The Name Of The Game ???

The Name  Of The Game ???

I am recalling a game without a name , we played in our school days in and around our streets . In 1960s  Mylapore , a  place in South Madras , was not thickly populated and there were no heavy  traffic of automobiles.  Cycle rickshaws and hand pulled rickshaws was a common sight other than cyclists going here and there.  Automobile ply in main streets mostly. So the small  streets and by lanes  were free for children to play around. We have played rubber ball cricket , learnt scooter ride even when we were adolescent .

 

A particular sport we played , I wish to narrate here. It may look funny and  the reader may wonder whether  we played such games without a name ! The photo attached below  is self explanatory about the game .  Yes. Rolling of a spokes-less cycle rim on the streets with a steel rod  bent at one end  to slide along the rim , is the game !!!

One of my classmate nicknamed  as SB , taught us the game. He had a big  old cycle rim without spokes   may be  22” or 24” cycle ,  and start rolling from his house near Sri madhava Perumal temple and comes to our place , hardly  half a kilometer, with a big noise made by the contact of the steel rod with the rim. He used to  run it very  fast and me and my brother were very much fascinated on the game. So we also wanted one to own ourselves than asking for small rounds  from him !

Our uncle, we fondly call him Dhoppa, who took us to Moore Market  ( a market near Central Railway station, where you can get anything from a pin to big  things ) one day and bought two such rims for us. But we could get smaller size only. The steel rod also we got to match the rims. So the joy ride along with our friend on the streets gave us much enjoyment, in a period of no television and other entertainment of present days . Initially we tried to roll the rim in the terrace  our house. The turning and twisted runs with the rolling rims gave us much thrill.  We used to have race on the terrace to show our skills in how long we roll it without a break !  SB , our friend , used to join in the sport , being the innovator according to us and an expert driver !

The reader of this blog may not believe that the game owner, SB , studied with me from class one to under graduation and served a leading Nationalized Bank in high rank , now retired and working as an Acupuncture doctor  outside Madras.

Still the memory is prime for me. We could hear the starting and running sound of the rim, the sooner he leaves his house , which is behind our house parallel to our street.  Our half shorts dress helped us to run fast with the rim and SB could suddenly stop the ride with a  shriek sound.

As we did not have camera in those younger days and of course it was a costly affair, there is no photo available to share. So I took from internet , similar photos played by African kids in their villages. Mylapore was also a village in those days.

I will post a separate blog on the richness of Mylapore   later.

Can anyone give a name to the game we played ?

I could recollect a song here :

"The Name of the Game" is a 1977 song by Swedish pop group ABBA, and was released as the first single from the group's fifth studio album, The Album.

Not a day goes without cherishing the past and the moment any pleasant things comes to my mind , immediately I put it in writing.