5 replies to this topic

[Gautam]

Slightly off topic, but since GI helps us preserve disappearing bits of Indian folk culture, perhaps worth recording here. Your mentioning KANNI as a synonym for KANJI leads me to wonder at the provenance of the old Calcutta Anglo-Indian patois phrase, " Hey, you are giving me too much kanni, man! equivalent to : I am receiving a load of bs from you. This unique strain of English probably has become extinct with my generation, yet another linguistic casualty in the rapidly changing environment of modern India. Another loss associated with the diminution of the Anglo-Indian community may be the unique games of marbles & wooden tops very popular among their kids, with particular sets of rules & vocalizations specific to the community. I wonder if any anthropological studies have been made? Since there were many East Indians & Goans [with strong roots in th west coast] present within the Anglo-Indian matrix, I would love to learn from the Bombay East Indians if these games were popular in their homes, and what might have been the origins or ramifications of these 2 pastimes?

With the wooden tops, Hindu/Bangali kids would spin then in a solitary mode, but only the 'Anglo-Indians' had this complicated, rather bloodthirsty game where tops where placed in a circle and 'gunjed' by others. Indeed, the polyhedral nails that came with the tops were often pulled out and steel screws inserted and filed to sharp points by these notorious 'naughty boys' to make "gunjing' or gouging holes in opponents' shiny new tops that much more effective & satisfying!!

I had this single very old, very massive, beautifully balanced, hand-me-down top in scuffed, faded beige & exquisitely lathed ridges in contrast to the newer tops in extraordinary colors but poorer craftmanship that arrived in myriads every winter and were sacrificed by twos, threes & more in the gaming rings every week. I never would play my top in such a manner and so would come in for much ridicule and teasing, which hurt a lot when one is small.

[anil]

Gautam, on 24 November 2009 - 04:00 PM, said:

but only the 'Anglo-Indians' had this complicated, rather bloodthirsty game where tops where placed in a circle and 'gunjed' by others. Indeed, the polyhedral nails that came with the tops were often pulled out and steel screws inserted and filed to sharp points by these notorious 'naughty boys' to make "gunjing' or gouging holes in opponents' shiny new tops that much more effective & satisfying!!

I had this single very old, very massive, beautifully balanced, hand-me-down top in scuffed, faded beige & exquisitely lathed ridges in contrast to the newer tops in extraordinary colors but poorer craftmanship that arrived in myriads every winter and were sacrificed by twos, threes & more in the gaming rings every week. I never would play my top in such a manner and so would come in for much ridicule and teasing, which hurt a lot when one is small.

Played this in both Hijli and Mumbai. Two variations to it. A circle and linepost. Yes indeed the intent was to destroy the wooden tops, but in other variation of the rules was to take a top from one end to another end in as little hits as possible. The peak of tops playing was about a year or so before puberty and discovery of girls.

Nearly everybody got custom made tops. In West bengal, the workshops of Rly, AFB Kalaikunda, and IIT were co-opted in the manufacture of these tops. I had tops made of hardwood and seasoned and seasoned with oil. I also had an aluminium top.

more later....

[Gautam]

Dear Anilbhai,

Please expand on "the workshops of KK AFB, IIT etc. were converted to making tops": I am intensely interested in the mechanics of who took the lead, dads? Or were you folks older young men and still interested in playing tops? What woods were used? In an earlier time, I vaguely recall the ritual of the letti, the string, being actually manufactured in-home; but that soon stopped after a few years. In that early period too, marbles were actually quite large MARBLE marbles, about 3x the size of the glass ones. I used to wonder how these could be manipulated with the fingers, so heavy were they, but kept silent because any untoward questions were rewarded with severe corporal punishment in my milieu. So, I watched and merely wondered, never actually touched anything.

The other amazing thing was home-made toobris, fireworks in small clay pots, fountains, and their corresponding tinier clay pots launched in the air with a powerful underarm/overarm throw, called howaii in bangala or atish bazee. I have never yet seen any better quality than the absolute power, grace and beauty of the larger stationary firepots. The airborne devices, other than being a fire hazard, and a dangerous health hazard, had little to recommend themselves. But the other ones were grand,filled with ironor aluminum filings to produce different colored sparkles. All theblck poder was made entirely at home, ground down in large sil-battas, and tamped down in each clay receptacle, several hundred. This task fell to children, and the powder needed to be tamped in not too tight nor too loose. The recipe was a family treasure of my uncle, and Jyotida will attest that this was a hallowed pastime in old Calcutta [for Diwali].

He might even remember the toobris that exploded because of inexpert tamping, foreshadowing the nail bombs of the Naxals soon to appear! Americans spent huge funds during the Vietnam war researching deeply penetrating projectiles in grenades that they named flechettes, and created out of notched wire coiled in a certain configuration, to break up into sharp point when exploding. I find it pretty hilarious that our clever minds in CCU figured all that out without any billions of $$ in "defence research" and the results, albeit with a far smaller killing radius, were quite devastating in their own context!

[Suresh Hinduja]

In my time, I soon learnt how to do a haath ki jaali which meant unfurling the top/latoo in a whiplash swing causing it to come back and spin in the palm.

Gouging the loser's top was called 'Guccha" . 5 gouges were 5 gucchas. Causing the opponent's top to split was a massive victory.

And we all used to secure the end of the string by a knot behind a soda crown cap. The cap would be snug behind the fingers.

[anil]

Gautam, on 26 November 2009 - 12:41 AM, said:

Dear Anilbhai,

Please expand on "the workshops of KK AFB, IIT etc. were converted to making tops": I am intensely interested in the mechanics of who took the lead, dads? Or were you folks older young men and still interested in playing tops? What woods were used?

Dads,Uncles,Neighbors.... KK=Kaliakunda AirForce Base. A sizeable population of non-bengali population in Hijli/KGP came from Railways Regional Workshop & World largest platform; First IIT - in Hijli, and AirForce base in Kalaikunda. The East-Indian community & non-bengali kids went to local convent schools since the Bengali medium school dominated the landscape. I had a top which was made of a dark hardwood. Forget the local name we used to have for it.

Suresh Hinduja, on 26 November 2009 - 11:25 AM, said:

In my time, I soon learnt how to do a haath ki jaali which meant unfurling the top/latoo in a whiplash swing causing it to come back and spin in the palm.

Gouging the loser's top was called 'Guccha" . 5 gouges were 5 gucchas. Causing the opponent's top to split was a massive victory.

And we all used to secure the end of the string by a knot behind a soda crown cap. The cap would be snug behind the fingers.

Hey that was when I was in BOM. The expertise and insideousness I brought from Hijli in the use of the wooden tops and aluminium slinkey tops, were useful in aar-paar. Once you aar-paar'ed the bakraa's top past the boundary line, you Gucchaaed his top - Rules said to use only one hand My well oiled hardwood top.


more later...

[Gautam]

Do kids still play with wooden tops today in Indian cities, or is that a pastime only surviving in rural areas? I always wondered where wooden tops spun with woven strings originated, and whether they were a toy indigenous to India or something common all over the world, or at least throughout the Near East? I do not seem to have seem to have noticed any such toys in the USA even over many decades, and I have no knowledge of anything about England or Europe. Maybe some of our members would care to shed some light on this?

I wonder if there are any books or works dealing with the technical details of the top itself, e.g. ideal types of wood, density [kilograms per cubic meter], grain, shape, size, center of gravity etc.?