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The games of yesteryears add laurels
to a country's culture and heritage, and should be encouraged and preserved at all times. But that is not happening today due to various reasons. The children who belong to the present generation, especially the city-bred kids know only about cricket and computer games. We cannot blame the children for this situation. There are plenty of reasons like family set-up, modern lifestyle, children's education etc., for this state of affairs. When both the parents are employed, they don't have the time to teach their children the games that they had played in their childhood. Moreover, with the increase of nuclear family the children are denied the pleasure of learning such games from their grand parents. The traditional games played and almost forgotten by the older generation are not available to the younger generation. An organisation called ''CREDA'', in Chennai, is making efforts to change this prevailing situation.
 Traditional games, 14 of them to be precise, like 'paramapadham', 'aadupuli attam', 'dhayam', 'pallanguzhi', 'goli', 'pambaram', 'killithandu', 'kazhachhi kal', 'puliyamuthu', etc., have been restored by this organisation, to the younger generation. We met the
proprietor of CREDA, Mrs. Vinitha Siddharth, in her Besant Nagar residence.
She said, "Basically I am a journalist. After studying journalism from Texas university, I started an agency called Master Page in Chennai. Through this agency, I was writing imaginative and research articles for a lot of magazines. In the year 1999-2000 a popular Indian magazine approached me and asked me to write an article about age-old traditional games. Only after beginning my research on this subject, I understood about the depth and the beauty of it. My research articles were published in The Hindu's 'Young World'. After reading about these articles, there were plenty of invitations from schools in Chennai, specially from M.C.T.M. Chidambaram Chettiar Matriculation school asking me to teach their children these traditional games. Only after such a request, we made efforts to take these traditional games to the younger generation''.
She added further that a booklet which explains how to play the games and what rules to follow is available in printed form. People can follow what is given in the booklet and play these games without any problem. In the olden days people used to draw on the sand with a stick, or a chalk on the floor to play these games, but now with the advent of mosaic floors, it is difficult to do so. So the authorities have introduced thick cardboard sheets which are simple and convenient to play on. This can be even folded and taken where ever we go. Previously people used to play with pebbles and tamarind seeds, but since it is difficult to go in search of them, these items are neatly packed along with the booklet.
 Mrs.
Vinitha Siddharth proudly says that all her items are eco-friendly; she has avoided plastic material as much as she can and the items are packed only in jute bags. Her organisation has visited schools and has conducted workshops for the children. This praiseworthy effort of theirs has been welcomed not only by the children, but also by the older folk.
Our ancestors had a reason to play these games, which taught them to treat both victory and defeat in the same way, a mental exercise to make them think, develop their talents, to bring about hand-eye co-ordination, etc. The games instilled peace and happiness in them. Thus for each and every game played, there was an underlying philosophy. One may argue that games like chess,
carrom and computer games have their benefits but with those traditional games we also learn about our culture and history.
These traditional games are made available in shops like Odyssey, Crafts and Weaves, Design Stores,
Dakshinachitra, Amethyst and Book Point. They have branches in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Trichy too.
Mrs. Vinitha says that she is on the lookout for other games and the songs that accompanied them while playing. She is quite confident that she will release these songs in the near future.
Gandhimathi
Tr. by Radha N.
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