An eco-friendly resort is looking to introduce urban kids to games played in villages, finds Priya George.
 In 2006 CB Ramkumar set up Our Native Village, an eco-resort on the outskirts of Bangalore. The one-time advertising and marketing professional – who also has such diverse achievements to his credit as cycling across Lebanon to raise money for charities and setting up a fertility support group with his wife – founded the resort with the intent that its impact on the environment would be minimal. (Currently, they generate 73 per cent of their own electricity and use harvested rainwater in their kitchens.)The resort is designed to be a place for city dwellers to experience an eco-friendly lifestyle.
Apart from functioning as a resort, ONV also offers special overnight packages that focus on kids, introducing them to a range of activities that are a part of daily lives in villages, as well as games that they would not otherwise encounter in cities.
Ramkumar said the packages work well both for kids and adults. “The response has been very good. While the adults reminisce about the joys of their childhood games, kids are usually amused and intrigued by them and their rules,” he said.
Activities organised for children include bullock cart rides, bicycle tyre races, gilli-danda, bugri (spinning tops) and kite flying. In addition, there are also indoor games like pallankuzhi, a traditional board game from Tamil Nadu.
Sankar Narayan, a computer professional at SmartPlay Technology, recalled the joys of watching his daughters, eight-year-old Aditi and three-year-old Ashritha, having immense amounts of fun at ONV. “They enjoyed the fact that there were so many children to play with,” he said. Narayan added that he was delighted that his elder daughter continues to play hopscotch in their neighborhood after the trip to ONV.
Padma Dhotrekar, a secretary at SAP Labs and mother of nine-year-old Rishabh, said that although her son had never played these games before, he took to them very quickly. “Even something as simple as spinning tyres with sticks was absolutely fascinating for him,” she said, adding, however, that “such games require a lot of open space. With most people facing space constraints, it becomes hard for children to play them.”
Sathya Rao, Special Director and Trustee of Indus International School, was of the opinion that these games were more than just fun. “It’s good to expose children to games that have originated from our country,” he said.
“Children ought to learn that you do not necessarily need a lot of equipment to have fun,” said Ramkumar. “Without involving televisions, computer hardware and software and even electricity, there are simple team games that are as enjoyable, if not more.”
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