Games

Before the Stick Cricket smartphone app, before fantasy cricket leagues, heck, even before Brian Lara Cricket, there was a virtual cricket simulation that took our fancies by storm. That made us forget that unit tests were right around the corner. That made even the drabbest English 2 class rattle with fever pitch excitement. Held in the famous stadium ‘IV D’, this was cricket by the book. Literally. There was no margin for error, no third umpires and no room for match fixing (unless you intentionally dog eared pages 56, 106 and 246 hoping your opponent won’t catch on to your...

Before “Which Game of Thrones realm do you belong in?” or “Which F.R.I.E.N.D.S character would be your soulmate?” or some such online personality test, we had a paper version that started it all. First you chose one of the four colors. Sometimes, when you didn’t have crayons (which usually meant that you didn’t have drawing class that day) the colors were just written down. Then you chose a one of the two numbers written under a colour fold. What followed was the moment of truth. Depending on what the topic of the day was, you would find out who you would...

This was an after 7 game; a game that combined the thrill of pursuit with the uncertain camouflage of darkness. No sporting equipment required, this was a hands free game. Your brush with what you thought espionage entailed. Terraces were out of bounds and meant immediate disqualification. No hiding in the water pump room. Those were the rules. But rules were meant to be broken. Especially when mother called out from the balcony saying food was ready. 

No society function or extended family gathering was complete without the inclusion of musical chairs as a part of the evening’s entertainment. All you needed were a few (alternately front and back facing) chairs, a music player and willing participants (always one more than the number of chairs) to play this physical version of passing the parcel. Quite literally a game of thrones, musical chairs taught us a valuable lesson about life. That old people really like sitting. You realize that midway across a round when a beloved aunt pushes you away hastily in her quest for a Nilkamal chair....