It’s been long time since I wrote something. Lately I have been into discussions with friends about all the different kind of games that we used to play as kids. I bet everyone would have got into similar discussion once in a while. Whenever I get into such discussions, I sort of WARP (star trek warp) my self to those good olden days. It’s like wanting to play those games again. I still remember all the different games that we played; undocumented rules and obviously, fights over those controversial rules.
Here I bring you with the most exciting and enticing journey of (BBY) Bhooli Bisari Yaadein, I will be writing one blog per game or similar kind of games… so kindly bear with me and enjoy the journey back to past.
Dabba Express or Dabba ISpy or Dabba aais-pais
I will go with Dabba Express, origin of this name being confidential; I would not want to disclose that. Crux of this game is "karvanti". I hope everybody have atleast heard of it. Let me define it for you, “karvanti” is semicircular half of coconut hard shell left after coconut is scrapped from it. A game of Dabba Express typically consist of 10-12 guys, more the better. We used to be around 10-12 guys everytime we played.
Rules of the Game:
- Of all kids participating in the game, one kid has to take raj i.e. Den, decided by complex process mentioned below.
- Rest of the kids hide themselves into pre-decided, agreed upon, restricted area only.
- During the raj, karvanti will be placed in a small ring and the kid taking raj has to protect the KARVANTI while trying to spot other hiding kids.
- As soon as any of the hidden kid is spotted, he will step on karvanti and shout the name of the kid he spotted. Let’s say if I was hiding, then on spotting me the kid taking den will shout “Abhinay ka Dabba Express” and thereafter I am out of the game.
- Kid getting caught first will take the raj for next round of game.
- In rule 3 I said guy taking raj is protecting karvanti, but from what? During the raj all other kids except the kid taking raj will be trying to get the karvanti out of the ring before the kid taking raj spots them and performs the ritual mentioned in rule 4.
- Anytime during the game is on, if anyone from the hidden kids is able to get the karvanti out of the ring, game is over and kid taking raj has to take raj again.
Every time we used to play the big question used to be, “raj kaun lega”, but then obviously there were different methodologies of figuring that out. Let me describe couple of methods that we used. I am pretty sure there might be other different ways of doing this.
Ways of deciding RAJ 1: Make everybody stand in circle. Start counting 10, 20, 30…100 and with every number start tapping one kid at a time. The kid with 100 was taken out of the circle i.e. relieved of taking raj. This used to continue this till one person is remaining, heir to throne i.e. the guy who would take the first raj of the game.
Ways of deciding RAJ 2: Majority-Minority method. In this 3 kids would come together and put their one palm out on top of each others. On call of 1, 2, 3 each kid has to turn his/her had either palm facing up or down. As this is Majority-Minority and minority always suffers, 2 kids with same hand position are relieved of taking raj and 3rd kid is joined by other 2 kids. This process is continued till there is one kid left at the end.
So far so good, but actual fun starts now, mind you all this is happening outdoors during late evenings when it’s dark outside and not easy to spot someone in dark.
Game begins. Strategy is simple, don’t be the first to get caught. As the area for hiding was already defined, it was pretty safe to assume that the kid taking raj will not come looking for us outside agreed upon area boundary. Even for a kid it was no brainer to and hide outside area, but everything comes at a cost. If caught outside decided boundary then corporal punishment, new game starts immediately with this kid taking raj. Once outside decided boundary, sit and chill around. Kid taking the raj continues his search; obviously he cannot leave karvanti lavaris, as someone can come and kick his dear karvanti only to end this game make him take the raj again. I have been in this situation so I know how frustrating it is to just go around looking for someone who is just sitting somewhere and not bothered at all.
Another trick that we used to do was, 2 of the kids will exchange their shirts and simply show the shirt to the kid taking raj. Now kid taking raj obviously would mistake the kid for other kid. And as soon as kid taking raj shouts wrong kid’s name, every kid in the hiding comes out shouting “aatli baatli futli”. I really appreciate the guy who came up with such a catchy phrase. Its jalsa time for kids, they come running from everywhere to kick the hell out of karvanti. Poor kid, his misery continues and has to take the raj again.
I am sure you people would have something to add to these, but those were the golden times which probably will never come back.
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