School students sounded excited as they were found playing Uttarakhand’s traditional games — Murga Jhapad, Baag Bakri, Batti, Pithoo and Footsaal — at Ambedkar Stadium on Thursday.
These games losing sheen in the luster of cricket, football and others are being revived at the behest of the State Congress general secretary Anand Rawat who is also the Chief Minister’s son, said the organisers of the five-day competition now being held at the stadium.
Rawat said that the objective was to encourage the students to play traditional games apart from dissuading them from falling prey to drugs and other contrabands.
The students when asked for their reaction said they were besides themselves with joy. “It was beyond our imagination that we would play such games in an important stadium right in Dehradun which we play in the narrow lanes around our houses. The parents used to discourage us. They did the same when we told them about our wish to participate in the competition. But we cling to them as they spur nostalgia,” said Sweta Sinha, a student of KV Upper Camp.
On the maiden day of the competition, 670 students of 18 Kendriya Vidyalayas and SGRR Schools participated. KV Sangathan deputy commissioner Somit Srivastav administered the oath to the players.
P Thapa, a sports teacher and resident of Pithoragarh, said the games were reinvented thanks to the initiatives of Aanad Rawat. “These are village games and were confined to the rural children across the state. The initiative is a watershed in the realm of sports as following this competition they would get the recognition they remained shorn of,” she said.
Thapa further said, “In our childhood, we used to play these games in the villages. However, our parents and relatives were hostile to such Batti game. They were of the view that they would trigger unseasonal rain in February, resulting in damage to the Ravi crops. In place of joining gyms, the students should be encouraged to play traditional games for their physical and mental fitness,” she affirmed.
Another sports teacher, SP Pant said that he would request his school principal to include them in the college games.
Amisha, resident of Pauri, said, “We never expected that we would see such games we used to play as children being played in a competition.”
KV Upper Camp student Priya said that such a completion would boost their promotion among the students of the cities too.
Priya, Manju, Mansi, Ambika, Shivani, Nitika, Sushma and Sarika of Phool Chand Nari Shilp (PCNS) Girls Inter College, Dehradun, were elated as their school had won some medals on the first day of the competition.