The Promising star

Street games

    Street games were precious and priceless things that one could ever get back in his/her life once again. As soon as, the small children would come home from their schools, they used to engage themselves in these kinds of games. It was only at that age when both boys and girls used to step out from their homes and play outdoors, unmindful of the worries and distractions that persist in the eternal world. 

    Kani’s family shifted into their own home to a new area, named Kalaivanar Nagar, by that time when he was studying his third standard. Kani used to take a ride with his tricycle (a small cycle used by kids to ride inside their homes) and he would take an overview of the street at that time. He also knew cycling at the age of 6, which was taught by his neighborhood brother named Manohar, when he lived at the line house. 

    Kani didn't get friends in his new area early on. He simply used to keep watching them playing games. And they also didn't like to join Kani in the games that they played. One day, came crying to his mother that he was not allowed to play with them. This was noticed by his neighborhood aunty, named Mrs. Vijaya Sundari, who called upon her son, named Kali who was one of the senior players in their area and asked him to join Kani along with them. Then, Kani immediately got a chance to play with them. They were playing cricket in a plastic ball, at that time. Kani was picked by the fielding side and they made him stand in midwicket position. Kani was the only small boy in that entire crew. At that time, one of the batsmen struck the ball high in the air towards the direction where Kani was standing. Everyone thought the small boy could not be able to complete that catch at that age. But Kani did it and showed off his potential to everyone right there. He steeled everyone’s heart at his very first impression itself. From that day on, Kani was joined in every game that they used to play generally. 

    Those days, they used to play numerous games like Seven Stones, Cricket, Hide and Seek, Lock and Key, Jodi Pura, Carrom, Kitty, Pambaram (which was played with Tops), Gundu (which was played with small marbles), Laagaa, Statue game, Kalla Tharaiya, Gunda Chatti Kutthu Vilakku, and so on. And during the night times, they used to tell gossips and horror stories with each other. They used to tell Kani that there lived a lady working in the mill, located in that area. They even told him that she got died inside that mill and her soul was still encircling around the mill. Also, they used to put an open challenge to everyone that if anyone could go to the mill at midnight, then they would be declared as the bravest person in the world. Likewise, they used to talk on many conspiring topics, most of the time. Sometimes, these horrible stories would come at their dreams as a nightmare, while they were sleeping tonight. 

    Also, there was another place called ‘Alibaba Cave’, which was the scariest places in their area at night times. Kani and his friends used to play hide and seek with his friends inside that. It was a tough job for any player to find which player hiding at which place. And if one becomes the catcher, he would the catcher for the entire night as he could not manage to find all the people at the same time who were hiding at different places and different positions. The Alibaba cave had both side entrance, with broken building pieces and in underneath it had a small compartment like facility, where a small person only could sit at a time. Kani used to hide at that place most often. Also, sometimes when the catcher comes, they used to throw Kani towards the catcher and make him out. Kani as a small boy was easy for them to carry and he easily would stick on the catcher's body like a 'Monitor Lizard' or 'Udumbu' in Tamil. One day, a nasty incident happened in Kani's life. As Kani was hiding underneath the compartment, he was put dust on his head unknowingly, by one of his are bothers named Sankar, who was standing over that building. Later on, after knowing this, Sankar came rushing towards Kani and helped him with some water and made him clean. After, that incident Kani never used to go there for hiding. 

    Seven stones game was another game that was frequent those days. In this game, there will be a player in the center and leading the team. the opponent team has to collapse the seven stones in front of them with the ball and again rearrange them like how it was back previously without letting the ball touch them after the stone got collapsed. The other team would run behind the team which collapsed the stone and attack them with the ball. One will be placed near the stones to ensure that the stones were not rearranged by the opponent members. This game is an interesting game to play. One day, as Kani was playing this game, one of the seniors, named Venkatesh jumped over a 6 feet fence like anything, to escape from the ball. Also, another day, during this game, a player named Koodes, without being aware of where the ball is, he just danced standing in the middle of the ground. But, surprisingly, the ball was safe with the opponent player's hands and he threw the ball over him gently. This was unexpected by Koodes and he got a good scolding from his team for being such a fool to stand and dance like anything during the gameplay. But he was a player with a mindset of taking that easy and he took it sportively and he concentrated upon the game from thereon. 

    All the games were played seasonally during those days. Soon, they started playing kitty. The game kitty is the base for cricket. Also, we could say the game of cricket has evolved from this beautiful game known as the kitty. In kitty, they use a big stick (of a foot distance length) and a small stick (of a handspan length) for the gameplay. They hit the small stick with the big stick. There are two kinds of play. One is number kitty and the other is digging kitty. In the former, they hit he small stick with the big one and calculate the distance in terms of numbers and in later, they dig the small stick using the big one and from the place where it landed they used to throw up the small kitty to the person having the big kitty in his hand. Here, if the person hits it to a distance, they count it and if the small stick manages to reach near the starting point or if the stick hits the person's body, he will be out. The fielders also stand spreading out to catch the small kitty and it's quite dangerous to play indeed as it not as simple as Cricket. But number kitty was not hard enough. Kani liked only number kitty than the other one. In number kitty, Kani used to play double shots at most of the games, which doubles the score count. Kani would even score a minimum of 100 at the end of his gameplay. He also gets out sometimes, as the opponents used to catch the small kitty which was hit by Kani during the game. 

    Pambaram game (which is played using top) was also a part of their usual gaming in the streets. There will be a rope called chattai, to spin the top and the game involves keeping a top inside the circle. The top inside the circle should be made to come out of the circle using the other tops. The players who missed in hitting the top inside the circle has to keep their top inside the circle, by which the former top that was inside the circle earlier, could be relived. The highlight of this game was the sound produced at a time when the top spins at a great speed, by making a sweet sound in the air, like that of a Queen bee ringing sound. Some of them would even use sharp nails in their top to break the opponent's top. The moment one top hits the other top, it creates a small groove on the other top called the Arkar. Kani had his favorite red-colored top during this game. It was also a good game played in those days. 

    Another game was a marble game, which is called by the name Gundu, in Tamil. In the Gundu game, there were two kinds of plays. One is Poondhaan and the other one is Kuli Gundu. Poondhaan was mostly played by them as it was a team game. Here in this game, they used to split into two teams. One of the representatives from each team would come, and they roll the marble towards the Poondhaan box drawn on the street roads. The Poondhaan box is just like that of an Indian Flag with 3 horizontal lines and 2 vertical lines touching those horizontal lines. The marble that they rolled must stop before they reach the midline of the Poondhaan. If not, then the other team gets the chance to play first. After that, one team keeps all of their marbles inside the midline of the Poondhaan box while the other roll up their marbles towards the Poondhaan, and by this time, they can cross Poondhaan if they wanted to and there is no limit for that. Now, the marbles inside the Poondhaan box had to displaced outside the box. In this process, if the player's marble by chance had entered into the Poondhaan box, then that team will be declared as 'out' and the other team comes for the next play. The game ends once all the marbles were made to cross the end line. And, the highlight of the game is that when all marbles are displaced from the Poondhaan box, the team assigns each player (from their opponent side) for each marble. Even if one person hits a wrong marble instead of the assigned out, then the whole team has to suffer and the opponent team will get their chance to play. This is a quite interesting game to play as the game has no necessity for causing any physical harm to the players involved. 

    There was  another game called Laagaa that they used to play during the night time. They usually used to play the game in sandy areas. And here in this game, a person bends his back while the others will jump over him. The player who bends can raise his position after every jump. For each jump, they have to say a unique code word in this game. 'Laagaa, Laagathin Koku, Lachathin Manalvaari and Sooda/ Stronga was the sequence they used to say, once they jump. Here, the Sooda/ Stronga part was the hottest portion of the game. The blending player has to choose one option among the two. The former means the person can stand on the bending one's back, while, the latter means they can hit them and go simply. This was not an easy game for playing because sometimes the bending person would slightly bend his body down and as result, the jumping one might fall over that person without placing hands over the body of the bending one. This may even cause bad injuries at instances. But, at that age, it was easy for them to recover so they never bothered about injuries and they had no worries but only fun and excitements all over the street, all the time. 

    Once, Kani grew up a little more he had another friend named Prakash who was his best companion in his area. Kani used to go to Prakash home where they play Carrom and many other games. Kani learned how to play cut shots in Carrom from him. They both used to watch 'Power Rangers' on the Jetix channel at that time. Though Kani was not aware of those characters of the play, he used to watch it somehow for the namesake.  Also, they used to catch butterflies and dragonflies, with the help of a shuttle bat and they used to go around the street, by tying up them with a thread. Kani had a good time with Prakash in his childhood times. Another friend, he had was Subash. Kani played a lot of cricket with him. They mostly used to play with the plastic ball (Hero ball) at that time. It was not that easy to play just because of the game rules they had. If the ball goes over the building wall (boundary line) or if it goes to no-run side more than thrice, then it will be considered as out. Kani loved playing cricket here. 

    And, during one school vacation, Kani and Subash planned to buy a bat for playing. Kani's mother gave him Rs.270 to buy the bat. They went to Galaxy sports to buy a new bat for playing. They came across many bats but one bat was looking very special for them, which was none other than the 'Master blaster'. The bat was red with perfect finish and the bat's handle was also too nice to play the cricketing shots. Kani liked the bat very much. But the cost of the bat was Rs.300. Kani was short of Rs.30. Immediately, Subash gave away the remaining amount, in getting this bat as he too felt that the bat was a kind of special one. They bought for playing with the plastic ball but on seeing the bat, they then realized not to use it for plastic balls as it looked to be a good one for playing in stumper ball. Also, there was a guy named Muruga who makes the game funnier and more entertaining. He cracks many jokes during the time of play and keeps his surroundings happy all the time. There was also another guy named Kutta Mani who used to play with them who had his style of batting. Kani loved his childhood games a lot and still, he keeps longing for those nostalgic moments to happen again in his life. But gone is gone. Some memories never fade from our minds. They remain close to our hearts till our last breath.