Just as people can barely recall which Bengali year we stepped into yesterday, sports of our soil are getting wiped off people’s collective memories.
At a traditional sports meet organised at New Town’s Eco Urban Village recently, the show was stolen by children from the urban fringes while those living in swanky apartments stared in awe at the games being played and lamely asked how they were played and what they were called.
The sports were part of Lok Tirtha, a three-day festival presented by Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco) and implemented by the NGO Art Illuminates Mankind (AIM).
For a generation that is constantly told off for not going outdoors to play anymore, the kids who turned up were spoilt for choice. The ground had been divided into zones for five different games and over 80 names had been registered till the time the event started. Plenty more joined thereafter and every child spoken to said they would be playing every game.
The girls hopped across the ekka-dokka boxes and the boys threw balls at one another to stop the rival team from rebuilding the stack in pittu (see box for rules). “Pittu is not a game for the faint-hearted. I know many kids who’ve broken their arms playing it,” said Md Imtiaz Molla, a Class VII student who lives in a nearby village called Pakapol. “And it’s definitely not suitable for the kids who live in the apartments. They can’t play these rough games.”
Sneha Bhattacharya, a Masters’ student, had driven down from her Moulali home with her nine-year-old brother Debopriya, and the boy was wonderstruck at the new world of sports. “I mostly play games on the computer or the mobile,” said the boy, without looking away from a lattu (top) that a village boy, Sain Ali, had set spinning for 56 seconds. “I’ve never even seen a lattu before, let alone spin one. These boys are such experts that I’m felling shy to try and spin it today.”
His sister Sneha recalled how she would play kumir-danga and kit-kit (ekka-dokka) as a child. “And that wasn’t too long ago. But computers and mobiles have very quickly replaced all outdoor games for kids,” she said.
Surjaprobha Das, a student of a girls’ school in Lake Town, was too shy to play these “new” games but watched intently how other kids aimed their marbles to hit those of others in guli khela. “My daughter is only in Class II but her afternoons are already chock-a-block doing homework, attending tuitions and studying for tests. She doesn’t have the time to play anything and even if she goes out no other kids would come,” said her mother Sabita, who hoped her daughter would play pittu and ekka dokka, her own childhood favourites.
In fact, many adults joined the kids’ queue too. Hidco officials, the manager and security guard of Eco Urban Village, all played danguli. “There are many attempts to keep alive traditional food, music and dances but sports get overlooked. We wanted urban children to come and get a feel of these games so they at least know what other options they have,” said Debashis Sen, chairman cum managing director of Hidco, after trying a hand at danguli. “In fact, the winners of these games would be given medals, certificates and game kits consisting marbles, lattoos etc to propagate the games further.”
Sonali Chakraborty, secretary of AIM, said she was delighted to see such huge participation in the festival. “We would’ve been happier if more urban children had turned up but we shall try and make this an annual event now and I’m sure they’ll come next time around,” she smiled.
Pictures by Shubham Paul
Do you have memories of playing these games?
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source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Front Page> Salt Lake> Story / Friday – April 15th, 2016