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The game plan

Updated on: 09 November,2016 10:57 AM IST  | 
Shraddha Uchil |

Engage in forgotten desi childhood games with your family at a city museum ahead of Children’s Day

The game plan

Hatavarche Khachke
Hatavarche Khachke


Children's Day is around the corner, and what better way to celebrate it than by playing games all day long? Your entire family can do just that at the Games Mela organised by Dr Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, to be held this weekend.


Snakes and Ladders
Snakes and Ladders


The Games Mela, launched on Children’s Day in 2013, is inspired by the museum’s collection of clay models and dioramas depicting traditional Indian indoor and outdoor games. It is generally scheduled on the weekend prior to Children’s Day, and is held in the Museum Plaza.

The aim, says Ruta Waghmare, curatorial assistant at the museum, was to raise awareness about these games, which urban children no longer play due to easy access to video or computer games.

“The museum team researched and documented some of these traditional games being played, such as Hatavarche Khachke, Cowrie, Bhowra, Gotya, Atak Matak, Atya-Patya, Chor Sepoy, and Kho-Kho,” says Waghmare. There’s also an interesting version of the game Land and Water. Seven landmasses with the names of Mumbai’s seven original islands are drawn out on the ground in the Museum Plaza, along with a body of water representing the Arabian Sea, and kids will have to run to the island whose name is called out.

“Even the museum’s version of Snakes and Ladders comes with a twist. Here, kids have to answer basic questions related to the museum every time they land on a snake. If they get it right, they skip the snake and get ahead in the game,” she adds.

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