Mohammed Lafir
When we try to figure out childhood games, the games that mostly come to mind are those from the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. It is the pre-digital era where unique childhood games were favourite among children instead of computer games.
When we meet our childhood friends these days, we fondly recall those nostalgic memories of carefree playing.
Unfortunately, most of the outdoor childhood games have now been replaced with indoor activities and screen-based games.
Here we, at FemAsia, made an effort to recollect some games of the bygone days which made our childhood more fascinating.
Street Cricket
Talk about any game in Sri Lanka for any age, and cricket is something that is hard to exclude. You can see the kids playing cricket in every nook and corner in Sri Lanka. Any ball made from plastic, rubber and tennis is used, and any piece of wood is used as a bat to play this most loved game of Sri Lanka.
Marbles Game
Using the tiny marbles which come in a variety of vibrant colours and compact interior designs, children used to play ‘Jil ball’ games of their choice. There were different names given to these games. All the games revolve around drawn lines and a hole. The bigger the collection of accumulation of marbles more celebrated the achievement.
Traditional Ludo
Ludo is a time-consuming game playable by two to four players. It is a strategic board game where the players race their four tokens from start to finish, according to the rolls of a single dice.
The game and its variations are popular in many countries and under various names.
Pulling Cart
This is a kind of play where the full leaf of an Areca Catechu Palm Tree is used with its base being used as the cart, as visualised in the picture.
Most children play this game, one pulling and the other travelling, for fun in the rural areas.
Bamboo Shot Gun
Kids used to play and shoot with guns made with a bamboo stick. Two raw bamboo sticks are used to make this great shotgun. One bamboo stick in used to make a long hole while the other one will have a long rod which can be inserted through. Whole peppers are inserted into the bamboo hole to hit the target using the other stick.
Play House
Another fantastic game that was prevalent among the kids of the 80s and 90s was ‘playing house’. Kids get together and make a play home using the artefacts available in the environment such as plantain leaves, bamboo sticks, coconut leaves and ropes.
There was even mini cooking involved. Some children went to the extent of having shopping fairs, where the shops were also opened, and things were sold for paper money.
Those were the days of excitement!
Paper Boats
Using paper, children used to make paper boats and sail them in the adjacent streams. This was a usual practice after school or in the evening especially in the rivers and streams or in the street after the monsoon rain.
The exercise books from school were used, and the grumbling of the parents will continue throughout the day.
There were many more, such as rolling of tires, rolling of steel rings, boating with rubber tubes, playing hide & seek and fishing in the stream which was as fascinating as the ones presented here.
Another exciting game was making various jewellery such as crowns, chains, bracelets and anklets. These were made using sticks, leaves and various natural elements from the trees and the environment which surrounded us.
These little games made our life in the past very much attached to the natural environment and made us develop more meaningful bonds. We became emotionally attached human beings. We wonder if children growing up these days, who are connected more and more to the cartoon characters and digital games, will ever have the same feeling.
