Traditional Games for Children-2

Continuing with our series on traditional games played in India

Poshampa

Two children stand with their hands outstretched and locked together above their heads and sing a song. The other children pass from under this in a train and when the song is completed the hands comes down catching the child right under rendering him out of the game. He then joins one of the two teams depending on the answers he gives to a set of questions. The two teams then have a tug of war to see which team wins.

The same is played in Tamil Nadu to the tune of the song oru kudam thanni oothi ondre poo poothatham which gets repeated again and again.

Gilli danda

An ancient Indian game dating back to 2500 years, it is the forerunner of cricket, baseball and softball. An outdoor game played in many small towns around the world, it is known by different names. It is known as pee wee in the United States, tip cat in England, konda kondi in Malaysia besides many other names in other countries. In India, it is the favorite pastime of children from rural areas.

The game is played using two sticks, one long and the other small. The longer one is called danda which is used to hit the smaller one called the gilli. The player balances the gilli with ingenuity and strikes it and as it flips in the air he runs across and is required to touch a point outside the circle before the gilli is retrieved by the opponent. Any number of players can be seen engaged in the play. If no one is around, well, a player can keep himself occupied playing it solo.

Kith kith

Also known as pandi in Tamil Nadu, chirpi in Maharashtra, stapu in Hindi, this is another game popular all over the world as hopscotch. If gilli danda is played by boys, then kith kith is mostly played by girls. Players draw boxes in a pattern on the ground using a chalk and throw a stone into the boxes and hop through the boxes to retrieve the stone skipping the box where it is thrown.