Sheikh Sarwar childhood plays

Sheikh Sarwar childhood plays

Besides attending school regularly, doing home work and helping in household; whenever I found time I wanted to use for me.

Bath or shower out of home
- Very fond of bathing in rain with other friends in a tight undergarment (called Langot in our language)
- There were water wells dug for cultivation and run by wooden gear pulled by cattle. Water was first in a brick lined pond then dropped into the water way for the fields. Well were not far away from each other. We used to take bath at the last well, then the middle and lastly at the nearest well. Some time the farmer let us sit in the seat behind cattle and enjoy ride.
Book binding and covers
- I knew very well how to do book binding and I did so for my books which broke binding.
- Like gift packing paper. I used to make some designs and flowers in colors on strong legal size papers and then brush a think varnish layer on it to preserve the painting.
Catapult
- custom made from a carpenter shop or used Y-shape tree branch.
- Used balls made of clay to hunt for birds
Climbing on trees
- to lay down on a branch pretend taking rest
- to search nests for eggs used in kite flying threads smoothness. Some time crows would get together and attack on my head and body to punish for stealing their eggs; some time eggs were broken in my shirt pocket while coming down from tree
- to fix rope for swings
Fire works
- burn some bushes; specially pepper plants; to make ashes. We were told the ashes from pepper plants will give sharp spark to fire works
- cut lot of paper in 2 inch x 4 inch and 2 inch x 5 inch size
- roll cut paper on a pencil while gluing each turn together and twist the last one inch end of paper to close the whole
- fill with a mixture of ash, gandak and potas, iron copper dust collected by filing metals; we bought from small cottage works; insert threads of heavy fiber leaving a small part out of the container to lit
- twist and close the opening
- wrap around animal tissues (brought from a meat shop or take from the larger size used fireworks by elders)
- ignite one by one and throw away
- tie with sticks and ignite so it went straight up
- Fill earthen pottery with material and insert some fat fiber threads leaving a portion out of the container, to lit.
Injuries
- As my friends did, I also received injuries playing games, hide & seek, and were cured without much care. Perhaps bodies at that age had strong mechanism to cure the wounds.
- I could not recover from an injury that I got in scuffle between my heart and me. We played push and pull. I lost it in the final round
Kite flying
- Make and repair own paper kites of different shapes, colors and sizes
- Grind glass into powder and mix in prepared fine glue; mix eggs
- Soak thread of “chain” brand in it for a while
- Take out thread while squeezing down extra glue
- Spread on distant pegs taking turns
- Re-roll thread on a wide wooden wheel revolving on a rod going through it
- This thread was like a very fine sandpaper to cut through the thread of other kites
- Fly kites on top of roof or in the nearby open space
Stealing berries, toot, lemons and malons
- people knew children were doing this as fun and would ignore unless children would damage a lot, then they would speak to the parents. Therefore, we remained very restricted
Writing pens and ink
- made my own from thin bamboo stock, reeds or sometime large size feathers; in tips of different size
- Made my own black ink by burning and grinding bamboo sticks or reeds mixed with mastered oil; boiling to make it think enough to flow down from the pens. I put a piece of fabric in it so lot of ink is not picked by the pen
- Made my own blue black ink by mixing “Robin neel BLUE” "Neela thotha "Agate" with “Qsees” and boiling the paste to a desirable thickness. Qasees we used to call, was available in stores. It gave a color.
Wooden “lattu” a spinning toy
- I was fond of this. Got made at a carpenter shop in different colors and sizes. A string was wrapped around and by pulling it fast and throwing on the ground, toy would spin on its axis while keeping balance on a needle inserted into its bottom. There were competitions among friends on the length of time it keeps revolving.