| Dash Kos Single Bulbul Master |  |  |  |
| Written by Rajesh Anand with Manjari Kishore |
A BIJHAR collection of street games अटकन -भटकन, दही चटक्कन,बड़ फूले , बरैला फूले, सावन में करईला फूले, नेवला गईल चोरी,धर कान मरोरी ये भैया तू बन जा , बन से करईला लाव पाकल -पाकल तू खा, काचल काचल हम , राजा के रजाई में , भैया के दुहाई में , ईंट मारे झिंट मारे , मूँगड़ी छपट्टा | The words above must have rung several bells in your mind. If you are from the ABCD belt (Ara Balia Chhapra Darbhanga) you would have probably had gooseflesh too. Nostalgic isn't it?? Did not feel anything............ okay..........let me try this one on you.... धन्ना में का बा ? लाल -लाल दरोगवा ,दुनू कान छेदौले बा | रामजी के घोड़वा ,बिनेला खटोलावा | छौँरा करे लब-लब , पानी करे टब -टब| आदी के चोखा , परोड़ा के भुजिया , भाकर भुई ................ के गो हँडिया फोरले ह ? नया घर उठे पुरान घर गिरे ........ If you still cannot make out what are we up to..................well, at BIJHAR these days, we bijharis are collecting those sweet nothings which gave us so much joy in our childhood days, in fact, they still do especially when we share them with our children. As kids we played numerous games both indoors and outdoors. In small towns and villages and probably even in bigger cities, in the era when the televisions and computers had not appeared, street games were an inevitable part of our lives. We kids would be playing one game or the other all the time if left to ourselves. Our parents would have a tough time calling us home to do our daily chores and the school homework. We thought let us attempt to make a collection of these games. And so we have started with a small list of the games which are as follows. We plan to keep the list growing. Pitto One of the most common games which I am sure all of us have played. Requires just a rubber ball ( we used to call it gend) and a few pieces of tiles. Played between two teams of about 4-5 players. A small circle is drawn on the ground which houses 5 or 7 pieces of broken tiles stacked on top of each other. The team playing first has to hit the stack with a rubber ball from a distance which can be about 15 feet. While the first team is throwing the ball to hit the tiles, members of the second team have to stand behind the stack of tiles to catch the ball. If the ball is caught in one bounce the thrower is out. If the ball is caught after dislodging the tiles then the entire team is out. However, if the first team is succesful in dislodging the tiles and the ball is not caught, then they have the task of o putting the tiles back without being hit by the ball thrown by an opponent player. The opponent team's aim is to touch any player by throwing the ball on him. With each successful attempt in arranging the tiles back before being hit by the ball, the team will earn one point. However, if any member is hit before the tiles are arranged, the team will lose and the other team will get the chance to throw the ball. Gilli Danda Played with a danda usually about two feet in length and gilli which is about 4 inches. A groove is made in the ground in which is the gilli is kept at an angle. The gilli is hit with a stick and while the gilli is in the air, the striker has to hit it with the stick. If the gilli is caught by the opponents in the air, then the player is out, otherwise the player and his team gets the points which is equal to the measurement of the distance traversed by the gilli as measured with the danda. While the gilli is in the air, the player can also attempt to toss the gilli a few times before finally hitting it away. This is a great skill and enables the player to get the points as a multiple (jhali) of the times he tosses the gilli. Refer to the attached weblink for more details of this game. The danda and gilli are generally home made using small branches of a guava tree or similar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilli-danda Budhiya Kabbadi Another version of the standard kabbadi. The team winning the toss has to place one of its players called "budhiya" in a circle with about 3 feet radius. Other players have to assemble at a distance which is about 30 feet from the circle. Players in the opponent team stand around the budhiya. One player form the assembly has to run telling kabbadi kabbadi............and attempt to touch the players of the other team. If touched, that palyer is out. The budhiya has to try to run and reach the assembly area without being touched by any opponent player. If successful, the team gets one point. The game repeats with each player attmepting to touch the opponent players once. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabaddi Dash Cos Single Bulbul Master Requirements:
Each person in the group adopts one of the names from among 'Dash, Cos, Single, Bulbul, Master'. Next with the chanting of all these names, each person puts forward a particular number of fingers -- anything between 1 and 10. (obviously, you only have ten fingers in your hands) Then, one person in the group runs through all the fingers with the count of Dash Cos Single Bulbul Master.....Dash Cos Single Bulbul Master.....till all the fingers have been counted. For example, suppose there are 3 players in the game, and the first extends 4 fingers, the second 3 and the thrid 5, then the centre with extended fingers would look like : * * * * @ @ @ # # # ##. Now counting from the extreme left in the order of Dash.. Cos... Single... Bulbul... Master, we reach at 'cos' by the time we reach the extreme right finger. Now, the person who initially adopted the name 'Cos' for himself becomes the victim and will put his palm in vertical position in the centre . Now one person in the group whacks his palm. And Cos has to safeguard it from the blow by snapping his palm in different directions. This continues till the striker misses the target and Cos' palm remains untouched by the blow. Now the next person in the group takes his turn to whack Cos. Again, whacking continues till the striker misses the target (palm). When everyone in the group have had their turns of whacking Cos, the game resumes. In this game , there is no drop-out. So, Cos again joins the group and the game continues with the chant of 'Dash Cos Single Bulbul Master' and again putting forth fingers, then discovering a 'whack-palm' , striking blows till they make a miss....... Note: The severity of the blow is completely dependent on the intensity of your love for the whacked palm. Stronger the love, harder the blow. Happy whacking!!!!! Chaain Churi I have seen this game being played by the girls generally in the long summer afternoons within the cool confines of the house. A game which again requires zero expenditure, in fact most of these games are like that. For chaain churi, you need dried Imli (Tamarind) seeds which need to be split in the centre. Two seeds will break into 4 pieces which have a dice value of 2 each if tossed on the white side. Next you need broken glass bangles to make small pieces of different colours. This game is similar to Ludo, the churis acting as gotis and the chaain replacing the dice. Of course, you will need some floor space and a chalk to draw the rectangular arrangement. Denga Pani A very simple game where you need to touch the players from the opposition who are safe only on the higher ground. If they venture on the lower groud, they will be chased by you. Once you touch the person he is out and has to move to the lower ground with his place taken up by you. Chor Sipahi Raja Mantri The game requires you to make 4 paper chits and write Chor (thief), Sipahi (police), Raja (king) and Mantri (minister). The chits will then be folded and one of the 4 players will toss the chits for each one of the four players to pick one. All the players will then secretly open thier chits and read what they have got. The player who gets the chit with Mantri written on it will say..."Sipahi Sipahi Chor Ko Pakdo". The Sipahi has to guess between the two unidentified players so far. If the Sipahi guesses correctly, the chor is punished. His wrist is hit by the Sipahi usually with his two fingers. However, if Sipahi makes a mistake in identifying the chor he is wrapped instead on his wrist by the Mantri Okka Bokka Teen Tadokka : (contributed by Tulika Prasad) Do I see a mild smile on your face and does a bell of familiarity ring in your minds? This was one of the 'gharelu' games played with our cousins, uncles, grannies et al during our summer and winter vacations, especially when kids were asked to stay indoors. With a minimum of 2 players and a maximum of all interested and available to play, this game starts with all the players putting their hands down with only the finger-tips and not the palms touching the floor. One of the players, (when we played it used to be one of the uncles who would preside) would then start counting by tapping every player's hand and singing – "Okka, bokka, teen tadokka, laua lathi chandan kathi ijay bijay phuchuk". (Say this once more to yourselves and I bet if not a hearty laugh it'll definitely bring a chuckle or a smile to your faces). With a 'phuchuk' on a player's hand he or she would have to lay his or her hand flat on the floor. Ultimately all the hands would lie flat. Rickshaw Wala Rickshaw Wala: (contributed by Tulika Prasad) In this game, one person counts every finger of all the players while singing the following verse: 'Rickshaw wala rickshaw wala dus number ki gaadi mein kitne paisa loge'. The player on whose finger this song stops would then have to say a number. For example if a player says 'saat', then the counter will count seven and the finger where he reaches after counting seven must be folded. The aim of the game being to try and close all the fingers on one's hand, sometimes a player would deliberately count and say a number such that it ends on one of the fingers of his own hand. This would be termed as 'beimaani'. Nevertheless, the counting continues until all the fingers of all the players are folded and the person with all fingers of both hands folded becomes the winner. Editors Note : Cannot find your favourite child hood game in the article? Tell us about it.We will love to include it. |