Games !

As I walk in front of my street, I hear kids playing cricket with a good measure of, what is most essential to gully cricket, Screaming.

Yes, be it fighting over who gets to bat first (because the ball is invariably lost before the end of the game) or over a misfield ("thoothu!") - screaming in gully cricket is the highlight of the kids' evenings, as much as it reminds home-owners of their dear glass windows.

Back in 5th grade, I remember playing endlessly in the hot sun on weekends. Too bad the ground I used to play in, has been converted into a park - 'keep off the grass' - Blah!

Vinay, Me, Amit, D.T, Asim, Junaid, Baddi, Vaadi and Chunts. (Hmm..Who am I missing?) We had a team of 11, and we fought cricket battles every weekend with the formidable "Scouts" and the quite-beatable "Korag-ers"[ LOL did you get that? 'Koragu' is Kannada for 'Crib'. They were notorious for cribbing on wanting to bat]

Good times.

So the culture of gully cricket, replete with all its expressions, has passed intact to today's kids.

" BOWLED'IM !!" probably made sense but, it took me a loooong time to realize what "AWZAAAAOUT !!" meant back then or how one should spell 'SCREEEZ' !! LOL.

So, that's the good news about cricket.

But what makes me a little sad is that I hardly see kids playing BUGURI these days. Buguri is an expertise game, where you spin wooden tops with metal tips using strings of ropes. An advanced players can hoist those tops anywhere - make them spin on their palms, for example (ouch). And then we had contests where we break the opponents' spinning Buguri with ours. Very skillful I must say. I wonder if shops even SELL buguri's these days.

And then there was LAGORI. Yet another amazing game. You pile up stones of different sizes and make a pyramid. There are two teams with opposing goals - of 'making' the pyramid and of 'breaking' it. The team making it must dodge the attack of the opposite team, which uses a ball as its projectile. Highly recommended when you have a big group.

There was CHINNI KOLU and there was TYRE ! The latter was totally a no-brainer. Meant for kids of the AATAK-UNTU-LEKKAK-ILLA variety. Essentially, those who were too young to understand any rules. You just give them a stick and find an old discarded vehicle tyre lying around somewhere. (We couldn't afford the whole vehicle you see!) And off you go speeding tyres and maneuvering them with sticks. Gosh ! I used to get so black and dirty playing with tyres :)

I wonder if kids today get out and get dirty as often as we used to.

Actually, today's kid prefers a WHOLE car to play with. Not just a tire. Hmm, evolution.