Games folks play

The gilli-danda of my childhood has come a protracted, great distance since then

My childhood was a self-inventive enterprise. It needed to be, as a result of nobody had but invented video video games, or smartphones to play them on. There was no textual content messaging, c u l 8er, no web, no Facebook, no TV, not even black-and-white, to observe Netflix on.

So what did we do for leisure? We flew kites, we spun tops, we performed marbles, all requiring various levels of ability.

But the sport that required the best hand-eye coordination was gilli-danda. The gilli was a small, about four-inch lengthy, rounded piece of wooden, whittled to a taper at each ends. The danda was a stout baton of wooden, a couple of foot and a half lengthy.

A small hole was made and the gilli was positioned throughout it, a tiny bridge spanning a minuscule chasm.

Then, knees barely flexed, every participant – the conventional minimal requirement was two, however extra have been welcome – would in flip stoop over the gilli and, holding the danda in a agency double-handed grip, with a swift and clean wrist motion, flip the gilli up and out so far as attainable.

When all of the gillis had been deployed afield the gamers in flip would go to their gilli and, with the danda, sharply strike one of many tapered ends, inflicting the gilli to spring up, cartwheeling within the air, from the place in mid-flight it will be administered a convincing thwack! and despatched hovering like a miniature ballistic missile in quest of a horizon.

The sport would proceed till the imperatives of homework put an finish to play, the winner being the one whose gilli had travelled the farthest distance.

Since these half-remembered days of my boyhood, gilli-danda has come a great distance, and is now a sport for kids of all ages. Special tools has been designed for it, and it takes place in giant, jam-packed arenas. Its gamers, wearing vibrant uniforms, are accorded an aura that outshines the limelight of film stars. Yes, gilli-danda has certainly come a great distance. Except it’s now not referred to as gilli-danda. It’s referred to as IPL.

Facebook

Twitter