Tag: Ali Kadal

Guest post by Arun Jalali Ji. He run an interesting site on Vidyabhavan School (Batyaar-Alikadal & Safakadal- the baud school). Besides that he sends out some wonderful e-mails about his childhood days spent with friends at Ali Kadal , down town Srinagar.

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Remembering Early Childhood Fun Activities That Filled Our Hearts With Joy.

Of

• Chak Mak
• Paper Bag Blow out
• Stamping Fish Bladder
• Hard Whispering of “Kana-Mana –Tuu” into a Friends Ear
• Exploding the Tiny Reel Crackers (Taas) in Kangri pot (by friction)
• Haah Taas (Crackers that would burst by percussion)

This weekend I am trying to recollect some very tiney childhood time passe that would stir us up during our early toon days (1970s) at Alikadal. The beauty of these fun activities was not only in their frugality but also with
timing and the light taste of naughtiness (punch) associated with them. Extreme short duration of these eventful things (sometime as small as 100 micro second) never mattered to us, it would always send us into a ocean of fun or laughter .

CHAK-MAK

During our Toon days, our search for pieces of marble stones and pebbles was a never ending one. The incentive for search was this magical pair of stone that would cause a larger spark when rubbed together. Often these experiments would be conducted during night and sometimes under the Phiran. Greater the size of emanating spark , larger was the quantum of cheer on one’s face. I don’t remember indulging into any competition for one upmanship , but surely we would share our stones with our fellows for them to have fun as well.

PAPER BAG BLOW SOUND

I today feel proud that our toon days were spent in frugality, (please don’t read it as poverty). At least we didn’t spend it in damaging the nature. Today we have plastic bags that may be spoiling our immediate environment but
childhood all we had was handcrafted paper bags ,be it kandur (bakery shop) or the small groceries (buhur) all goodies were packed into small samosa’s, or some time into more expensive Paper bags.

The Fart:- we would collect the paper bags , take them to school , blow air into them and twisting the mouth of the paper sack we would smash with hand; the sound of the released air would cheer us up. Fun at no cost to parental exchequer.

STAMPING THE FISH BLADDER

Today who would believe our words if we make a comment like having derived fun from Kitchen waste. But true to each of us , whenever parents would “dress” the Fish, they would sympathetically keep the fish bladders2 for our Fun. Great pleasure to burst we never cared why the fish would have them. As per our knowledgeable feeling the fish was bestowed with these floatation devices to lend us some moments of pleasure , Typical mode of bursting these would be to place them on a flat stone and stamping with sleeper, but occasionally with hands as well. The sound of the escaping air would give us the pleasure to run the next mile effortlessly.

KANA- MANA- TU,REEL TAAS IN KANGRI POT & HAAH TAAS :

I leave it for all of to recollect these childhood memos, and share with me. I am sure most of us must be remembering these silly actions and look forward to receiving your feelings in a write up form. Do write back on
arunjalalli@gmail.com

visit: www.vidyabhavanschool.com
Under construction:
http://arunjalalli.blogspot.com/

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I do remember playing ‘Kana-Mana-tu’. I wanted to do a photo post about it. I believe my nani introduced me to the game and not in a very subtle way. It was fun.