the games we played...

The other day, my sister and i were reminiscing about the games we used to play as kids and how sad it is that they are getting forgotten and would be lost to the next generation.

i was lucky to grow up with a considerable number of playmates in the guise of cousins and siblings. And oh, the games we played - chagai chongbi (the Manipuri version of hopscotch), khulokpi, marum konbi, churup upu, lai phadhibi, chak thongbi, keku lotpi, rangita, swa, amaangbi, utong lakpi, marbles, ludo...

If i ask my younger cousins if they know how to play marum konbi, i know i will get blank stares. Now, it is Mario and other video games. That or watching Ben10 and other cartoons on TV.

i particularly miss playing marbles because, in my younger days, i was a marble champion. i still have marbles stored away under my bed in my old water bottles back in Imphal (well, at least the last time i checked). In fact, when i was young, i thought of making a will (i got the idea of 'wills' from the story books) describing how many marbles should go to each of my siblings and some favourite cousins, the number changing with moods!

i still remember the near-perfectly straight line of marbles lined up, the thrill when you hit the one at the arrowhead (and thus getting all the marbles), the way we used to mutter 'burumbi kangsoi' whenever someone was about to throw a curse to make their aim go awry, the sneaking away in the middle of the game to deposit some marbles when on a winning spree (because the unwritten rule was you could not quit when you are winning so as to give the losers a chance to win back their marbles, the exception being if the tone of the mother calling you to stop playing and do your homework reached the limit beyond which a bashing was guaranteed), begging the winner to please, please lend some marbles when you end up losing everything so you could play the next round, the counting of the marbles at the end of the day, calculating how many you have lost or won, trying to coax the owner of a lucky 'laaga' (the marble used for throwing) to give it in exchange for 10 'ordinary' marbles....

i continued playing marbles even during the vacations when i went home in my college days, much to my parents' embarrassment who could not understand how a grown girl could still jump and shriek with joy playing marbles with kids young enough to call me 'mother'.

How i wish the games of my childhood were still played today. How it saddens me to know that they will fade away, replaced by mindless video games and cartoons. And how lucky i am to have at least experienced it all...