Generally, waking up the average 10-year-old on a Sunday morning can only be described as a herculean task. However, as many as 240 children from various parts of the city were willing participants at an event held at SNDT Women's University.
What was the event all about?
Titled 'Purane Khelo ka Utsav', the event was aimed at introducing long-lost games that originated in the country, such as Lagori, Gilli Danda and marble playing, to urban children, a majority of whom increasingly lead a sedentary lifestyle by being addicted to video games and television.
Who were the organisers and participants?
Organised by the human development department of SVT College of Home Science, of the SNDT Women's University, the occasion saw participants between the ages of six to 12 years. The children also dabbled with traditional art forms such as Warli painting, rangoli-making and pot-painting.
What were the children exposed to?
Dr Suja Koshy, the department head of the college, expressed her happiness at the overwhelming response the event got, saying: "Since we were short-staffed, we could not register more than 240 children. So, many kids who wanted to participate had to go back. Still, we are glad that children who participated, got a taste of the games which used to be so popular once."
The department head added: "Kids lead a structured life these days. The event, for once, exposed them to the joy of an unstructured way of life."
Learning through playing
The entire group was divided into five zones, which included maths, music and dance zones. In the maths zone, games such as chopat (played in the Saurashtra area of Gujarat) and Pallanguli (board game) were tweaked a bit to make the kids solve mathematical problems.
How did the kids respond?
Hetvi Shah, an 11-year-old participant expressed her delight, saying: "I would love to participate in similar events, it was so much fun. I didn't mind sacrificing my Sunday sleep for this. I got to know about many exciting games and there was so much to do."
Santa Cruz resident and SNDT alumnus Lavina Hadkar brought her six-year-old daughter Shloka to the event. "We are a group of 18 families and all of us decided to bring our kids here, for which we arranged for four vehicles. These are the games we used to play when we were kids," Hadkar said, adding that many of her friends from Mulund, Borivali and other areas also brought their kids.
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