V.Gangadhar, who pens a delightful column called, “ The Slice of Life” in the Sunday magazine of The Hindu, laments in his latest piece that Indian journalists touring the West Indies with the cricket team, missed a sensational scoop by failing to establish a link between the Antiguan game of warri and the South Indian game of ‘pallankuzhi’.
Actually, an alert blogger, Usha Vaidyanthan, had spotted the connection immediately and had come out with a lovely post on “pallankuzhi’- that had her readers in the grip of nostalgia for several days. Many wrote in to say that the game was identical to the one they had played when they were kids- it was called ‘chennamani or Hali Guli Mane’ in Kannada, “Sagar Gotya’ in Maharashtra, “ Congkak” in Malaysia, etc.
I guess that this just underscores the point that, by the time the mainstream media puts on its boots, bloggers are capable of carrying the news across the world and, what’s more, engaging in a lively conversation.
Actually, an alert blogger, Usha Vaidyanthan, had spotted the connection immediately and had come out with a lovely post on “pallankuzhi’- that had her readers in the grip of nostalgia for several days. Many wrote in to say that the game was identical to the one they had played when they were kids- it was called ‘chennamani or Hali Guli Mane’ in Kannada, “Sagar Gotya’ in Maharashtra, “ Congkak” in Malaysia, etc.
I guess that this just underscores the point that, by the time the mainstream media puts on its boots, bloggers are capable of carrying the news across the world and, what’s more, engaging in a lively conversation.
I remember reading it in one of the tour diaries on cricinfo (it might be Siddhartha Vaidyanathan's). I am not sure if he made a clear connection between warri and the Indian game.
ReplyDelete-naveen.
Thanks Raj.And apparently most Indians did not recognise the game except Siddhartha.
ReplyDeleteNaveen, I was going to give creidt to Siddhartha : actually I had posted his entire entry from his cricinfo blog @
http://blogs.cricinfo.com/tourdiaries/archives/2006/06/a_game_of_warri.php
And yes, he saw the connection immediately as we have played it in our house - oh ya, siddhu is my son!
I saw it in Cricinfo, made the connection and wondered how many people would notice, and then wondered some more about if any blogger would write about it. :D
ReplyDeleteI have been reading your archives. I foresee a few hours of great fun. I have blogrolled you, I hope it is all right?
ReplyDeleteMore interesting info in this link regarding the origin of pallankuzhi : http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Mancala.htm
ReplyDelete