Vanished Indigenous Games

These were prevalent about 75 years ago among small boys. Though cricket & football were known, they were played only by adults in an organised way. Kids could not afford them.

The first was called "Chinni-Dandu" in Kannada. Chinni was a small wooden piece tapered at both ends. Dandu was a longer stick used to hit the Chinni placed on the ground at the tapered end & hit it farthest when it rose in the air. If missed, the boy's turn was over. If hit, the process was repeated at the spot where the chinni had travelled. The boy who hit the longest continuously won, the total distance being measured by the dandu.

Then there were glass marbles hit with the forefinger bent back. The object was to reach the "baddu", a hollowed depression in the ground.

The cigarette pack covers were collectible & won by a game consisting of hitting a heap of them with a square metal piece.

Spinning tops spun with a thin rope wound round them, were a lethal weapon in destroying others' spinning tops by the sharp metal tips embedded in them.

Interestingly, these games had seasons of their own when they would be universally played by all by an unspoken agreement. They were never played together! They were also gender specific. 

Girls were not playing them but restricted to their own Hop Scotch (Kunte-Bille in Kannada). Interestingly, hop scotch is played all over the world by girls, as seen in numerous films, where they are shown playing it on the side-walks. Even in Rowling's "Fantastic Beasts", a girl plays it alone, singing a sinister song about witches!