Back to the basics

S I sat reviewing ideas for today's article, a young girl walked into my room. She had grown up playing Kreeda's traditional games, and they brought a smile to her face as she narrated how they would run to the shelf in the store and search for a new game.

- VINITA SIDHARTHA [e-mail]

After she left, my mind began to wander down the memory lane, to how it all began. It is there that I found answers to what got me started on this journey to revive traditional games.

It all began when my grandmother started babysitting my children when I went to work. When I first bundled the children off to be with her, I felt a pang of guilt. After all, it was their great-grandmother, with whom they had an 80-year age gap. They would probably be bored, I thought, but they weren't.

She did two things that they loved. First, she cooked incredible food made in copious quantities that satisfied their grubby fingers and hungry bellies. Second, she always had time to play.