IPS Arif Sheikh shared policecampdiaries and wrote how kids should play outdoor games for better health

Let’s play a game!

Gone are the days when 24 hours were not even sufficient for children to play, but today children are getting bored which is alarming! I was shocked when my 7-year-old child told me that he is getting bored. Children have an amazing ability to make the best use of time, but social media and the digital revolution have snatched the natural curiosity of children to explore new and innovative things.  It all began with the online school in lockdown. The tendency of obesity is at its peak due to laziness and fast food fever.

When it comes to playing, today’s generation gives priority to paid games like PS4, PUBG video games instead of outdoor games and indoor sports, for which it is necessary to have father’s money to play, I still remember that I had to toil hard to get Atari’s video games. But till the last, I did not get it and even today I have a car, a bungalow, a bank balance but no video game.

The energy of childhood can be extracted only by playing ‘atrangi’ types of games in the field and in the police camp, we used to play some such games. I don’t know maybe you guys have played such games. I claim that you must not have heard of some games. With the SQUID game series, it has been proved that the process of playing this game has continued and will continue to be played all over the world.

Kanche (Marbles) / Goti was the most basic game, in it 10, 20., Raja Rani, Aim, etc. games are played. Aiming at a piece of Goti is a great skill and you can win the game by using your every finger skillfully. By the way, I was a lot of “Kachcha Limbu”. By the way, I am still a Kachha Limbu in every game till today and my brother was an expert in it, so the treasure of pieces in the house was bigger than Kuber, he used to win and I would lose.

During the rainy season, when the ground was wet, we used to play “Sheek” using thin iron bars. By making a circle in the ground, one by one, he used to slam the rod / sheek into it, whose head did not stand in that circle, Dan used to come on top of him. Dan had to come from the last point to this circle with a limp.

We have also played a dangerous game called Kitty-Kitna, after which it was common to bleed or break the back, out of the two teams, whoever has the dan, that team stands behind any wall as a horse, and the other people of the team run and climb on their back. No one wins or loses it after playing this game, but later the final decision was made only after a scuffle.

There were 100 years old banyan trees in our police camp, the fun of playing Tarzan Tarzan by using the roots hanging from above was something unique, on one side the tree was ditched in the middle, and on the other side the heavy-duty pipeline, hanging from one side. The one who successfully landed safely above the pipeline was the real Tarzan, it is not known how many people broke their hands and feet in this affair. Climbing on top of these trees, the game called Sur Parambya was also a different game.

In normal play, there was a dan in which Sheek and the game of breaking other’s eyebrows were very fun, Gullidanda, kite flying, Chor-Police and many other such games were there to play and pass the time. Efforts are being made to teach my son to play all these games.