Indian Sports

Quick note here... over a year ago, my boss was telling me about a bunch of games he used to play as a kid living in rural India. Some of these games would be just this side of terrifying for most parents. Below are brief descriptions of several that I can remember.

Gilli Danda (? or a local variant) is played with a long stick and a short stick. You balance the short stick on a rock like a see-saw, then hit the raised end to launch it into the air. Then you have to hit it with the long stick and call out the number of paces it went. If the other team agrees, you get that many points. If they disagree, you have to hop on one foot to the short stick. If your other foot touches, the other team will hit you until you're on one foot again. If you over-estimated the distance, you receive no points, if you underestimated, you get double points.

Kabaddi (or a local variant) is played by having one team send one player to the other team's side of the field. His goal is to touch as many players as possible while holding his breath and return to his side of the field. If he returns before inhaling again, his team gets one point for each opponent he touched. The other team, of course, tries to tackle, grab, or assault the player into exhaling...

Lagori/dikori is a game where a pile of stones are set up in a particular manner by one team. The other team attempts to hit the pile with another rock to known pieces down. Then the defending team tries to rebuild the pile, while the offensive team tries to hit the defenders with balls or rocks. Each defender that gets hit is out of the round.