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100 fun things they did in downtown



Shared and compiled by Arun Jalali. Watch out for Vadder Gun!
  1. Akus Bakus
  2. Sazza – (Hop Scot)
  3. Tule Langun
  4. Play “Ring”- (flying much like Frisbee)
  5. Garam Bal ( sat Katter- 7 Nos of round Terracota plates stacked and hit by a ball)
  6. Ball Badminton (Plywood rackets and ingeniously made shuttle corks.)
  7. Kho kho, 
  8. Badminton with PVC ball,
  9. Football, (with ingenious materials)
  10. Cricket – with Bera-baal,
  11. Hikkat, (kukkudi)
  12. Rope skipping
  13. Ear (kan)radio non power device
  14. Matchbox Car that powered by rubber band
  15. Paper rocket propelled by rubber band/ airplane made from paper
  16. Gulel, games, (slingshot) with rodi faul ya kani faul
  17. Chore Police (in Razdan Angun)
  18. Single tire cycles- Sliced from truck tires /others got from scrap steel bearing rings guided with specially steel rods having U -shape at one end and a small hold on another.
  19. Gulli Danda (lauth & lathkij)
  20. Khira putt  a Winter snow game  skiing on frosted snow
  21. Sheena jung a game with no rules
  22. Hara with Ali Baba’s 3 tullus.- Kodiya  tekh &, quin/  hesh-0/0 or up up
  23. Lakkad Lakkad (jut jut)
  24. Kaw – Kaw bata kavo
  25. Cricket with Class note book (Randomly open your text book -if pg 264 opens you made 4 runs or if page 260 opens you are out)
  26. Bow Arrow (Teer Kamman–less played)
  27. Banta (Marbles)
  28. Blind & Catch (catch your friends blind folded)
  29. Chidya – ud
  30. Slingshot with Elastic Rubber  &  folded paper.
  31. Paper boat / paper jet
  32. Crosses & dots ( 9 squares)
  33. Paper Pin Wheels
  34. Origami ( folding paper into a ball  or a conical shape
  35. Make Fans with folded paper.
  36. Lottery ( paper pieces folded  on a sheet )
  37. Origami Parachute
  38. Activity , cut  glass bottle to make a tumbler or lamp shade.
  39. Activity Make kerosene Chimney ( for lighting purposes)
  40. Play Tencha {tinkay } (seven or nine or eleven pebbles, tossed in air)
  41. Play “ Vish Amrit
  42. Make shuttle cock with bird feather’s
  43. Origami – whistle
  44. Rubber Band Guns
  45. Vadder Gun (made out of steel packing strips)
  46. Listening Share–Bakra conflict stories
  47. Water Ball and elastic rope
  48. Helium balloons
  49. Blow balloons from soap solution
  50. Yo Yo with Small Rubber ball (1”) and elastic rope
  51. Card Games 2.3.5 / sweep/ 10 Warki/ bank etc.
  52. Aais Pais (Hide and seek)
  53. Watani –ghur for toddlers (by A.Bambroo)
  54. Hagur(d) (by A.Bambroo)
  55. Thread winding ( threads & hands)
  56. kurkatch muhul 2 friends on hinged balance (by A.Bambroo)
  57. Thar Nanuk (Heads  & Tails) ( by  D Labroo)
  58. Guttyi ( by D.Labroo)
  59. Make weighing scales using shoe polish box cups
  60. Make Toy hut from mud and  wooden pieces.
  61. Play Kash – throw terra cotta glazings in air over roof tops
  62. Make origami rose with hanky
  63. Collect kaw shup from sand/ river bed.
  64. Tow –ve ( clapped hands girl game)
  65. Play juph & tak with hara’s
  66. Play tischan with hara’s ( like carom)
  67. Samandar ( is like hop-skot).
  68. Play “taar” throw porcelain pieces in river so as to  skid on water.
  69. Winding Button & string for a cute whistle
  70. Making the snow man ( sheen mohinuv)
  71. Khari patt on snow.
  72. Consuming the chilling cold shisr ganth and its competition.
  73. Bursting fish bladders
  74. Bursting paper bags
  75. Playing chak-mak the white marble game
  76. Childhood Game -Conceal your Friends slippers and see the fun
  77. Play cycle cycle ( 2 persons lie  down on floor on opposite sides to simulate cycling by touching each other’s feet)
  78. Atya patya (ref: http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/just-this-n-that/entry/games-we-played)
  79. Reading hindi novels from raj pocket books (murtiyo ka hangama)
  80. Blowing  thin cotton flake in air and watching how it gets airborne
  81. Fauka doine-From a burst balloon make small (marble size) balloons by and burst them on floor. 
  82. Desi Yo-Yo made from thread bobbins (wooden bobbins)
  83. Visiting Ramkoul temple in Maharaj Gunj
  84. Camping  for Rishi peer’s salvation day celebrations
  85. Swimming in Jhelum Early morning bath.
  86. Aiming for Walnuts (Razdan Angun) 
  87. Make Geometric Art using compass  box. (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_of_Life#Seed_of_Life))
  88. Chotain Potain (gyur maich lala.. ho lala, aaya raja choitain potain)
  89. Making earthen wares using guruyt maich
  90. Balancing peacock feather streak on eye lashes
  91. Collecting peacock feathers (more-schaal) as good omen  for better grades in class
  92. Twisting eye lids to scare  someone ( tyare kadain)
  93. Finger juggling (using thumb and first finger of both hands )
  94. Cracking bones and holding a competition for the loudest and most consistent ones.
  95. Kabbadi in razdan angun
  96. Make origami cap with paper (gandhi cap)
  97. Helping parents for mud plastering ( livuyn)
  98. Playing music chairs using vidya-bhavan school tools.
  99. Flying kites with long tails sometime with tik vavij attached.
  100. Collecting match box packaging
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Panoramic view of Srinagar, 1862

Came across this stunning painting in ‘Travels in Ladâk, Tartary, and Kashmir’ (1862) by Henry D’Oyley Torrens. The places marked in the painting (starting from left and going in clockwise direction):
1. Shankaracharya
2. The Capital city
3. Hari Parbat
4. Naseem Bagh
5. Island of Son Lank (Golden Island)
6. Island of Rop Lank (Silver Island) or Island of Chinars or Char Chinari of nowadays
7. Shalimar Bagh
8. Nishat Bagh

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Kashmir, 1944

From Louise Morgan’s Flickr Collection [check out the complete collection] having photos of India taken by one Major E Brookman in 1943/4. Louise bought the collection in 1980s from an antique shop in Seven Dials, Brighton, UK for around a dollar. She now plans to visit some of these places.
‘The Greengrocer’

Third Bridge – Fateh Kadal, Srinagar July 1944

Gulmarg 1944
Gulmarg, Summer 2008

Shalamar
(I am really intrigued to see that the garden used to be referred as Shalamar, a name that Kashmiris still use even though now Shalimar is in more currency)

Entrance of Shalimar Garden. Summer 2008.
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Kashmir Yesterday, India Today 1990

Photographs from the ‘Kashmir’ section of 15th Anniversary issue of India Today published in 1990. If there is a Kashmir ‘special’ issue today in any Magazine, you will probably see similar form of story telling through pictures. Photographers who first figured out the Kashmir template include Raghu Rai, Prashant Panjair and Pramod Pushkarna.

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