The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Old games rise like phoenix

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Monday, May 04, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Old games rise like phoenix

S. Aishwarya

Games such as paramapadam, aadupuliattam reintroduced for kids

– FILE PHOTO

Stimulating: Traditional games gain a new lease of life during vacation

CHENNAI: Among many others, the feverish hunt for tamarind seeds for post-lunch games and rolling dice with bated breath would be the fondest memories of childhood vacation for parents. At a time when video game consoles and the internet are pulling the kids off the streets, board games are being revived by a few in the city, in an attempt to introduce informative indoor games to them.

Games such as paramapadam (snake and ladder), aadupuliattam (goat and tiger), pallankuzhi (cup and coin), gilli danda (stick and peg) and dayakattam (dice and square) that are nearly forgotten get introduced in a creative way to allure kids into these games.

While summer camps are pitching in their part to entertain the kids through long-forgotten games, the games take a new avatar and get stacked at leading book and musical stores. Sivir, a publishing company, for instance, has come up with a board game called Ramayana — The Game. The board game, played by two to nine players with a dice, has the map of India painted over a sheet. Over a hundred events scripted in the Ramayana are mentioned through interesting levels. “Children know only a couple of places in Ramayana. The game will talk about nine locations and the story book that comes along with it has a detailed description of all events,” said its regional sales manager G.S.Balajee.

The publishing company will soon come up with games on Krishna, Mahatma Gandhi and Indian army. The response, he says, has been encouraging and he hopes this would perk up the old-time ways of gaming.

Kreeda, launched by Vinita Sidhartha, has revived over 20 traditional games and more are on in the offing. The games were well received by children and parents alike, says Mathangi, a partner in Chamiers, which had earlier stacked nearly 15 old-time games.

And not surprisingly, grandparents are a happier lot. Lakshmi Kumaraswami, 61, is glad her grandson’s birthday party rounded off in a “meaningful way.” The kid guests were gifted with ‘paramapadam’ charts and a pair of wooden dice. “It was, in fact, my grandson’s idea to gift board games. I introduced him to paramapadam and aadupuliattam last summer and he thoroughly enjoyed playing them with me,” she says. “We never had any formal education but learnt maths and logical reasoning through these games. My generation is testimony to how these games sharpen intellectual skills of the players.”

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