BERHAMPUR: At a time when traditional games have become a thing of the past even in rural areas, an attempt is being made in the Silk City of Berhampur to revive them. A city-based socio-cultural organisation Madhumaya Panigrahi Foundation has been organising competitions every year since 2010 to give a new lease of life to dying traditional games, be it ‘puchi’, ‘kit-kit’, ‘kaudi khela’ or ‘khapara dian’.
Founder and chief convenor of the foundation Hrushikesh Panigrahi said these traditional games were an integral part of every child’s life both in rural and urban areas. But over the period of time, video games took over and today social media has consumed their lives, he lamented.
To bring about a change, Panigrahi informed, the foundation decided to come up with a competition of rural games, particularly for girls. Into its 13th edition this year, it hosted a competition in seven kinds of rural games among girls at Khallikote University stadium last week. They were ‘khapara dian’, ‘kaudi khela’, daudi dian (skipping), sankha nada (blowing of conch shells), ‘thia puchi’, ‘basa puchi’ and ‘hulahuli’. The competition saw the participation of over 300 girls from schools and colleges across Berhampur.
Panigrahi said 20 girls were selected from the competition who are currently being trained to perform a dance ballet in Berhampur during the ‘Kumar Punei Janha Lo’ cultural programme to be held later this month. The steps and movements of rural games are an integral part of the dance ballet.
Panigrahi, a former employee of All India Radio, along with his wife Sudipta, a former teacher of Jail Training school here, started the foundation in the name of his mother and decided to organise a rural games competition every year during Kumar Purnima. “Once the best form of entertainment for girls in rural areas, these games have almost faded away with time. It was actually my mother’s wish to revive them,” he said.
Explaining the puchi games, he said both ‘thia puchi’ and ‘basa puchi’ were played by girls and are related to the celebration of Raja and Kumar Purnima. These games were aimed at improving the strength of girls as it required them to stretch out the right and left foot alternatively while maintaining the squatting or standing position. “I had seen this game being played throughout Kumar Purnima under the full moonlit sky. But not anymore,” he said.
Similarly, ‘kaudi khela’ is a traditional board game played by both men and women of all age groups and ‘khapara dian’ is a game where girls compete with each other while jumping on one leg on a special court. Hulahuli is a typical sound made by women by vibrating the tongue during every auspicious occasion in Odia households. “Our aim is to bring these games and traditions back to the Odia households through the new general girls,” Sudipta said.