 |
THE PEOPLE
|
 |
GAMES
Among the educated classes particularly in towns where High Schools and Colleges have been run for many decades, western games like cricket, football and hockey have become popular. Tennis courts are also to be found in some places where recreation clubs have become fashionable, the membership being generally confined to Government officials, members of the Bar and the Medical Profession. Gymnasiums where exercises in Indian wrestling and malkhamb are given are also run in towns. Bouts are arranged at village fairs and prizes are given to those who show high proficiency.
Cattle-racing in light cars, goading the animals to speed by all possible means is a popular amusement of the cultivating classes in the district. Cattle races are held on the festival of Til Sankranta at which two pairs of bullocks, yoked to a light chakda or cart, race against each other for a distance of half a mile or so, while the owners bet on the result. Such contests are also held at different fairs and a number of frantic cartmen long for the day when they could take part in cart-racing. With the same spirit of contest, villagers enjoy fights between rams, cocks and buffaloes specially trained for the purpose.
For the city-dweller, entertainment has to be of a more sophisticated type. Theatrical and circus companies as also professional troupes of acrobats, dancers, snake-charmers give their shows in towns from time to time. The cinema theatres are there in every town of the district where Indian films are exhibited and occasionally American and English ones also. Libraries and reading rooms meet the needs of the literate and intellectuals seeking amusement in reading. So do the newspapers from Nagpur and Bombay. Yavatmal has had its own weeklies also viz., Hari-kishor of which the late Mr. M. S. Aney was the founder and soul and latterly Lokamat which instructed the people of Yavatmal more than it amused them. Some people learn classical Indian music, both vocal and instrumental and practise it as a pastime. Concerts arc occasionally held in public halls. Many a house in the towns is equipped with harmonium, sitar, sarangi, dilruba, and tabla. Radio sets are quite common not only in the towns but also in the villages. The handy transistor has also invaded many a home.
Recreational activities also include the hurda parties arranged by well-to-do landholders on their fields where friends are invited and where concerts are held. Among children, dolls made of clay, cloth and plastic are much prized. Sometimes their marriages are celebrated with feasts and fire-works. Tag and chase games such as andhali kosimbir, lapandav are popular among boys of all ages. Games such as gup-cup-toba, surparambi, vagh-bakri are played in a team spirit. Games of gotya (marbles) and bhovra (top) are played with a keen sense of contest by boys; bhatukli (house-keeping), a gajge or sagargote and phugdya are essentially games played by girls. Games played by the primary and secondary school boys are practically the same as in any other district. Of these, the well-known major Indian games are atya-patya, kabaddi, kho-kho, langadi, lagorya and vitidandu.
Swimming and walking on stilts are the pastimes of the month of Sravana. Kite-flying is a favourite amusement with the old and young in the open season, specially indulged in at the time of the Makara Sankrant. The game of the patanga-ladhne or kite-fighting consists in trying to cut the strings of each other's kites high up in the sky. When the string of a kite is cut and it falls on the ground, it becomes the property of first person who can pick it up. For the purpose of this cutting, a special kind of thread called manja rubbed with pastes mixed with glass-dust is used to make it hard and sharp.
|
