Chigali (Tamarind lolly pop) for Forgotten Indian Games

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

Summer is in. All the children are waiting for the vacation. During our childhood, the whole year we used to wait for this long holidays which lasted for more than 2 months. Every year, the postman used to bring the result on April 10. We all used to roam the whole area to search the postman! And once we spot him, we used to attack him!! Poor man!!! But he always gave our result without scolding us! He knew our tension!

We used to play lot of games and have lot of things to eat! In those, this Chigali or Tamarind lolly pop was very popular. We all used to enjoy the tangy, spicy taste of this lolly pop. We all children used to bring each ingredient from our house. Then a elder one in our group used to prepare it.If you don't have mortar and pestle, you can try in a blender or grinder. But it tastes good if you use mortar and pestle.

Ingredients are very simple and easily available at home.

Fresh Tamarind - 1 bowl, clean, remove seeds.

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 2 lines

Salt to taste

Red chilly powder - 1 to 2 tbsp

Jaggery - 2 tbsp

Lemon leaves - few(Optional, if you have lime tree near by!)

First make the tamarind little soft then add all other ingredients. Crush is till the tamarind becomes full soft and other ingredients blend with it nicely. 

Tamarind lolly pop or CHIGALI is ready to eat. We used to stick the balls to neem sticks or match stick or small spoon. We used to enjoy it for very long time, some times more than two hours!!! 

This is going  to my event  Forgotten Indian games!! (Edited and re written), ...

I am still waiting for your participation for my event!! Rush in your entries!!

I am sending this to  PJ's (Seduce Your Tastebuds)  ongoing event Think Spice - Tamarind, which is a brain child of   Sunitha  of Sunita's World.

 So I am linking this post to Sunita's Think spice page. I hope every one will enjoy these lolly pops!!

Keep Smiling,

Broken Bangles game(ಬಳೆಚೂರು ಆಟ) for Forgotten Indian Games

Tried and tasted by Nivedita
Hi All,

One more game for my event! This was also one of our favorite game. This does not need anything other than broken bangles and ground. This was the Girl's Game! but even boys used to enjoy it with us, as we girls enjoyed playing Goli aata( Marbles)! I have tried to explain it with pictures. 

And, and, as now a days, we do not allow children to go out and play in the mud, I have given a new way of playing it, with the help of pictures. 

I hope, after going through the details you will say, "hey yes, even I too played it!!!"

Come, lets play the game!

Collect the old bangles and cut in to pieces. We always used to take elder's help for this. 

Share the pieces into almost equal pieces in to two players.(even you can make 2 groups and allow one person to guess at one time)

Dig 3 holes in a soft ground, as shown in the photo.

First time, let one player go and stand in a place where she can not see the holes. And another player should hide all or few bangle pieces in any one hole and close all the three holes with loose mud.

Now, the other player which is hiding will come and it has to guess in which the bangles are hidden!!! If the guess is right then that group will get all the bangles and it will be repeated the other way round. If first player looses all the bangle pieces in first game only, either she should guess it right on her turn or she can hire few pieces from other player.

The game will continue till you wish or one player goes on loosing by wrong guessing. 

Now, when I think about this game, it won't look so interesting, but at that age, we have enjoyed it to the most.

Now, coming to this age, we can make our children play it without bangles and mud. My daughter enjoyed it when I played it with her.

I used the sand in an empty saree box and used my daughter's hair beads as bangle pieces!!!

Here are the photos :

This is going  to my event  Forgotten Indian games!! (Edited and re written), ... 

Keep Smiling,

Chakka Vachhi for Forgotten Indian Games!

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

I was wondering, which game I will start to post with for my event "Forgotten Indian Games". I had kept 2 games in my draft. But this one came first in my mind to post.

This is one of the all time favorite game of everyone. Now also it is played in villages. I am not sure about cities. 

You can start playing if there are 2 people to play and can start without much preparation. Do not get confused with the title of the game. It is a pucca Dharwad - Hubli language and we call it by this name only. Once you go through the post you will know the game, and I am sure you all know this game and each state has its own name for this game.

First let me explain about the tools or what we need for this game. It is the cheapest one with more fun.

You need one square board,(we used to take a wooden plank from the kitchen, which was used while eating food to keep the plate) or even the dark  floor is also fine.

 4 tamarind seeds,

This is very interesting step to prepare these seeds and turn these in to dice. Those days, we did not had dice and tamarind seeds was the easiest and cheapest way to get. We used to get seeds from the kitchen and everyone who wants to play has to sit with one seed. Dip it in the water and start rubbing one side on rough stone to remove skin of one side to make it white. This way, the seeds would stay longer without breaking.

One more way was to keep it straight and hit directly on it with hammer to cut into to 2 pieces. It was difficult for children and it used to break after 2 -3 games, the seeds would have been gone.

There was demand for these seeds also, we used to fry these seeds and eat.

chalk piece, 

4 set of 4 small things which can be fit into small squares.( let me call these as coins)

Here small things means, 4 same type beads, buttons, grains, stones, match stick, which you can keep on the board and move them easily.

Two to four people can play this game. The game is more fun if there are full 4 members.

Draw 5 X 5 equal square box on a wooden plank or square board or on a floor with chalk piece.

Draw diagonal lines as shown in the photo. The board is ready to play.

all the four people sit in front of each diagonal.and keep your coins in the diagonal square. That is your house.

The person who is starting first, has to drop the four seeds on the floor and see what he got! (Do not consider the counting first time, it is for God!!! Funny no? that was how we used to play )

Next time what he gets, according to that he has to move one coin. Then the second one will play and move his coins (in the right direction). Like this way that one coin has to pass all the outer squares then enter the inner square. He is the winner who takes all his coins first in the middle diagonal square. Every one has to use all his coins and take to the middle square.

Fun in this game is, when one player has moved his coin to a particular square, and the second player also reaches the same square, the second one will hit the first coin and send it to its house. That coin should start all over again to reach the middle square.

Now coming to Chakka and Vacchi terms.

When we throw the seeds, we get both the faces of the seeds. the white and the black. On that we decide the numbers.

1 white face and 3 black face the score is ONE and we call it as vacchi, it is the lowest score here.

2 white face and 2 black face, the score is TWO and we call it as doni.

3 white face and 1 black face , the score is THREE  and we call it as teeni

4 white face,  the score is FOUR and we call it as chakka

4 black face, the score is EIGHT  and we call it entu, it is the highest score.

 I know this is little longer post~ but I have tried to explain it  as much as in detail I can. I hope you all might have understood the game and I am sure, even you have played this game with different name.

Feel free to comment if you find any mistakes in game rules or language.

This is going  to my event  Forgotten Indian games!! (Edited and re written), ... 

Keep Smiling,