Page 56 - Sanidhya 2024

THE ELASTIC GAME

# DOWN THE MEMORY LANE

In the lap of the scenic Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan hopscotch and jumping ropes. It is
is the picturesque city of Thimphu. The constricted, played the world over with different
elongated valley with wild roses, orchards, a sparkling river, names like gummytwist, Chinese
and mountains. At the foot of a hill lies Lungtenzampa jump rope, etc. The game is typical-
School which has open spaces for children to play and ly played in a group of at least three
do other co-curricular activities. As a child back in the players with an elastic about 5-6
late eighties, I had friends from many parts of the world. meters in length tied into a circle.
Each of them brought with him/her, their own language, Two players face each other stand-
Smt. Deepa Upadhyay,
culture, food, and a variety of games. A game I vividly ing 3-4 meters apart and position w/o Shri DP Upadhyay,
remember and loved playing was the “elastic” game. It the elastic around their ankles so DIG, COBRA
is a low cost game made of sewing elastic or can be that it is taut. The third player stands between the two
easily made with rubber bands, entwining one rubber sides of the rope and tries to perform a designated se-
band with the other. Reminiscing about my childhood, ries of moves without making an error or pausing. The
I fondly recall my classmates a British boy Andrew, a third player or the jumper stands between the two sides
Nepalese girl Prabina, a Bhutanese boy Sonam Norbu, of the rope and must perform a series of increasingly
and some Indian friends like Gulshan, Ravi, and Vikas difficult moves without making an error. The position of
and we all loved this elastic game. Each one of us got the string is raised as the jumper moves through the lev-
a few big rubber bands from his/her home and during els, from ankle to waist height and higher. Sometimes if
the games period, we used to interweave one rubber a jumper has the ability to jump very high the string is
band into another, ensuring that it did not get entangled placed on arms raised overhead. These movements are
during the process, and prepare a long stretchable rope. great for stretching. Often a child gets so intrigued with
Then we used to take turns to play the game which the shapes the rope can make that he or she stretches
started at ankle level and went right up to shoulder level. much harder than he/she would have otherwise.
For the super champions of the game, the level went There are many rhymes that we used to sing while play-
overhead too. This rope of rubber bands could hardly ing, for example,
bear the assault of footfalls for a week and would break
from in between. It was again time to make a new one. “England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales
Sometimes a generous mother of any of us would buy a Inside, outside
few meters of sewing elastic that was sturdier and would Puppy dogs’ tails
save us from the interweaving process. I remember that Several counting chants were also used
when I had the duty to carry the elastic or rubber band as
with me I used to check it whether I had kept it in my bag Charlie Chaplin sat on a pin
before leaving for school which was never the case with How many inches did it go in
any book or notebook. Sometimes even the lunchbox One, two, three, four”
was forgotten at home but the endearing stretchable
rope was always carefully kept in the pocket of Kira, the We can make indigenous version of this game by adding
traditional Bhutanese dress, we wore as uniform. local rhymes. This game can also be used to improve lin-

guistics if we sing along tongue twisters or small rhymes
HOW TO PLAY THIS GAME
in local language or home language.
Elastics is a yard game or an outdoor game that needs
little space and is low cost too. It just needs a few meters
of elastic and willing feet. This game is a combination of

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