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Pittu

Pittu is a traditional Indian game very popular in rural areas. So it was a pleasant surprise to watch some kids play it in the streets of the Indian Silicon Valley’s Koramangala area.

The game (which is supposed to have been played as far back as the Harappan civilization) consists of a stack of discs (often of stone, though Terra cotta was prevalent in the ancient times) placed in the centre of a field (or street). Two teams alternatively try to aim at the stack using a ball, and topple it over. Once toppled, the team needs to rearrange the stack as before, while the other team tries to hit the person arranging the stack, using the ball. They are not supposed to run around with the ball, and are allowed to hit the stack repeatedly so that the rivals do not finish re stacking it. This goes on until either the team stacks it, or the other team hits the person trying to do so.

Complicated ? not exactly :) google did not find any good references for pittu (apart from the ones mentioning the Harappan connection), so I had to make this up verbatim :)

Update : Found this article which explains it much better ;)