Games of old

As I wondered what to post given the lull in cricket action, my thoughts wandered to the more exotic games we played as kids. I wanted to make a short post with a couple of lines on the games I remember being fascinated with, even if for a short time. As I began writing, I wanted to add more and more detail, reliving those memories in the process.

Maaram-Peeti - All that was needed for this game was a rubber ball and a bunch of players. Whoever has the ball in hand can freely hit the others with it, no questions asked. When the ball falls to the ground, anyone can grab it. The game involves constant careful judgment, you either reach the ball before the others or decide to run out of hittable distance. Of course, sometimes your judgment fails and you run the risk of ending up really close to the ball-wielder. There are different ways of trying to handle this situation, in order to escape a stinging blow. If you fancy your swiftness and cunning, you can run away, making sudden and random changes in direction, hoping to cause the ball-wielder to miss. Alternatively, you can stand face to face, backing yourself to pull off a Matrix type evasion or psyche the attacker into a wild, misdirected throw. It was implicitly macho to refuse to express pain or rub the unfortunate body part which received the latest painful blow. Also rated favorably was showing off the red/blue patches of skin suffered from the champion's[1] throw, but only after the game ended. In 4th and 5th standard, my gang at school was addicted to this brutal, but ultimately beautiful game. We would play: when we got off the school bus till it was time for the 9am assembly, during the 15 minutes of the 11am interval, during the 30 mins of the 12:30pm lunch break after quickly finishing our lunch in 5 minutes, during any "free periods" and finally during the 45 minutes of the 3:00pm PT period.

Gilli-Danda - One summer, we (a bunch of cousins and the 10 year old me) went to an uncle's place in Nizamabad. This uncle worked in the sugar factory there and lived in quarters which were surrounded by trees and bushes. Their maid's son was also our friend and a lively, enterprising guy. He fashioned a grippy danda and flippy gilli out of a tree branch. It was unbelievable, someone making a gilli-danda set just for us! To get started, we draw a circle(with danda length as radius) on the ground and in its center scrape out a small depression, about 5inches long and 2 inches deep, the width according to the thickness of the danda. Players take turns as the striker (danda bearer) in round robin fashion and the rest are catchers. The catchers stand a certain distance away from the circle in an appropriately chosen direction. The striker places the gilli perpendicular to the depression, turns his[2] back to the catchers, stands with his legs on either side of the prostrate gilli and sliding the danda into the depression, flicks the gilli as far as he can. One of the catchers will then throw the gilli back aiming for the circle. If the throw lands the gilli inside the circle, then the striker loses his coveted position and has to hand over to the next in line. If it lands outside, he has a chance for scoring. As the experienced ones among you know, the gilli has conical edges and when the danda comes down on one of these, it jumps up suddenly, making whirring somersaults in the air. To be able to score, the striker has to control the danda's blow in a way that the gilli rises up close to him, at a height and distance allowing a free swing. As the gilli climbs and then falls, the danda bearer braces himself to aim a mighty blow to send it flying, to land as far as possible. Advanced players will try and tap the gilli lightly a few times, while keeping it within reach before unleashing the long shot. The rule is that that the score gets multiplied by the number of successful taps. Now, everyone goes to where the gilli has landed and the danda-dhaari claims a score, which is the distance in danda lenghts to the circle of origin. If the rest are satisfied, the score is granted. If in doubt, they will actually measure the distance out with the danda. If the distance exceeds the score, it is given. If it falls short, the striker has to swallow the danda lengths by which the score fell short. Failing which, he gets a zero score in addition to conceding possession of the danda.

Kattelata (stick game) - I must have been about fifteen, when my neighbor Samson[3] introduced this peculiar game to our galli gang. Players held longish sticks in hand and there was a smaller stick that lay on the ground. One player was the denner, trying to get others out. The rule was that players with sticks would hit the smaller stick wherever they wanted and everyone followed it. The catch was that you had to keep your stick in contact with a granite stone. If the denner touched you without such contact, then you were out and would become the denner. And you could not carry any stones, only "naturally occuring" ones on the roads were acceptable. Some unfortunate denners would follow the stick the whole day, ending up kilometers away from our galli. So would the others, but with entirely different feelings.

[1] The champion was the guy who had the sharpest throw. He also seemed to combine it with great accuracy and hit rate.

[2] This post might be misconstrued as being sexist, but I have never seen girls/women play these games. However, I believe that some of them, somewhere have.

[3] Samson must have been around 25 then. He was into "body-building" and was indeed in great shape, six pack and all. He also had long hair, which he tied into a pony on occasion. It must have been a meeting of minds for the two of us, even though my parents were very concerned and puzzled at how I could be friends with someone "not of my age group" and worked as a machined tool cutter.

PS: Very likely you have memories of some no-one-else-played-this and/or not-so-common-nowadays games. Do share.

Update: I've changed description of maaram-peeti technicalities to present tense (What? Nobody cares? Shut up!) since I have a gut feeling it is still widely popular. Gilli-Danda too, no doubt. Kettelata, I feel was too rare to still remain extant. But how much do we city-bred mongrels really know?

World Cup Speculation #1

By popular demand and pressure from millions of our readers, we are asking -

Who will be the top a) run scorer and b) wicket taker in this World Cup?

We understand that there are some concerns that can keep you from naming a single player, such as sudden loss of form, injury or dharam sankat in choosing between deities[1]. To counter this, you can name up to three players in each category.

[1] Yes, many other cosmic unpredictability factors being ignored here. Remember Geoff Allott?

Sweet Redemption

Dada is Man of the Series against Sri Lanka. For at least an year before he was eventually dropped, it was clear he needed a break from the international scene - the loss of form, the captaincy burden, the media scrutiny, the politics, all combining to muddle his thinking and mangle his technique. We knew it all along, all he needed was a break. But then, cricket is not just about what happens on the ground. Akash Chopra, who writes really well, gives us a peek into what players have to contend with. For instance, just look at the kind of persistent provocation Dada has to face in this interview!

Update: Check out the first minute of this. Who knew the break would also give Dada wings?

Where else to do Timepass.

The Indibloggies might interest you. No? Not even the Indifloggies?

At times, one feels like making unsolicited revelations. On things such as the blogs one likes most[1]:
The Middle Stage by Chandrahas Choudhury
India Uncut by Amit Varma
Jabberwock by Jai Arjun Singh
Recursive Hypocrisy by Nilakantan Ramarajan (Nilu)

Of course, everyone knows about the cricinfo blogs. Do we really need anymore on cricket after looking at that? Er, and this blog.

Other blogs one likes[2]:
Atanu Dey on India's Development
Random Thoughts of a Demented Mind by Arnab (GreatBong)
My other shoes are Manolos by Shoe Fiend


[1] - Check more than once a day, have read all posts in archives.
[2] - Check only once in a while now but used to follow regularly in the past, have read all posts in archives.

Squad Announced

So, the speculation has come to an end.

The only surprise for me being the inclusion of both Munaf and Sreesanth. I was expecting either Raina or Gambhir to be chosen, Raina being the more likely choice because of his fielding. The selectors went for an extra fast bowling option and it makes sense too, since they are more likely to get injured than the batsmen.

What was that!

Once in a while, players come up with shots that confound and stretch our expectations of what is possible.

Loye sweep: We've seen sweeps off medium fast bowlers going for six before - Ijaz Ahmed comes to my mind. But would you imagine someone doing it against the express pace of Brett Lee or Shane Bond? Mal Loye did exactly that, after breaking into the England team last month aged 35. He had a reputation for that particular shot in English domestic one day and Twenty20 competitions and there was a buzz of anticipation on his debut, with everyone wondering if he has it in him to produce it at international level. He has removed all doubts.

Dhoni Whiplash: This shot is not just extra-ordinary, it is incredible, unprecedented, all-defying. If Mahendra Singh Dhoni's muscular pyrotechnics gave him instant stardom, this made him immortal, irrespective of whatever else he does in his career. And it is only getting more and more outrageous - watch the last minute of this highlights package. How the hell did that first whip go for six over long off?

Marillier Scoop: Zimbabwean Douglas Marillier came out of nowhere in a 2001 match, scooping balls deliberately over the keeper and adding a new shot with his name to the cricket lexicon. The shell-shocked bowlers had no answer and India lost from what seemed to be an impregnable position. The shot is now more commonly employed, here is a good demonstration by Dinesh Karthik(Tapas Alert :)). Also look for Dada's bemused expression.

PS: Loye is at it again, this time against McGrath, who must have thought he'd seen everything! England looking good in the 2nd final so far.

Weighty Kocchen #1

One can afford to be thoughtful and introspective on weekends, even if such mental activity is, in your opinion, only a variety of the all-encompassing Timepass. Please indulge:

If there were no constraints in your life, what would you spend your time on?

If careers, money and relationships were not so attention consuming, doing what would make your life worth the trouble?

Having read the above, become serious, fold your arms across, look at the ceiling, set your thoughts churning and let us know the results of this deliberate consideration.