Trust on a drive to revive traditional games of state

However, a trust is trying to revive these vanishing games and make them popular again. Kalpavriksha Seva Trust has brought together a group – old, young and middle aged – to engage in these games.

Raghunathan R, managing secretary, Kalpavriksha Seva Trust, said, “We run a free tuition centre for students from Class 1 to 9, where we expose them to traditional games. During the summer vacation, we should involve more people. So far, we have been managed to rope in people from across different age groups to play these games in our centre.” He added that the group consisted of children, parents and grandparents.

Seethalakshmi M, a resident of Saidapet, who plans to take her 12-year-old daughter to the centre to participate in the games said that the concept was a refreshing one, given the disconnected lives children nowadays lead. She said, “They don’t engage much with children in their age group or with elders. The concept of playing traditional games with a wide age group of people brings children closer to the lives of others”. So far, 84 children have enrolled at the centre and play the games every day, Raghunathan said that anyone can join them, depending on their availability. The videos of these games being played have also fetched enquiries by people in Tiruneermalai and Chengalpattu, he added.