All For A Purpose

What’s your favorite game (card, board, video, etc.)? Why?

I was never an outdoorsy person. I hated the games period in school. My classmates loved it. They would swiftly change into play shorts and rush after the basket or volley ball. I always took time to get out of my skirt. Perhaps my clumsiness rose from mental apathy. Now so many perhaps on hindsight.

In my teens I was a compulsive day dreamer. Indoor person with an open book on the lap. Mother would almost push me out in the evenings to play. Mind it in those days there were no playstations, computer or video games. Television had just entered the scene – black and white with very very limited channels and specific hours of telecast.

Yet I liked playing badminton and volleyball. I was a mediocre player but managed to be in the team. Badminton was sometimes fun and sometimes not. There were other indigenous games like kho kho, pitthu, stapu which when very small I did indulge in and enjoyed.

Coming to indoor games, I was good at cards. But never the Bridge person. Wanted to learn chess but remained limited to Ludo and Chinese Checker. Later years, I tried sudoku, the primary levels. My fear of numbers being the deterrant.

I guess games too require a mindset. The type of person you are, games choose you or you choose the one you equate yourself with. Since the day I discovered my love for words and languages I hunted for puzzles and games which fitted the bill.

Soon I became an addictive wordler and waffler. And soon enough I stopped enjoying them because the high crumbles down faster than one can guess. The motto of playing should never be gaming, competing and winning. That can be enervating. Sports(wo)man spirit is cultivated when you play with the purpose to exercise your mind or/and body.

Games, outdoor or indoor, can be therapeutic and an antidote against degenerative diseases like dementia. Games give you alacrity of mind, sharpens memory and hones your instinctual and intuitive powers. It should remain like that.

Once I realised the true purpose of playing the crushed syndrome when I narrowly escaped victory did not persist any further. I was happy stimulating the glandular secretion as much as a day’s play allowed me. I also observed myself while playing. When I was stressed out, pre- occupied or disturbed my focus veered away from the game and sure shot I lost the mark. When I was totally relaxed I scored better.

Even if you make it a daily ritual do not judge yourself if you can’t make it to the winning slot once in a while. As far as my routine goes, I sometimes give it a break when things go overboard and get back to it refreshed and charged up. Mind you, it works.