Games We Dared To Play

As children, we end up performing such rare feats of bravery that have no parallel in our adult life. The games that we play, the conditions that we play in, the rules that we frame at these games match the valour of knights, only in place of a dagger, we had a heavy plastic ball or a rubber ball and instead of killing we had to injure that came very near to killing if you could see someone writhing in pain. It was a game of seven stones.

The stones were arranged vertically one on top of the other. Boys divided themselves into two teams and would throw the ball, by turns, at the pile of stones and scatter them. If the other party caught the ball before it fell on the ground, the team lost a point. Otherwise, the team that had scattered the stone would rearrange them. It was not as simple as that. We had to arrange them while dodging the ball hurled at us. Sometimes, when the 7th stone was about to be enthroned, the ball would come aiming at your eye and blind you for the evening.

There was no room for mercy because efficiency at the game is what mattered. Everyone wanted his name in the annals of local sports history. It was also time to avenge our differences. If I proved a good dodger, either my brother or a close friend became the target of their attack. I had to make myself vulnerable to save them from brutality: So, I used to run past the savages, reach for the stones and my daring would be rewarded with one solid hit! Being a boy I couldn't even cry. It made me a coward! I used to remark in acute pain , "Mard ko dard nahi hota" - 'Man knows no pain'.

And, if you happened to be an eyesore among the group, then it was immaterial which team you played for - you were doomed. The ball wouldn't leave the skin without bruising it or bleeding it. The worst hit would leave a greenish black patch on your back and the nagging pain would prolong for days. The courage lay in being a part of the game each day knowing fully well that you still were the malicious target of that lethal throw and to hear you wheezing in pain was music to those ears. You had your day if you got hurt at the same place. At such time, I couldn't restrain my tears, but I couldn't sob like a kid. I slept with a hot water bag and was being admonished by my parents for my foolhardiness. I was seen dodging the hits again the next day!

There is another game that is played on the banks of river Ganga that has, in places like Patna, dilapidated forts on its banks. The game is called 'conquering the fort'. One group climbs the minaret with 2-3 gunny bags full of solid alluvial chunks deposited by the river. The other group stations itself on the ground. The aim of the game is that the group down has to conquer the fort while those stationed on the top prevent them from doing so by hurling those huge chunks at them. Obviously, the group holding the fort has a better advantage over the crawlers. Only heroes dare to make it to the top because if you are hit during the mission you would either swoon or at least go home with a swollen head. While climbing the fort, there are places where you are easily prone to attack. All that the fort-men need to do is to turn over their gunny bag and you would be knocked down by the avalanche of those mud crumbs, hard and huge, while negotiating the narrow passage. Only a lion-hearted makes it to the top!

I wish I could retain even a fraction of the courage displayed at these games!

(Any other game that you know of, please let me know.)
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