Village Game of Run & Chase - "Cow Dung and Stick"!

Every sports played around the world are quite entertaining and competitive. Full of physical endurance and skill. While many sports got popularity and followed whole heartedly. There were still many sports and games which are still need to gain audience.

Few of them, are played at extreme remote areas especially the villages, where the kids can't afford to have expensive shoes or playing equipment. In that case they develop their own passion and own game. Such games never find any place in the sports dictionary.

(village game among kids)

One such sports which I found recently and played by our village kids. In general it is kind of "Run & Chase",which can sounds like a normal game, but there is unique catch. The game has importance of Cow Dung.

Surprised..?? But this is True.. :)

The game is called Gobar- Danda, Gobar is hindi word of "Cow Dung", whereas, Danda means "stick". More importantly, there is no limit of players and playing area. Which means it can be played by any number of kids. And every kid must carry a stick with them. No other equipments required, even the shoes. The kids are very confident of playing empty foot.

(boys getting ready to throw the chaser stick)

The game starts with a toss among all the kids. Out all one person who losses the toss need to catch any one of the other kid. Let call him chaser. The chaser need to hold his stick above his hand and stand looking opposite. Another boy will throw out the stick using own stick. (As shown in the above image). Once the stick leave the chaser's hand, the boy starts running along the chaser's Stick.

(all the players taking away the sticks far from the chaser)

The Chaser need to get hold of any of the boy by running after them and also protecting his stick.

Looks quite simple???

But this is not the case. Every other person other than chaser are supposed to run away with the chaser's stick. And they are suppose to keep their stick on the cowdung. The chaser can catch any of the boys whose sticks were not in touch with the Cow Dung.

(the players waiting to dodge,while standing with their stick on cow dung)

(players stick on cow dung, and chaser stick lying thereon)

In village, cow dung is very common to be found on roads. The dried patches or the wet can be found easily.

(patches of cowdung on the roads)

All thanks to the herd of cows that goes to the jungle to venture. In between they keep leavinh their dung's on the road. So there were many patches. And it get convenient for kids to find one.

(herds of cows,walking on the road during evening)

The Chaser keep running after the boys, while each of them were trying to run away with his sticks. The game is very entertaining, as the chaser unable to get hold of any. The game has no boundary, so it may run away in all direction, from roads, to grounds to fields.

(the players get into the nearby fields alongwith chaser stick)

The game of "Cat & Mouse" continues until, the chaser , get hold of someone whose stick is not on Dung. But the game doesn't end here...

Once the chaser, get hold of someone , after that he suppose to take his stick on his head and walk to the point where the game started...I.e the starting point.

(chaser carrying his stick on his head)

While carrying, he need to be over cautious during the process, as if his stick fall from his head, the other boys walking along him will again run away his stick, and he need to catch a new one.

(all other player simply following and distracting the chaser)

So he make sure that his stick doesn't fall and reach to his initial position. Once he reach, the person whom he caught will start the game again, he will be the next chaser. And the game continue like before...

Hope you enjoyed this less glamorous sport of Indian village. Not sure how many places this sports were played, but currently, I have seen this game very popular among the village areas of Eastern India. You might find similar sports in other part of India too, but this is good way that keep the village kids "fit & fine".

Peace

Namaste @steemflow