As I sat reviewing ideas for today’s article, a young girl walked into my room. She had grown up playing Kreeda’s traditional games, and they brought a smile to her face as she narrated how they would run to the shelf in the store and search for a new game.
After she left, my mind began to wander down the memory lane, to how it all began. It is there that I found answers to what got me started on this journey to revive traditional games.
It all began when my grandmother started babysitting my children when I went to work. When I first bundled the children off to be with her, I felt a pang of guilt. After all, it was their great-grandmother, with whom they had an 80-year age gap. They would probably be bored, I thought, but they weren’t.
She did two things that they loved. First, she cooked incredible food made in copious quantities that satisfied their grubby fingers and hungry bellies. Second, she always had time to play.
She didn’t have the tired excuses of a mother — “Oh, God. I just sat down,” or “Can’t you do something on your own for some time?” She was available whenever they wanted — grandma on demand. What could be better than that in the minds of the children? And so, they loved to visit her.
My curiosity got the better of me one day, and when I asked them what they did, they narrated stories of the games they played. Pallanguzhi, Paramapadam, Dhayakattam, Tamarind Seed Game, many of these rolled off their tongues with ease. I was surprised.
I didn’t realise that she was exposing them to a whole different aspect of Indian culture. I was vaguely familiar with these games. I remembered them in my fuzzy memories of childhood — of the family grouped around a board of Dhayakattam and the brass dice ringing on the floor, or an exciting game of Pallanguzhi accompanied by the excited screams and yells of my aunts and grandmother. It had never even occurred to me to bring these to the children.
I started talking to people to understand more and more about these games, which my grandmother admitted were slowly fading from the cobwebs of her mind. I started asking questions and I was mesmerised. There was something so charming, elemental, and exciting about these games that they fascinated me. I just had to know more. More conversations led to uncovering more games and my knowledge of those games.
I saw the fun that the children had, and I dreamed that perhaps one day, more and more children would learn these games. It is what started me on the journey, and the visit by this young girl reminded me that there is so much more we need to do. All of us have family members who might remember the games they played, but sadly, memories are disappearing. If we could talk to them, try to tap their memories, perhaps we can recreate more of these games and preserve them for future generations.
If you can do that, please share them with me, and I wil research and help recreate the games they played.
This is a long journey, and we have barely started. But it is a journey that started with an incredible woman, over 90 years of age. A woman who influenced the family so much that every family gathering dissolves in fun, laughter, music, dancing, and more. A woman who has left a legacy in the thousands of happy memories that have come through the traditional games that she helped me revive.
Come, let us create that legacy together.