Qila Raipur Sports Festival

One of the popular organized forms of work and entertainment for young girls is Tirinjen – where the girls spin and sing. Tirinjen is a kind of social club, which can be organized in any home, where place for spinning wheels and the girls is available for a day/night. The girls would sing and dance, would express their sorrow and happiness, pangs of separation and joy of meeting. The spinning wheel plays a significant role in the life of the women, as a companion, counselor in distress, friend and guide. An example of a song sung by a married girl during Tirinjen:

Teej or Teeans, which is celebrated in the month of Sawan (July), is also a source of entertainment for girls. Teej festival starts on the third day of Sawan and continues for about thirteen days. This is a period when rainy season is at its best, having said good bye to the scorching heat, people are out to enjoy the rains. It is also the time for sowing. The whole atmosphere is relaxed and people have a sigh of relief. The girls celebrate it by having swings. One sees girls, even today, on the swings all over the villages during the rainy season. They have new clothes, special dishes to eat and special songs for the occasion. This festival has also made inroads into the urban society. A number of songs are sung during the occasion pertaining to various aspects of the social life.

In English:

This is another game, basically for women. Two girls clasp their hands and move in circle. This was a game, which was played by two or four girls and multiple of two thereof. Kikli kleer di, Pag mere vir de, Daupatta mere bhai da Phitte mun jawai da

Some pebbles, stones or broken earthenware could be broken further into pieces and used for playing Gheeta Pather. This was a game, which did not involve running or jumping and was played sitting on the floor.

The girls would sing along with Khidu (Ball), in fact these rhymes and game is suitable for the children: This was for the first round, there was the second and third till the end was reached by counting ten and singing the tenth song.

This game is popular even today amongst the children. Both boys and girls play it. Children sit in a circles and a child who has cloth in hand goes around the circle-singing: It is a kind of warning for the children sitting in a circle not to look back. The cloth is then dropped at the back of a child. If it is discovered before the child who had placed it there had completed the round, the child who discovered the cloth would run after him and try to touch him with it till he sits in the place vacated by the one who had discovered the cloth.

This game is for both boys and girls. It is generally played by two teams and involves drawing as many vertical lines as possible.

This was also played by both boys and girls and continues to this day. Two teams can also play this. One has to hide, the other has to seek but before doing it a call is given.

This is a game played both by the girls and boys. It is still common amongst some of the children. This game is played with in small boundary (court), drawn on the ground and a piece of stone.

This is another game for the boys. One boy would bend and the other boys, may be one or two or three get on top of him, if he could bear the weight, he would win. In case he could not bear the weight and fell, he would lose.

This game is popular even today and is played now by both boys and girls. This was included in the Asian Games also and is popular all over south Asia. The game is played between two teams. A line is drawn between the two teams and each team would send a player across the line. If the player after crossing the line is able to touch a player of the opposite side and came back without being caught, the team doing so would win and a point was added to its score. This process by the player crossing the line has to be performed in a single breath. The team with higher score would be the winner is also known as achi game

The men generally played this game. These days women also participate in the game which is played by FIVE teams. A line is drawn between the two teams, each having one end of the rope in its hands. The team, which is able to drag the other team to its side, is the winner team.

These were very popular. Located near the well outside the village, sometimes near the temple. These were the places where the boys learnt wrestling from a Guru or Pehlwan-Wrestler.

This was also a part of the teaching in Akharas, where the boys learnt the use of weapons. Nihangs practice martial arts to keep up the traditions. [7]

It is now very much an urbanized game and is popular with the rural folks as well. It has now assumed an International character. Besides the games mentioned above, Chaupat, Shatranj (Chess), camel and bullockcart races, cock fights in addition to Kabutar bazi, chakore bazi and bater bazi are well known. LATTOO ( yo-yo), played mostly by the boys.

Gilli-danda Guli Danda is an amateur sport, popular among rural youth in the Indian subcontinent. It is called dÄnggűli in Bangla, chinni-dandu in Kannada, kuttiyum kolum in Malayalam, viti-dandu in Marathi, kitti-pullu in Tamil, gooti-billa in Telugu, and Lappa-Duggi in Pashto. This sport is generally played in the rural and small towns of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely played in Punjab and rural areas of the North-West Frontier Province and Sindh (Pakistan) and Sultanpur district, Uttar Pradesh (north India).

There are no records of the game's origin in the south Asian subcontinent or of its existence before the arrival of Europeans. However a similar game known as Lippa has a history of being played in Italy and southern Europe.

Gilli-danda have no official requirements for equipment. The game is played with a gilli or guli and danda, which are both wooden sticks. The danda is longer and handmade by the player, who can swing it easily. The gilli is smaller and is tapered on both sides so that the ends are conical. The gilli is analogous to a cricket ball and the danda is analogous to a cricket bat. There is no standard length defined for the danda or gilli. Usually, however, the gilli is 3 to 6 inches long and the danda is 12 to 18 inches.

The objective of the sport is to use the danda like a baseball bat to strike the gilli (similar to striking a ball in cricket or baseball). For this purpose, a circle is drawn in the ground in which a small, oblong- or spindle-shaped hole is dug (the overall shape looks like a traditional boat). This hole is smaller than the gilli but as the play progresses the size may increase due to wear. The gilli is inserted into the hole either orthogonally, or at an angle. The danda is then swung (similar to a golf swing) and strikes the gilli. Another variation is when the danda lifts or pries the gilli out of the hole at a high speed. As it is quite similar to cricket, many people believe that cricket originated from it. Scoring and outs There are many regional variations to scoring. The gilli becomes airborne after it is struck. If a fielder from the opposing team catches the gilli, the striker is out. If the gilli lands on the ground, the fielder closest to the gilli has one chance to hit the danda (which has to be placed on top of the hole used) with a throw (similar to a run out in cricket). If the fielder is successful, the striker is out; if not, the striker scores one score and gets another opportunity to strike. The team (or individual) with the most points wins the game. If the striker fails to hit gilli in three tries, the striker is out (similar to a strikeout in baseball). Teams There is no official maximum number of players or teams. Gilli-danda can be played where each individual plays for themselves, or between two teams.

So far, very few International tournaments played between India & Pakistan. Pakistan defeated India in three out of five; two ended in a draw. The Pakistani Champions were: Noor Khan, Abdul Hameed Qureshi, Nadeem Jameel, Iftikhar Hashmi, and Qaseem Siddiqui. The Indian Champions: Deepali Gode from Kalyan, Varun, Ajay Kaushik, Rohit Mishra (allahabad)(engineer from IT BHU), Vijay Choudhary of Darbhanga, Vivek Baranwal of Varanasi, Upender Kumar, Satyendra Tripathi, and Sandeep Prakash and Pradeep Kumar yYdav of Lucknow Sudhanshu Yadav from Jaipur

As an amateur youth sport, gilli-danda has many variations. A common variation is where the striker is allowed to hit the gilli twice, once initially, and then while the gilli is in the air. In some versions, the points a striker scores is dependent on the distance the gilli falls from the striking point. The distance is measured in term s of the length of the danda, or in some cases the length of the gilli. Scoring also depends on how many times the gilli was hit in the air in one strike. If it travels a certain distance with two mid-air strikes, the total point is doubled. In the Philippines, a game known as syatong is similar to gilli-danda. In Italy a similar game known as "Lippa", "Lipe", "Tirolo", or "S-cianco" is shown in the movie Watch Out We Are Mad.