When you set your feet on the field to play ‘pitthu’ remember to use only a tennis ball. It is light and safe.
Pitthu [Illustration by Anup Singh]
1. A ball
2. Seven flat pieces of stones – leftover pieces of marble and granite are great, so scout around a house being constructed.
How to play:
- This game has to be played outdoors. Divide the children into two teams.
- Pile up seven stones with the largest at the bottom and the smallest on top. Have one person from team A hit the pile with the ball from a distance of approximately four metres. The other members of team A have to scatter on the field.Just as in cricket, there is a wicket keeper-like figure from team B, who stands behind the pitthu or the stone pyramid to catch the ball. The other members of team B position themselves around the pitthu.
- Each player gets three turns to break the pitthu.
- As soon as the player hits and breaks the pitthu, the actual game begins. This is when team A tries to rebuild the pitthu and team B stops them from doing so, by hitting them with the ball.
- The player gets out if the ball touches him/her, but if he/she succeeds in making the pitthu first, the team gets a point.
- In this way the game continues till all the children have got their turns to hit the pitthu. The team that makes more pitthus is the winner.
