The other day we were reminiscing about how at home an entire generation of Monopoly players felt in London. For we’d not only sold property in Mayfair and built hotels in Piccadilly, we’d also bought the Waterworks and other utilities — all in the endless summer afternoons of our youth. The names and relative value of each and every London neighbourhood had become so ingrained in our minds, that London seemed familiar even on a first visit. This was long before people actually began thinking that games could be invaluable teaching aids. But now that so much water has flowed under that bridge, I wonder why our children have such few options to play and learn from traditional Indian games. What better way could there be to learn about our heritage, than to play as our forebears did?
Then I spoke to Vinita Siddharth, the Chennai-based founder of Kreeda Games, a company that’s committed to reviving traditional Indian games. “We have such a rich history of games in India that when I began researching them for an article in 2002, I found myself getting drawn deeper and deeper,” said she. “As children, we all spent hours playing variants of the old Snakes and Ladders or Naughts and Crosses, as well as gilli danda and spinning tops,” said she. Soon, as cowrie shells, tamarind seeds and wooden boards enfolded her with their simple charm, she realised that they would probably do the same to the young (and the young at heart) as well. So, she set about trying to make them enjoyable and relevant for the children of today.
Reinventing these old games proved to be a challenge. “Since so few played them anymore, we had to rely on the memories of older people who’d played them in their childhood. Also, our initial focus was on reviving regional games like Kalaney Belaney (a wonderful strategy game from Karnataka played on a board with shells), Pallanguzhi (a Tamil cup and coin game) and Kattam Vilayettu (a regional version of Naughts and Crosses),” said she. Figuring out all the rules of each game was another challenge. “We found ourselves compulsively playing those old games to make sure we’d got the rules right and had covered all the loopholes,” said she.
A part of the exercise was to actually find people who remembered these old games exactly as they were played.
To do this, Vinita and her colleagues at Kreeda began visiting old age homes in Chennai. “We realised that the people we met didn’t really appreciate being questioned. They wanted a more positive interaction. So we’d just carry some games and play them there. Soon, some elders would get drawn in, and while playing, they’d joyfully reminisce about the good old days when they’d played these games,” said Vinita, adding, “It was absolutely lovely!” One lady remembered how she used to play these games with her grandfather — and always let him win. Now that she was old, she had little contact with her own grandson but kept the cowrie shells with which she’d once played with him… Many elders remembered playing games with the entire family in the evening, long before the TV, computer and X Box took over… .
Delving into long-forgotten childhoods made Vinita realise that while traditional games definitely improved hand-eye coordination, concentration and speed, their value lay equally in their capacity to build bridges between generations, to enable people of all ages to recapture their youth. Much more than just ways in which people of all ages could pass time, these simple games were builders of life experiences, of happy memories that lasted a lifetime… .
To think child’s play can accomplish so much!