For the undying spirit

I was at a school event recently, when a young mother dismissed a couple of games as there was nothing, in her belief, to be “learned” from them.

- VINITA SIDHARTHA

She called it a waste of time. A grandmother told me recently, “There are no backyards anymore, or large verandahs...and the children go from the confinement of the classroom to the confinement of the tuition room or are bundled off to practise another competitive sport.”

With time for games slowly disappearing, games, with their oral tradition of rules and the temporary boards drawn on floors with chalk or soapstone, are slowly but surely vanishing from our everyday lives. But play is an impulse native to man, and while unstructured traditional modes of play are disappearing, structured play in the form of competitive sport has taken centre stage.