CHENNAI: The curious thing about talking to people from different walks of life is how unique each one’s memories are of childhood. Sometimes it is not the games that are different, but the way they are played, the people with whom they are played and the experiences during play. Thus, the memories become more than memories, they become little glimpses into how people lived, how they thought and how in those childhood games are the kernels of dreams and future lives.
Rakesh Raghunathan, the celebrated food historian and judge of Master Chef India-Tamil, talks of playing with and collecting choppu samaan. This was the extremely popular miniature kitchen set which few children see nowadays. These were made in wood by artisans from Channapatna in Karnataka, in steel, in terracotta, and sometimes in other materials. “I was fascinated by these sets, and I collected them so much so that my mother made one set of this whole choppu samaan in silver as a miniature when I got married. It had everything from your traditional aruvamanai (cutting tool) to your rolling pin,” he says.
He also recollects his visits to the beach and making sand cakes with buckets and pretending to be in a bakery. Perhaps the seeds of his interest in food were sowed there!
Anil Srinivasan, a musician, entrepreneur and educator, who has mesmerised us with his piano, recollects playing pandi or hopscotch. His though was a game with a difference so each square was named for a musical note so you made up your own tune as you played. “I used to call it my musical pandi. It was inspired by Do Re Mi from Sound of Music with the children hopping on the steps. I immediately decided to try that using pandi. It was fun. Since I was a musical child, I used to take a lot of perverse pleasure in the fact that I was the only one who would get the sequence right. The other children wouldn’t. So, I would always win this game.”
How lovely to think that in the childhood games lay the roots of the talent and passions that would take those little children to greatest heights. Thota Tharrani, the film art director and production designer, talks of how he was fascinated by movement and how that fascination drew him to kites. He remembers watching kites dancing against the blue sky.
“I think I was fascinated by kites’ colour and their movement in the air. So, I went to my dad and said I wanted one immediately. I never went for the cheap ones for 2 aanas and 1 aana. I wanted the 4 aana one. It was huge, had a beautiful tail, and was designed with knots. You could control it by changing the tail. When you tried to thicken your string too much, it will cut itself and will not fly.”
Did his design abilities begin with designing the kite’s tail? We may never know, but these are memories that will last a lifetime.
Meyammai Murugappan, the authority on Chettinad food, recollects a time when her mother left a lovely checked Kanjeevaram sari overnight on a clothes hanger and woke up in the morning to find that the children had cut away some squares in the night to create a game board. This is perhaps the only story I know when a Kanjeevaram sari provided the elements of a game board! She also recollects how she and her siblings would swing in the house and when the onion peels on the floor fluttered with the breeze of the swing, they would tell her it was ghosts and run away leaving her to scream! This playful teasing was very much a part of numerous childhood memories and are recollected with a sense of nostalgia and a wistful smile recollecting the fun and frolic of childhood.
Lakshmi Krishnamurthy, one of the leading artists, former Head of Department for Visual Arts at Kalakshetra and currently working on the Tagore Fellowship, recollects a happy childhood romping around outdoors with all her family and cousins. As a grandmother, now she is concerned that children don’t play outdoor much anymore. She also voices concern over the competitive streak in all activities today.
“If some of them become very competitive, that becomes a little alarming for me at this stage because I don’t want the child to grow with that kind of pressure. Everything should have an element of contentment and happiness. Most of the parents want their child to become a topper. I don’t accept that.”
Mohan Raman, actor and corporate trainer, recalls with detail the intricacies and fascinating terminology that was part of his childhood playing with kites, marbles and tops. He recollects strange practices of sticking the nail of the top into the trunk of a guava tree or mango tree to coat the nail and make it spin better and longer. “Games helped you interact with people. So, it brought about the basic idea of how to engage in relationships. So, relationship management was a big thing. You couldn’t lose friends.”
Writer Sivasankari remembers being a tomboy and playing all possible outdoor games and climbing trees including a coconut tree. She recollects the scratches she sustained from trying this. She also recollects hours of fun playing Pathu Kattam a dice game with the whole family. “I had a happy healthy childhood. Those happy childhood memories are so important for us. Every memory is important, which is positive. We should not store the negative. It’s like garbage — we should throw out the negative.”
Cricketer Srikanth recollects playing every single game from goli to bambaram to gilli-danda. He also remembers playing cricket virtually on every road of Chennai. To him games are critical to life. He says, “I believe that every child, everybody should play games because games teach you a lot of lessons. It gives you exercise; it gives you a mental break. Most importantly, it teaches you the concept of winning and losing. Children find it very difficult to accept loss. Losing is a big thing today.”
After all…it’s all in the game.
To capture these delightful video interviews, do check out our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@Kreeda_Games/featured and enjoy the Memories and Madras playlist, or simply scan the QR code.