बिट्या - Part I . Morning walk vignettes.
बिट्या - कण्हेरि च्या बिया - Thevetia peruviana Seeds are called बिट्या (Bittya)-
Quite a lot of my blogs are under the heading "Morning walk vignettes" because I like writing about good, bad, interesting or indifferent things I see along the route of the walk.
Along the route, there is a पिवळ्या कण्हेरीच झाड (Thevetia peruviana plant).
Even though in that locality I had written about and taken photos of various plants in bloom. I was never really interested in this tree as early in the morning the flowers were not fully open, all droopy and sad looking. Never paid it no mind.
This morning as was passing this Kanher plant (कान्हेरीच झाड) I saw a nice big seed pod of this Kanher (कण्हेर).
Nice big seed pod of Kanher plant (कान्हेरीच झाड)
My feet got rooted to the spot. I was transported 70 odd years back when I was around
8 - 10 years old. Looked around on the ground and found a couple of seed pods that had almost shaded the skin. Removed the pod skin, Wiped and cleaned the seeds.
Lo and behold.
I was holding two nice बिट्या (Bittya) in my hand. Those days and I am sure even these days the Kanher seed are still called बिट्या (Bittya).
बिट्या - (Thevetia peruviana Seeds)
In my childhood days (8 -10 years old), these bittyas had given countless children immense pleasure in rural India by being one of the few things children used to play games with.
Boys and girls both used these bittyas in their games.
Game girls played will be in बिट्या - कण्हेरि च्या बिया - Part II.
Boys.
This game was an outdoor game. More often than not under the blazing sun bare feet in the dusty lanes of our neighbourhood.
We Had a group of 4 to 6 friends. Each had a good horde of around 50 plus bittyas.
To start the game a kitty was formed by contribution from each player. It used to be 2- 4 bittya per player. So we had a minimum of 8 or a maximum of 24 bittyas.
Lines were drawn.
All the bittyas in the common pool were given to the boy who had to start the game. he had to stand behind one line and toss the bittyas so that all the bittyas were beyond a predetermined distance where the second line was drawn. All other playes would nominate one of the bitties which the player had to hit by his own bitty. Bitty selected as a target was the furthest or most difficult to aim at and hit.
The player took out his special bitty used as a striker to hit bitty signalled out as a target..
This striker bitty was no ordinary bitty. It was the biggest and the heaviest bitty in his collection and hoard of bittya.
Each player generally had a minimum of at least two or three such "striker bittya". These were treated, looked after and cared for as if these striker bittya were a priceless treasure which at that age they indeed were.
Now standing behind the line, the player took careful aim with his striker bitty and lat go at the target. If he missed, he was given another chance. The number of chances allowed were generally three. If the player missed hitting the target in all three chances, he had to make way for the next player to try his luck.
If his aim was true and he hit the target he won all the bittys in the pool. Another pool was then formed by contributions as at the beginning of the game.
After all these years the game does not sound exciting.
But when we played it as 8 - 10 years old we played it with real passion as if it was a matter of life and death.
We played it with wild abundance as if there was no tomorrow.
We had no worries then. Lived for the moment. Never thought about tomorrow. We were the happiest kids playing our game of bittyas under the scorching sun, barefoot in the dusty lanes of our village.
