Insanely interesting games at school – Part 1
Hiya folks, been quite a while since I posted here. With the end of my stay nearing, things are becoming real hectic. Anyways so here I am with my next post.
School has undoubtedly been the best part of my life so far as fun is concerned. And I am extremely privileged to have had the exposure to a few crazy personalities who started a trend of some of these insanely interesting games. This is an attempt to recollect some of those games.
First on the list is Book Cricket.
This form of cricket can be described as nothing short of revolutionary and can well insult the common versions of the game(ODI’s, T20’s etc) when it comes to the excitement it generates. The investment needed – a nice, bound textbook (Ideally, not too bulky but at the same time having a considerable number of pages) and pencil – paper to note the scores. This highly addictive game is especially suitable to couch potatoes who do not wish to move a muscle but want to enjoy the excitement of scoring runs.
How is it played?
The aim of the game is to score/outscore the runs/target. The score is determined from the page numbers of the book. The player opens the book swiftly and sees the page number of the random page he gets. The last digit of the page number is taken as the runs scored. For eg. A player opens the book swiftly and gets the page number 64, then he has scored 4 runs. Usually even numbered pages are only considered in scoring. So a person can score either 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8 from any page he opens. 2,4 and 6 are normally the valid runs. 8 is usually considered as a single. The player is out when he scores a 0. That forms the main framework for the game.
Usually the two players have ten chances (or ten wickets) to score. Normally played are the limited overs and test version although the most famous version I can recollect was the ‘play-until-you-get-the-highest score’.
Benefits:
- Total use of resources – even the most boring book can become interesting and be put to maximum use.
- An interesting diversion during english/history/civics classes in school. All you need to ensure is a last bench seat that can shield you well from the teacher’s line of sight.
- No one will ever question you ‘Padichu ennatha kizhicha nee‘ again as the book is sure to wear out before you pass on to the next year (caution to be exercised since extreme cases have warranted the purchase of a second set of books just before the annual exams making the parents highly irritated).
– No more worries about dealing with that ‘sidu moonji pakathu veetu mama/thatha’ (your neighbour) who would be waiting to catch your ball in his backyard.
- No possibility of damage (and associated cost or replacement) to public or personal property (street lamps, car windows and any other glass item in the house)
- No restriction on age group. You can even teach this game to your pakathu veetu mama/thatha and make him your friend.
Potential problems:
- Opening the front cover/back cover of the book or a page with a roman number. (Usually that’s a dead ball and the player plays again)
- In many cases, people often open their books slightly and place their thumbs on a page which can get them 6 runs (in other words azhuvooni/bongu aatam) and they keep opening the same page again and again. Since the movements are extremely fast, the umpire (the other player) seldom gets a chance to see the illegal use of thumb, it results in some players scoring at a rate of 36 runs per over leading to records impossible in realistic cricket matches.
- Slow opening of book with the face placed extremely near so as to get a peek at the page number, another azhuvooni technique.
- Lax umpiring can lead to ‘extra gaaji’s’ resulting again in unrealistic scores.
- Can be disturbing at times to neighbours in class since when the adrenaline gets high, people tend to open or close the book with a bang often thinking that it will get them a six.
- Being a luck based game, the chances of a single wicket going on a scoring spree or losing all the ten wickets within a span of ten minutes are equal. Both scenarios can lead to loss of interest and stimulate the use of azhuvooni techniques described.
On the whole, a totally interesting and addictive game with no boundaries and borders. If you have not played this in your school days you have either not gone to school or never bought a textbook 
. Any corrections/additions to what i have mentioned are welcome.
Meet ya all in the next part soon !
i have one correction we used to play even with 8… 8 is the max score and not to mention always sachin must be the one to score max. or else the team manager seems to changhe the batting order.. runs decide batsman here
yeah da….infact i myself used to count 8 as 8 when runs are hard to come by and i keep losing wickets
….and yeah….sachin always scores the highest 
Hay dude….. thanks for reminding the sweet old memories. That was my fav game during classes. Good work and we also used to count 8 as 8runs……
Nice work….
will wait for the next one…as i m leavin so soon, i hope u ll have enough time and write something good to read