is the fact that players sitting are in such a position that the rider wil have to think before passing the chase on to the next person as to who in their clockwise running would be able to catch the runner quickly. It is an interesting and difficult game to play.

Oh Wow !! I have played this game too in school. :D

[a.ratchasi]

Except for hide and seek and 'catching', I did not have the privilege of playing other games meantioned as I was one of those 'city kids'. Though, a trip down to one of the kampungs (village) at a ripe old age of 13 :wink: exposed me to a game called 'rounders'.
I can't recall how the game was actually played, but I do remember getting hit with a tennis ball in the course of the game. Ouch, it was painful!! What made me cherish the game even more besides playing the game for the first time was the spirit of playing together with a large group of kids. The laughter, the fight between the 'gangs'...hmmmm compared to the no of kids in my neighbourhood which was three, yeah, that's right, the three of us!!

Other games that I played in school especially the days just before the semester break, were 5 stones, 'getah' (where rubber bands are stringed together make a long rope. Min 3 players needed. 2 to hold the rope horizontally and one who gets to jump over it.The player gets to jump at various heights as long she does not come in contact with the rope), badminton minus the net and with own rules, pepsi-cola (i wonder if the kids nowadays actually know its existence).

aahhh....memories.....

[hehehewalrus]

walrus !!
what is olinju kandu ?
If it is hide and seek, we used to call it Iceboys.


A nice and popular tamil term like Olinjukandu has been mercilessly peterized to "Iceboys" :cry: :cry:

Ratchasi, we called that game "masaa masaa" - fierce contests between my class and the next section when we were in classes 4th and 5th. Generally the class leader of the opposing team was a hot target and he received atleast 7-8 painful hits per game - our method of revenge for his "writing down names" of our friends in free periods :twisted:

[jaiganes]

Another indian game, which I have heard about and seen in movies, but never got to play as a kid was "Pachai Kudhirai" There is a sweet little tale behind this game (as it is with every other game). In this game, two to three players must bow down with their knee not bending. Another player has to jump over the other players who are in the bent position. This is called "Pachai kudhirai" dhandradhu or jumping. There is a legend of Dhesingu raaja behind this game and the kids will sing a song while playing this song.
Another game specialized by girls is "Koozhangal". It is a game in which a stone is thrown up and before it is caught the player has to pick up stones in the floor. It starts with onw stone picked up from the floor and two stoes and so on. I tried playing this game with my cousins and could pick up only 5 stones. There are complex levels where you have to throw two stones up from both your hands and pick up two set of stones from the floor. This was a game where girls always did better than the boys.

[blahblah]

Any of you know 'Noottankol' and 'kuttiyum kolum'[Sorry both malayalam terms].

[scorpio]

JG,

Wasn't it called 'Kallangai" instead of koozhangul? Actually, it used to be played using small black jalli stones and not smooth koozhanguls. I still remember how me and my friends used to 'theru porikkify' in the hot sun searching for ideal sized karupu stones and take pains to rub them on hard surfaces to blunt any sharp ends and make them ideal for catching.

BTW, what is adu-puli-attam???

[hehehewalrus]

what about nondi and chatli?

[jaiganes]

yes akka. it is indeed "kallaangaai" . My cousins went nuts over that and made me "porukkify" the kal as they are "vayasu ponnunga".
BlahBlah, describe the game and we can tell u whether we know abt it or not.
Walrus, Nodi aadaradhu is also a fave passtime. Only problem is u need a smooth sandy surface for that, else, knee cap will be torn.

[aravindhan]

Kuttiyum kolum is a local form of baseball. You have a rather small piece of splintered wood instead of the ball, and a stick as the bat. The batsman has to hit the freely falling wood with a stick. If he misses or is caught, he is out. If he hits it and it goes more than a "kuta" he gets a point.

This is bringing back childhood memories! Has anyone here played Chedhal chattam?

I have played countless games of aadu-puli aatam with my grandfather. I never beat him even once, but then no-one in the town could beat him at that game. I'm now teaching it to my children, and it doesn't look like my supremacy over them is destined to last for very long.

And isn't paramapadham still very much around in its modern avatar of "Snakes and Ladders"?

[madhu]

hey.. idhu ellam kidiayaadhaa ?

kallaa maNNaa

thattaamaalai

[oohlala]

hehehewalrus

we called that game "masaa masaa"

Is it something like Pei Bandhu?

Scorpio

Wasn't it called 'Kallangai" instead of koozhangul

They used to call it as Sungarakai also :D

[hehehewalrus]

hehehewalrus
Is it something like Pei Bandhu?


I dont think its Pei Bandhu - peiya bandhaala adikkave mudiyaadhu.

[oohlala]

I dont think its Pei Bandhu - peiya bandhaala adikkave mudiyaadhu.

:lol:
Peiya adikaradhu illanga...but irakkame :shock: illama pei madihri matthavangala adikaradhala pei bandhu :wink:

[hehehewalrus]

Another indian game, was "Pachai Kudhirai" In this game, two to three players must bow down with their knee not bending. Another player has to jump over the other players who are in the bent position.

Used to play this in 5th std. how i hated it!! :evil: We played this in the long jump pit.

If you're bending, the other guy runs at top speed, rests both his palms(with full force) on ur back and leaps over. Most likely you will keel over before he leaps. :evil:
If you're leaping, if the bender doesnt bend enough, you might collide with him while leaping. :evil:
Either way, a messy tangle cant be avoided!!!



Another game specialized by girls is "Koozhangal".

Girls in my area outshone boys in 'nondi' too. perhaps the boys in my area cannot hop for nuts!

oohlala ;)

The fun part of "masaa masaa" in a crowded playfield is to run and stand near a teacher or elderly person or a bullying senior! The targettor will never aim at you, since if he hits the wrong target, he will be beaten to death :twisted:

[Querida]

Oh wow so many fun games i would love to play these games with my little cousins....please JG and others tell me just very shortly how to play the games listed...excluding the ones you already have explained...and if you can the terminology behind the name of the game?blahblah nevermind apologizing what language the game you post is in....explain please how to play the games you listed...why is hide and seek called ice boys?

Most of my childhood i played hide-and-seek
pachai kudurai sounds like leap-frog which i also played as a kid
then there was jump rope like Ratchasi recalled with numerous rhymes to be sung while jumping
jacks where you would bounce a ball and try to catch star shaped jacks (as many as you could)
hopscotch with squares drawn in cross form and you throw a stone on one square and avoid jumping on the one where the stone lands...im sure you have a version of this..
tag( that is just catch)freeze tag(you are tagged you freeze until the another tags you), tv tag (where to avoid being touched you had to name a tv program) (see the effect of media :roll: ) link tag (when you are tagged have to join arms with tagger and catch others)
relay races (where you tag others to continue the challenge until your team has finished) such as obstacle race, egg in spoon race
water balloon catch (you start close to each other and throw the water balloon if you are sucessful you move apart two steps until one of you cannot catch it and balloon lands or breaks in your arms)
beanbag toss, tag,
duck duck goose (where you would sit in a circle and tap people on the head saying duck duck and choose one person as goose and then you and the goose would run in opposite directions around the circle until you get to back to goose's spot)
jack pot (where one throws ball in the air very high and yells out a cash amount (200, 100, 500)and (3-5) players try to catch the ball and try to add up the amount up to 1000 and then switcher with thrower
Red Rover where you would form two teams with one in the middle the aim was one team would call for one member of the other team to join theirs and they would have to run (trying to get away from person in middle) and break threw the chain of players on other side...(the school forbid playing the game after a couple of student broke their arms)
Capture the flag two teams in a big field would hide their own flag somewhere and try to find the other team's hidden flag...(it had more rules but i forget :oops: )
Four square- two versions 1) one person in the middle and four others (one at each corner) middle person would have to get to a spot before two people switched corners
2) have to bounce a ball in each other square without going out of square if you could not bounce the ball successfully into another's square you were out
Red Ball (where you would bounce a ball against the wall and another would try to catch it, if you missed you would get a letter...you spell RED you would stand against the wall while everyone took an aim at you....mostly the guys played this...

[Querida]

i think we all could relate a chilling about hideandseek...my fail-proof hiding spot would be in the suit bag kept in the closet where my appa and amma kept their best suits/sarees it would be hung up and i would sit inside and zip it up....my brother never found me...even when he went in the closet he would always ask where i went and i would ohhh just disneyland :twisted: or that i could become invisible some bloody nonsense....alas one day i was too smart and zipped it too high and it was getting too stuffy so that i started tugging on the zipper and it got stuck! Well i set to wailing and the search is on...no one even knows i hide in the bag...well they did find me eventually and got a good scolding :(
my next spot was in the coat closet where i would hide in my pappa's long winter coat and stick my feet in my amma's high boots....i was so tinny minny no one would see me....that too stopped when i scared the daylights out of a auntie who found when going to get her jacket found my pappa's jacket had a serious case of the nervouse giggles :lol:

[oohlala]

When i was kid my cousins never allowed me to play Kallangai :( saying that im too young and i dont know to play...they just kept me to gaurd their points(kallu)... :roll: ... but sometimes i used to kalachi uttufy their game and i use the same stones to hit them... :twisted:.
And another game i remember is thr color game... one person used to specify a particular color and the others sud touch the color before the person catches us...its also just like odipudichhi but if one touches the respective color then he is the winner... :P ....i always used to wear colorful dress while playing this game... :lol: ....and everyone had the same habit of touching their teeth if someone says "White"...then there wud be a big fight saying that the teeth is not white ... its yellow... :lol:

The other game is choppu saman. Colleting different types of mini sized vessels and make kutan choru. :D

[Surya]

Sardarini,
I haven't heard of any of these games! Thanks for giving me the info. My games were quite limited. When I lived it India, it was mostly Cricket, Kabadi, and occationally Ghilli. Babaram was also rare. After coming here, I lost practice of everthing sadly, :cry: and picked up B-ball.


Used to play this in 5th std. how i hated it!! We played this in the long jump pit.

If you're bending, the other guy runs at top speed, rests both his palms(with full force) on ur back and leaps over. Most likely you will keel over before he leaps.
If you're leaping, if the bender doesnt bend enough, you might collide with him while leaping.
Either way, a messy tangle cant be avoided!!!

Sounds like fun!! :lol2:

[Badri]

I came across this game when I was living in Bangalore a long long time ago.

It is called Laghori...you pile up five stones, and throw a ball and shout Laghori...too long ago, so I don't really remember it all....anyone knows?

[HindustaniLadka]

You should add Hockey and Chess to the list. They were both originally invented in India.

[jaiganes]

Hindustani Ladka wrote:

You should add Hockey and Chess to the list. They were both originally invented in India.
True, but they became sophisticated and grew out. The games we are discussing are at a very low level and easy to play.
Thanks surya for mentioning bambaram or the "top".
there were so many variations of the simple top spinning game. There will be one bambaram or "top" kept in the centre and the players must spin their bambarams, then use the saattai (the whip) to lift the bambaram in their hands while it is still spinning. This is called "Appeat" and after the appeat, the losers bambaram will be broken by the winners bambaram. I was not good at this game and lost quite a few bambarams.

Another game I used to play in the evenings was the "kuchi kandupidi". In this game a small kuchi or stick will be hidden in the sand and the person hiding it will mark the general area in which it is hidden. The other player will have to seek the kuchi by sliding their hands in the sand back and forth. The player is a winner if he/she is able to take the stick withing three tries. IT was another game wheir girls dominated the winners list.

The most popular picninc game was "Kolai Kolaiya mundhirikka". In this game all players sit in a big circle and one player will have to circle them with a kerchief hidden in his hand. The group then starts singing the "Kolai kolaiya mundhirikkaa song" and when the song is completed, the player who is running must stop. In between he has to deposit the kerchief by the side of some one without being noticed. That player has to take the kerchief and start running. This was one game with no winner or loser and hence a game the entire family participated.
There is always a girls' favourite game which is "Oru kodam thanni". In this game two girls will stand in an arch and two or three will run in circles singing "oru kudam thanni oothi ore poo poothadhaam"(eng translation: after pouring one bucket water, one flower flowered) and for the second round "rendu kudam" (eng translation: after pouring second bucket water..) and so on. For every sentence they have to pass through the arch formed by the two girls. When they are saying "poothudhaam" and if they pass through the arch, the girls forming the arch have to collapse the arch and the girl trapped in the arch must now stand in the arch team. I didn't get to play this game as I am not a girl, but had the opportunity of observing this game when my cousins played.
Querida's hopscotch is called "paandi" in Thamizh and is again a game played only by girls.

[Cinefan]

Jai,I am getting nostalgic after reading the posts in this thread.I have played most of them(even the purely-played-by-girls-kind, he..he)in bangalore in the late seventies&early to middle eighties.But I have forgotten the Kannada names for these games :( .I also wonder where my boy/girl friends are now. :( .

Thanks for a wonderful thread.

[Badri]

Hey Cinefan, then you'd have known Laghori, wouldnt you???? Do you remember the rules?

[Cinefan]

Hey Cinefan, then you'd have known Laghori, wouldnt you???? Do you remember the rules?

I have completely forgotten the rules.All I remember is that you have to hit the stack of stones with a ball.I think the guy who manages to disturb the most no of stones is the winner,not very sure about this.

[Badri]

Yes, but there was something about shouting Laghori Laghori when you did that...and if I remember right, you also had to dodge the ball when someone threw it at you? Or am I confusing it with dodge ball proper?

I had an interesting thought how these games might not have orginated in keeping with evolution. You see, it is a common fact that all young animals learn by play. The basic survival skills - like hunting and escaping - these are all learnt by young animals while playing with their siblings.

Could it be that the same is true of humans too. For instance, would hide and seek perhaps have emerged from hiding from and hunting your prey? Or would kannam poochi (blind man's buff) have been developed to train the young human to use more senses than just the eyes?

Is there an evolutionary significance to at least some of the common games that are found all over the world?

[jaiganes]

badri wrote:

Is there an evolutionary significance to at least some of the common games that are found all over the world?
Yesterday was watching a program on Animal Planet on dogs. The program reveals that when the puppies are between 4 weeks to 10 weeks they play and in their game, they are willing(generous) to admit other species too( including humans). All they seem to want is good game. Playing games therefore is the best way to bond while getting the mind-body-hand-leg-eye coordination in place. So a good game develops skills, creates good bonds that last a lifetime (thereby increasing the network and enabling survival) and refreshes mind. Skills of gaming are the earliest social skills that any animal can pick up. So it is not surprising that in humans too it remains the same way.

[hehehewalrus]

Laghori is a game still played by kids in bombay. Especially since it is not possible to play full-fledged cricket in playgrounds within apartment complexes, laghori serves as a perfect fit.

JG, I remember Oru kodam thanni now. Thats a really nice recollection :D

The other popular game is to find a strong sturdy tree in the neighborhood and make a swing with it. Nowadays, where do we find trees in the neighborhood? :(



All they seem to want is good game. Playing games therefore is the best way to bond while getting the mind-body-hand-leg-eye coordination in place. So a good game develops skills, creates good bonds that last a lifetime (thereby increasing the network and enabling survival) and refreshes mind.

Tch, tch, tch....thathuvum pesi indha topic-ku justifikesan kudhuthittiye :P

[jaiganes]

walrus wrote:

Tch, tch, tch....thathuvum pesi indha topic-ku justifikesan kudhuthittiye
It was badri who started it walrus... Plus when a moderator tries to drive a topic to philospohical level, I am just an ordinary hubber, powerless to resist. :cry: :wink:
Back to topic guys n gals!!

[Badri]

Thambi JG smirked:


Plus when a moderator tries to drive a topic to philospohical level, I am just an ordinary hubber, powerless to resist.

Ahem...as a Moderator, I may have duties, but as a hubber, I have opinions...please don't confuse the two, or I won't be able to post anything at all! :cry:

Anyways, lets get back to nostalgic memories then..only guess I took it way back into stone age, what?? :lol:

[jaiganes]

The games covered so far have been ones that as kids we play usually. However there were sme special occasion for which some special games had to be played. One such occassion was weddings. Whenever there was a usual three day wedding in the family, the kids in the family would be very disappointed on the one side as they cannot play their regular games. On the other hand, the chance to catch up with other kids in a big mela like marriage was also something not to be missed. Once in the marriage hall, particularly the first day of "Maappillai Azhaippu", there would be huge open spaces in the marriage hall and the "Odipidichu" or "Run and catch" would be played. However, towards the evening "Jaanavaasam" or the "oorgolam", the marriage hall would be filled 3/4th with chairs and tables and noisy people trying to shout above the "Naadhaswaram" and "Thavil"(wind and percussion instruments played in south indian marriages). So the kids would be forced to play with the 1/4th hall space available. Traditionally there would be a "pandhal" erected on the roof and this pandhal would be resting on carefully arranged pillars. As kids we played the game called "Thoon" or Pillar. The game will have a minimum of 4 kids holding on to a pillar each and there will be one chaser. The goal of the game is for the players to keep swapping the pillars they are holding on to by running to the other pillar held by the second player. As they are doing the "pillar swapping", the rider or chaser will have to catch atleast one player. If he/she succeeds, then the pillar will be his/hers. The game would usually get more interesting as the egos between the kids would get in the way and one player would ditch the other player by giving a wrong call similar to what Abdul Razzaq did to Inzamam Ul Haq the other day.:wink: This game would usually go on till the second day. On the third day of the marriage, the chairs would be folded up and the "Run and Catch" or Odipidichu game would resume as usual.

[Querida]

wow JG i'm not feeling so sorry anymore most of the games you mentioned are the same ones i played but with different names
Oru kodam thanni is like "London Bridge is Falling Down" and Pillar Swapping is like four square which was aforementioned...anyways stilll have to to tell me why hide-and-seek is called ice boys please
Badri all this talk of childhood games has brought out childish behaviour as well so dont take heed of JG tattle-taling and keep posting :P :D

[Badri]

Querida,

you are assuming some people have actually grown up that this thread has made them revert back to childhood! Erroneous assumption, dear Q, mighty erroneous.

By the way, please don't start going all political about iceboys and say, it should have been ice-persons or something. :lol:

I think it must have been "I see.." something, which in our local terminology has become corrupted to "Iceboys". In any case, this is the first time I am hearing of the word - we used to always call it hide-and-seek or "robber-police"

Of course that would become a hot favorite around Deepavali, with gun-toting robbers and "cape-mari" cops!! :lol:

[jaiganes]

Badri!!!
"Cape-maari" cops!!!
:rotfl:
Good One!!!
I know that there is a reason why it is called iceboys. But i dont remember the story. Seems Pallanguzhi is the favourite game in hub!!
That reminds me of a thamizh site where they hosted aflash game 'e-pallanguzhi'. I couldn't find that, but googling a bit, I found this one by a chennite engineer. Pallanguzhi by raj (http://ece.iisc.ernet.in/~raj/pallanguzhi.htm) Further googling gave an interesting match. It is a review on traditional games by one rajini raj on Mouthshut.com Here is the L I N K (http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Kreeda_Games-70844-1.html)
Happy Gaming!!!

[hehehewalrus]

That reminds me of a thamizh site where they hosted aflash game 'e-pallanguzhi'. I couldn't find that, but googling a bit, I found this one by a chennite engineer. Pallanguzhi by raj (http://ece.iisc.ernet.in/~raj/pallanguzhi.htm)


DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS GAME - IT GOES FULL SCREEN AND THE STARTUP MUSIC WILL REACH THE OFFICE OF YOUR CEO!!!!!!!

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

[Badri]

That is if you have the volume in your system at its highest. Why you would want to do that beats us!!! :roll:

But thanks for the tip, Hehewalrus. No doubt, you'd have discovered it the painful way. :lol:

And Thambi JG: Is this another of your Indian games??? (like the magenta one?) :evil:

[a.ratchasi]

That reminds me of a thamizh site where they hosted aflash game 'e-pallanguzhi'. I couldn't find that, but googling a bit, I found this one by a chennite engineer. Pallanguzhi by raj (http://ece.iisc.ernet.in/~raj/pallanguzhi.htm)


DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS GAME - IT GOES FULL SCREEN AND THE STARTUP MUSIC WILL REACH THE OFFICE OF YOUR CEO!!!!!!!

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

Hehehehe, poor walrus!

[hehehewalrus]

That is if you have the volume in your system at its highest. Why you would want to do that beats us!!! :roll:


Nooo, The volume is always mute in my workstation! :evil:
Wonder why a village game shud have such disco music :(

My colleague thought it was a fire engine :evil: :evil:

[Badri]

My colleague thought it was a fire engine :evil: :evil:

:rotfl: :rotfl:

[jaiganes]

I didn't download that game and waited for hubbers to give the feedback! And I had made a sensible decision. Thanks walrus! :wink:
:rotfl: :rotfl:
I am lovin' it.

[oohlala]

Hey guys wat bout karthigai pandam???? I always njoy it... i hear stories from my cousins how they make it and all... but i never got a chance 2 join them... :cry: ...even now whenever i go 2 my grandparents house in TN i never miss it...but i do get some holes on my fav dresses.... :?

[jaiganes]

KArthigai pandham???
Never heard of it ooh lala!
Please elaborate more on that.

[oohlala]

Its a kind of festival game...its called Karthi or karthigai pandam...
I guess it does not comes under games category...as it is also a kind of cracker(Guess u can get now)...played during karthigai deepam.
The mixture is made up of "panam poo" and some other materials.and then is bundled in a piece of cloth and is fixed in one end to a bamoo stick and the other end is tied with a rope. fire is lit on the mixture and it is rotated fastly over head....and u can find urself inside fire circle :lol: ....and also they used to rotate it in different angles and so on....
Im not so gud in explaining :cry: ...but i guess someone esle who knows about it can tell in detail...

ANd the other game i remember is "PARA PARA".
Children sit in circle and some elder says some birds name like "KAKA". Immediately the kids start flapping their hands like wings and should say "PARAPARA". they keep on saying birds name like this and the children should say "PARAPARA" and suddenly they say some object or animal name. the children should be careful...if anyone says "PARAPARA" for a non bird thing/animal then they are out...and this continues till the last person.

The other game is "Whispering"....All the children sit in a circle and the first one utters some word or sentence to his/her neighbor. Then that kid tells it to the next one in a clockwise direction what he heard. Then the last child is asked to tell the word and the real fun is to see how the word has got twisted in the middle. :lol:

[Querida]

whispering is exactly like broken telephone
parapara is kinda like simon says where
front person says
Simon says touch your toes
Simon says touch your nose
Simon says stand on one foot etc.
then say touch your toes
there's bound to be someone in the group who follows the order without noticing you didn't say "Simon says" so that person is out....

i think the best game i play is the a version of "calvinball" where rules have to be bent, added, excluded cause the toddlers want to play with the older kids... :D

[Anoushka]

Few other games that I can think of are

Name place animal thing - This game would be played on rainy days when children could not go out and play. Each child in the group would mention a particular alphabet in their turn and everyone should find a Name, Place, Animal and Thing starting with that alphabet. If you had a unique one you got 10 points for each and if your name/place/animal/thing was repeated by someone else in the group you got 5 points!

Land Water Sky Fire etc - This game was played when there was very little space but you had steps to play. The more the number of steps, the more fun. Each step was given a name like Land, Water, etc and then while one person stood down the rest of them stood in the top step. The person standing down decided what step the rest of them should move to and would say something like jump to "sky" and everyone had to move to "sky" from where ever they were. While doing this if they get caught they they have to stand down and give the orders :)

Thirudan Police Another game for the rainy day. A few bits of paper would be taken and words like "thirudan", "police", "milk man", "news paper man", etc were written, mixed up and thrown up, everybody picked one and the person who got the chit with "police" on it had to guess who was the "thirudan".

Winkie Winkie Another indoor game! A few bits of paper would be taken and numbers from one to number of people would be written, folded, mixed and thrown up! Each person gets a chance to throw the papers up and shouts a number as they do so, who so ever gets that number has to quietly wink at the rest and get them out of the game without the person who shouted the number finding out! When some one gets winked at, they should shout "I am dead" without giving any indication of who winked at them!

Seven Stones - I think this is the same as laghori. Seven stones would be piled one on top of each other inside a circle. A ball is thrown at them so as to dislodge all of them from the circle and then while one team tries to get the stones back into the circle, the other team tries to stop them from doing so by throwing the ball at them.

Colour colour/match match - We used to collect lots of broken glass bangles for this. Actually we had a huge box full of them! We would empty the box of glass bangles and each person had to find two matching pieces as quick as they can, finally the one left with least number of matching pieces lose!

Seven steps - A circle would be drawn and a person steps inside it, and throws a stone behind him where the rest of the team is waiting to catch the stone. If one of the team catches then he/she is out or else the person has to reach the stone in seven steps, else they lose the game!

Word Game - Some one thinks of a word and mentions the first alphabet, the second person continues with the word he/she thinks and mentions another alphabet. The general idea is not to be the last person to finish the word or the person not to know the word. One needed good vocabulary and spelling to play this game.

Memory game Everyone sits in a circle, one person starts with a name of a place (could be names of people too) the second person repeats the name the first person mentioned, then adds a name themself, the third person repeats the names (in the same order) that the first two people mentioned and adds another name to it... continues till someone gets it wrong and that person is out! Starts afresh again!

And ofcourse regular games like Paatukku paatu or Anthakshari, Dumb Charades, etc.. were quite common.

Iceboys - I guess the name was originally "ice spy" which became iceboys :)

[Querida]

there's this game called ghost...that i played with cousins when on long car/train/coach rides

you are supposed to say a letter and each person has a turn to add a letter to your letter but they cannot form a word the person who forms a word or is unable to continue is given a letter (g for 1st time, h for second time etc. until it spells ghost and that person is out) or they are give two letters (g,h) if one player says a letter and you say they are bluffing and ask what word they are thinking of....if it is indeed a real word you get marked two letters) if they are bluffing they receive the two marked letters

hint always think of a long word..easier to be aware of shorter root words...

there will so many times where you will say a letter and not even notice that you have made up a sensical word...pass the time pretty quick too!

[Anoushka]

Querida - ghost seems so much like the word game that I mentioned!

[Querida]

yes it does!
it's amazing how many games across the nations can be similar...do me a fav Anoushka when you can please post more games especially indian ones i would like to know more about them :D

[Anoushka]

Will do Querida, I shall keep adding to the list as and when I remember :) It will be useful for me when I have children :)

[Roshan]

Anoushka,

Good to see you around forumhub !! I bet ! , very soon you are going to get addicted . :D

[Anoushka]

Roshan :) My problem is that I already feel addicted! Thankfully I hardly come to the forum hub from home!

[Roshan]

Thankfully I hardly come to the forum hub from home!

Very soon you WILL !! :D

[svasu_ani]

this thread reminded me the childhood days... athuvum may maasam summer vacation...
during the vacation...
we were a group of school children different ages in our street who used to gather in a house everyday afternoon and start playing snake and ladder, daya kattai, cards, business trade, carrom and in the evening around 4.30 kannamuchi, kalla manna, shuttle and around 7.30- 8.00 after dinner antakshri.... i remember one uncle who used to play guitar for the songs we sing....and mostly in nights in chennai there used to be power cuts for an hour or so.. so naanga thaan anga entertainment...
beautiful days..

and some times parents also used to join us...

veil la suthamma chamatha veetukkulla utkandhu vilayduvom...parents were also happy that we dont roam around in hot sun...

nyabagam varudhey nyabagam varudhey..........