Some Indian traditional games

This 'cloth-board' is made by croche by my grandmother many decades back. The coins are of wood in four colours. The dices are of ivory. It is more like Ludo. We call in local as "pagade". Have to search for its English counterpart. My grandparents used to play a couple of games every afternoon. It is a very interesting game for 2-4 players. Red/Black are opposites, Green/Yellow are opposites.

http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Pachisi.htm
Close to this one!

This message was edited Jun 26, 2006 11:00 AM

I am yet to find an English name for this age-old game. Each pit has five marbles or seeds or whatever. Here we have sea shells that must be decades old. The board itself is carved out of wood in the shape of fish and it can be folded up in to a box. It had been damaged over the years but I have repaired to make it sturdy again. The one who loses the contents of his side to the other is the loser!

Dinu

Those are really neat Dinu! Thanks so much for sharing. I'm pretty sure the counterpart to your second game is called Mancala

Janis

http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Mancala.htm
Oh yes it is. Thanks Janis. I found information on this in that same link. It's an age old game - when I read, it seems to have been played about 3500 years ago!

Dinu

And, according to your first link, the first one is parchesi. We used to play parchesi for hours and hours... I don't remember how to play any longer, but I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to catch on to again. I'll have to get a game and teach my grandchildren...

I can tell you that the computer video games are no match to the fun that these traditional games offer. Yes, it is a worthwhile idea to pass on this to the younger generation. The greatest advantage is that it does not require any power to play, but just the space to sit, one or two for company and the will to play. Nothing like it.

Dinu

My D is playing a game on the board with her friend. It's a board with 25 squares, 5 of which are 'inactive', mean nobody can capture and send the coin back to the start. Each player uses 4 'coins' [here one is using tamarind seeds and one is using little shells]. For dice, they use four bigger shells the ones that closes down is counted. It all four opens upwards, or all faces down, the player gets another chance to play the dice for a score of 4 and 8 respectively. It is a very interesting simple game that can be very thrilling, esp. when you enter the inner squares. One has to qualify to enter the inner squares by capturing any of the players' pieces. Two to four players can play. There is also this game's elder brother that has 49 squares, but it takes a long time to end. That is a simple cardboard piece I have made about 25 years back. Still it is going on! They can play this game anywhere - mark those squares with chalk and play!

Dinu a question I have been meaning to ask. When you write or speak in English do you think in your native language or in the language you are trying to use. When I speak French I think in French and not think in English which I have been told is unusual. Which do you think in?

Don

I don't think it is that unusual. It is the mother tongue which has formed the basis is what usually works in the mind, esp. to those using more than one language. There is a little story how a thief was caught when he was given a test of calculating numbers - he was found to murmer in his mother tongue which exposed the truth. I don't remember the exact story. On similar lines, one also scolds in his native language [involuntarily] in anger! So thinking in it before 'converting' into English is normal, methinks.

Isn't it odd then that I think in the language I am speaking to me it seems natural. Must be something broke inside my head I guess.

Don :)

Dinu,
That fish board game is very much, if not exactly like, Mancala. :) I like the fish board much better.

snipe, there must be some corrupt file inside your brain, do you think??? LOL.
pegdog, it very closely resembles the mancala.