Games - innovations

A friend's post on "Nostalgic Games" post made me nostalgic and you know what happens when I become nostalgic – a blog post comes up. Of course, how I can resist, that too after Deepak asking me what all games I played. But, I do not have enough time to explain/translate the numerous games I played. So, I will just list down the small innovations/derivations we (me, my bro and my friends) made to keep us alive and going whenever we felt boring.

1. Loans and pawn broking (hypothecation) in Trade/Monopoly: We started playing Trade/Business/Monopoly as early as at 8. Slowly, we were bored. Then we introduced loan concept. A player can hypothecate his city (or bungalow/godown) with the bank – should pay an interest of 50/100 for every round until he can pay back. And, the loaned amount is used to buy new sites. See, we were good real investors at that time. Of course, genes of a banker father helped. But, I am not a good investor now :-(

2. Share Business: We were bored of Trade by 12. Then, we conceptualized the share business. Instead of cities, the monopoly board would have Company names. Players can own a company or buy a share of the ownership. You get dividend similar to the rents for the sites. Having a type-writer at home meant we printed our own currency and Share certificates. Now, I am trying hard to balance my demat account portfolio.

3. Shooting range: Inspired by watching 1988 Olympics in Doordarsan, at the age of 8, we set up our own shooting competition with plastic bulleted guns bought in local carnival (exhibition).

4. Archery: Most of the kids might have made bow-arrows stealing sticks from broom and then having a war (inspired from DD Ramayan). We did that too, got bored and went a step ahead and conducted archery competition similar to shooting (again inspired by Olympics).

5. Thermocol bats and squash/TT: What would you do with those left-over thermocol (polystyrene) sheets after you were finished with your school projects? We carved small TT-size bats (rackets) out of thermocol and conducted squash tournaments in the drawing room and table-tennis on the dining table.

6. Tennis with exam-pads: Exam-pads are the ubiquitous ready-to-use bats/rackets to play cricket or any ball-game, especially in school. We even played shuttle-badminton with the pads. But, the tennis game with exam-pad and rubber ball tops the list – yeah, we followed proper tennis scoring of games and sets.

7. Golf: Having new cable TV connection and StarSports for the first time meant we watched almost all sports on it, including the boring golf. Inspired by it, we played golf (mainly putting and clubbing) at home - digging holes in the backyard and using sticks as the drives.

8. Basketball with mug as basket: Once, we wanted to play basket-ball inside home. Hang two mugs to opposite-facing windows, use a plastic ball – we were ready to play basket-ball :-)

9. Cricket with duster(wiper)-chacks : In Engineering, none would carry exam-pad. We tried with books, but they were heavy. So, we played cricket with chalks and duster. That too, while classes were going on in the adjacent rooms.

10. Timeless test: Bored of regular 10 or 15-over matches, we started playing 2-innings unlimited over cricket matches with all rules including innings lead and follow-on.

If these innovations were needed after we got bored with the below games, one can understand how much we enjoyed our childhood. Thanks to never pressurising parents (for education), I (and my bro) had a wondeful childhood   Even getting cable TV in my seventh standard did not stop us.

Repeating the games I mentioned as comment on Deepak’s post:- Nela-banda, Udum (Hide&Seek), Veeri-veeri gummadipandu veeri peremi, Help, Current-Shock, Ice-boy, Ice-Press, Color-color, Enimidi-rallu aata, Tokkudu Billa (3-4 varieties), Kundullu, 2 variations of London, Steps game, Mukku-gilludu aata, Show (Played with chits), Ramudu-Seetha, Accham-gillalu, Chinta pikkalata, Edu penkulata, Uru-peru-cinima-vastuvu, Karrata, Bechalu, Goleelu (marbles), Trade/Monopoly, Vaikhuntapali & Snakes&Ladder, Ludo, Ashta Chemma (2-3 varieties), Gudu-gudu gunjam, Cat-ball, Card games like WWF, cricket stats, Archery, Shooting, paper-fans, Donga-police with self-manufactured paper guns, Dadi, Puli-meka, the number games, all kinds of Sand games, playing Kings&Wars.

The above were in addition to the usual Cricket (one-step, two-step, tennis, tape-ball, cork-ball, double wicket, test matches- unlimited overs, ), Chess, Carroms (game,rupees-paise, business, puli-meka), Kabaddi, Shuttle Badminton, kho-kho, flying kites, video games (Mario, tetris) and computer games.

Games played (conducted) at school - like lemon&spoon, three-leg race, gunny-bag race, Ram-Ravan, memory game, etc

Millennium Transformation

Mobile phones, internet, email, LCD TVs, iPods, shopping malls, ATM – Things that generally come to one’s mind if asked about the changes in lifestyle or the development India has made in 21st century or the new millennium. “That’s it!” is what I have been thinking for the last few days. “No, it is not!” has come the reply. The list has grown in size while I wonder how my life has changed (positively) due to those advancements. Note that I am thinking from an average Indian and not as an IT guy or a rich guy (not that I am) or a gadget freak (not that I am).
Cash transfer: ATMs and swipe cards can be rated as the biggest change in our lives. This generation students who simply take their dad’s ATM card or add-on cards while moving into hostels (or boarding schools) do not know the troubles students or children staying away faced in 20th century. You have to wait for your Money Order (by post) to receive your money (the PostMan was always in demand) only to see it vanish in seconds after payments to fees, laundry-man, canteen and other friends only to have a faint smile at one or two currency notes (if left) remaining in your hand. Once I had made 800KM to-fro 24-hour journey to my brother’s University to hand him money he needed to go for a college tour (as Western Union too could not promise to deliver in 10 hours).
Online application filling: When I had to apply for my engineering entrances or later IITs for M.Tech, I had to visit multiple banks on different dates (sometimes traveling to Vijayawada or Hyderabad) with various denominations of DDs (Demand Drafts) to buy the applications; then visit the post-offices, do speed post or registered post as required, pray Gods and wait for the acknowledgement letter to confirm that my application was received; then again wait anxiously for the hall-ticket/interview letter. Now, you simply apply online, sometimes do payments online, download the hall-ticket and appear for the exam. Similarly, businessmen had to carry around big suitcases of cash and check-books to do the transactions. Now, you can roam with a laptop and a swipe card.
Road rollers and laying roads: Laying roads was a multi-day (sometimes multi-week) exercise then. Dig the road, lay stones as the base layer, roll with the big road-rollers, lay sand-stones, roll again, lay mud, roll again, burn tar (in drums), pour tar, roll again and wait for the tar to dry and harden. Now, the modern machines take the tar-mixture and lays the road in less than an hour and you can drive almost immediately on the road. Building CC (cement concrete) roads is also an easier task these days.
Plumbing: My dad bought a house and got it renovated. So, I know in detail each and every step in house-building and the effort needed. Most of those steps have been made easier and quicker due to technical advancements. Then, pipes were made of iron or PVC and the plumbers used to carry big toolkit to create threads to the pipe-ends and use big to join them. Now, the new vinyl pipes can be easily joined with an adhesive paste. Even my dad does it easily now.
Carpentry:Wood-work these days, either making doors or tables or show-cases has been automated a lot. Electric saws and blades are used to cut logs into blocks, designs are made with machinery, screws and nails are fitted with machines and polishing is applied with machines.
Flooring: Tiles were manually cut, sized and polished. Now, you can cut them using a machine.
RCC Slabs: Laying a slab for the roof would need you to use big hammers to cut iron-rods, hire an ox-pulled or tractor-driven concrete machine, fixing wooden molds with bamboo-sticks as support with hundreds of nails, water it and wait for weeks before raising the next floor. Now, you have machine-cutters for iron, ready-mix supplied by truck, fill in the metal sheets supported by pipes and you can start the next floor within days.
Threshers and Excavators:
Tractors replacing ploughs and other tractor add-ons had become a not-rare scenes. I have been to rural areas regularly, and I am surprised with the use of technology in recent years. Threshers are used to thrash grain and excavators (or JCB/proclainer as popular) are used to dug/plough the fields. A lot of middle-sized farmers too prefer this owing to non-availability of laborers because of migration and high-cost.
Milking machines:
Dairy industry too had gone a change with the use of milking machines and grass-cutters getting increased as well as the use of artificial serum. I went to AP Dairy exhibition held by the state goverment recently at Hyderabad and was overwhelmed by the huge response from the farmer community.
SMS tickets: One can travel in bus or train by just showing an SMS on their phone. I never imagined this 5 years ago, leave 15 years ago. It is not only trains, both RTC (public) and private buses in AP allow you to travel by an SMS. IN RTC, it is not even mandatory to show your ID, unless another passenger claims for the same seat. Even the ticket-cases are being replaced by TIMs (Ticket Issuing Machines). Gone were our days when we preserved all our bus-tickets, used rubber-bands to tie them, used punch-holes to play ‘buss-aata’ (driver-conducter-bus) game.
Many of these things have been taken for granted now-a-days.
Please add if you see any such innovations that have transformed our lives in the recent years - only from ‘90s onwards. The specified innovations should be available to a larger community. No references to electronic/computer appliances like MP3 players, DVDs, washing machines, please.

The best Enginnering Wonder - Howrah Bridge

*** Re-post from Archive ***

It was third month of my first year engineering. English Professor came to the class with the corrected answer sheets for the 2nd Internal.

Everyone would be anxious, but one guy was more than anyone.


A small flashback in this flashback -
The 1st internal was an exercise of 40 'Correction of sentences' (The university hadn't had released the textbooks by then.) and he was the topper with 19.5/20. Only 3 others passed, but managed only 13 or 14. Unfortunately he was off on the day the results were announced. A guy who was unknown to 90% of the class even after 1st internal, suddenly became popular in all branches – Only ten persons passed in the whole college and his answer sheet was displayed in all classrooms advising them to follow him.

Coming back to this day –
The Professor started giving marks and papers. Like many other language professors, he was also quoting some great write ups, some wild imaginations and some unthinkable blunders only Engineering students could do (Of course, each branch has its style). Everyone was laughing and this guy too.

After waiting for a long time, only his paper was left. He was tense. Not only he, but many others since he was the topper in that subject last time.

A part of the exam was to write an essay on ‘The best Engineering Wonder you have seen’. Everyone was eager to know what he had written.

The Professor picked it up and started-

"This guy topped in the first cycle. I was happy that there was at least one capable guy in this college. Now look, what this guy wrote.

He chose ‘The Howrah Bridge’ and wrote 6 pages on it! Can you people imagine it?
Turning to that guy, 'You had written very well. You explained everything in detail. The article was good and well-organized. But, as a Computer Science Engineering student, I expected people to write about Computers and not Howrah Bridges or Ganapavaram bridge(Our college was beside a riverlet on NH5 with a bridge starting almost from the gate). At least, you can write on robots or some How in the world that you got this idea? Actually, you proved that you were an Engineering student.'"

The guy stood up like that. He couldn’t understand initially whether the Professor was praising him or making fun of him. The last sentence got him the answer.

You can understand the situation in the class and the teasing he got for the next few days.

p.s.: The guy was no other than JB, that is, I.

Creative Zen X-Fi2

Creative Zen X-Fi2 - I finally owned one after researching and waiting for 6 months.



This is the 4th media player I have got - previously owning Sansa Fuze, Apple iPod Nano and Creative Zen. In addition to these players, I listened to songs a few times on Apple iPhone, iTouch Classic, Sony S-series player, Microsoft Zune and Nokia N-series, etc. With all this experience, I would rate Creative Zen X-Fi2, the second on the list of music players I have listened. I said the second because the first is my Nokia 3300 Ngage series phone.



To begin, the first time I listened to the music was in late 80's and early 90's when my mom used to play old Telugu and Hindi songs on the Philips radio. Those were the golden days, which used to start with Vandemataram song @5.55 AM on Akashvani (AIR) followed by P.Suseela's golden voice on Aaraadhana & Bhaktiranjani and then, Janaranjani from 8.15 AM. I got introduced to Ghantasala, Janaki, SPB, Chitra and Ilayaraja on these programs.


Once dad brought Weston audio tape recorder from grandpa's house to get it repaired - on which, brother and I would play some random songs for some period. Later, we bought a Philips 2-in-1 and dad maintained a good collection of B&W songs from 50's to 70's and classical carnatic music. At that time, dad was learning flute and I came to identify some carnatic ragas.

Occasionally, we used to listen to songs on 2-in-1 stereo at relative places during vacation. My cousin and uncle used to have large collection of Ilayaraja and Rahman songs, where I came to know about 80's and 90's music.

An AIWA walkman bought by bro and Videocon Bazooka (woofer) TV brought a new dimension to my music listening on entering the youth. The walkman was the first entity that introduced me to the pleasure of listening on ear-phones and the Bazooka told me about the bass and how to play aloud the beat in the songs. I started listening and viewing private Hindi pop albums from the likes of Strings, Aryan brothers, Colonial cousins on MTV, ATN, V and SS Music(Southern Spice) channels.

Music listening had become a serious hobby and a habit when dad bought me a PC during engineering. I bought a Frontec headphone at that time and collected lot of albums, especially those composed by Ilayaraja and Rahman. I used to play around the presets in Winamp and the playlists being repeated till late night.

The first mobile I bought on joining job, Nokia 2300, was the best in low-budget (< 5K INR) phones to play FM in stereo.
When it was stolen, I decided to buy an MP3-enabled phone - I checked various models on Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG, out of which, I chose an INR 8K priced Nokia 3300, that was an early model of Ngage series. That was one of my best decisions in purchasing. It was a "Made in Finland" piece, supposed to be the best and the original unlike the widely available Chinese-made Nokia phones.

I would rate this phone as the best, over the ipods and zens. I still have this phone with me.

When I came to US on office project work, I did some research on music players and finally bought Creative Zen 4 GB player. I have also bought Apple iPod Nano curious to know about the iPods. Out of these two, I rate the Zen higher, not only on the basis of ease of use without the headache of iTunes, but also for the sound quality. I feel ipods are somewhat overrated and hyped comparing to other players. I also bought Sansa Fuze player to gift and it also sounded good.

I also bought a Plantronic Gamecom 777 headphone with $90, that plays 5.1 Dolby sound. My roommates were shocked with the price, but I decided to buy thinking it was a once-in-a-lifetime decision and I was not wrong, when I started listening to songs and watching movies with that.

After coming to US again, I decided to buy a media player again and started my research again. The news that Creative Zen introduced the new touch-screen X-Fi2 player, but I was taken aback by the high price, 130$ for 8-GB, when it was a simple player without any apps, unlike iTouch. In the mean time, I searched for other players, waiting for the right deal. I ordered V-Touch player for 50$ twice, but luckily/unluckily those were missed in post. In the mean time, Creative release apps and sdk for Zen X-Fi2 and the price came down by 20$ inspiring me to order Zen X-Fi2.

I am still not fully using the player - but will soon put a detailed review.

In those days...

“In those days…”
“In my days…”
“Those days are golden. They would never come…”
Are you one of those who often use any of these expressions? Or are you one of those feeling cursed to be there whenever you are on the receiving end of such sentences?
I am from the first group. I am nostalgic. I accept that I live in past memories and I love to do it. Every now and then, I think how I was at a certain period of my life and how I enjoyed during some incidents.

I have this tendency from my childhood. I was constantly remembering my school days during +2, +2 days during engineering, engineering days when I started working; training period is on the extreme end – I have never stopped recollecting them.

Although I enjoy this, sometimes I have felt whether I have been doing this a bit more. I might be living in the past to such extreme that I neglect the present and the future. Once, I felt the wrath of one of my friends for sending a mail with some nostalgic photos and a funny old chain mail.

But I am a bit happy after going through various sites like YouTube, Orkut communities and blogs; that I am not alone and there are many people who like to do so and who miss those days. They feel happy if there is someone else who think the same and share similar feelings and experiences.

It is good to reminisce those days… once in a while; it helps us to refresh ourselves and helps us to get back to the journey revitalized.

Saying this, precaution should be taken that we think about others while being nostalgic; it should not be a routine activity boring the people around us.

It does no harm as long as we do not live in the past forgetting we have a long journey ahead.