All you need is just five stones

CHENNAI: While not really a women’s game as I have found many men very deft at playing the game, the fact remains that almost every young girl of my generation and many of the subsequent generations have grown up playing five stones. 

It’s a simple game and I remember picking up the blue metal stones that would lie on the side of the road for construction. Great care was taken to ensure the stones were carefully selected for size and shape. Although many had sharp edges, as we played the game, the edges got chipped off, until the stones were comfortably round and easy to play. Old stones were prized possessions. Pebbles were never available as easily as they are today, and once in a while when a girl, brought pebbles to school, she was looked at with great envy, for she had lovely smooth stones to play with from the word go.  

The game of five stones involves dropping the stones on the ground, and tossing one up in the air while picking the others. Various patterns are created where you pick one at a time, two at a time and so on, as well as other interesting rules and variations.

I remember, as a young girl, playing an extension of the game with seven stones, which involved a few more complex moves including putting your feet together and balancing the stones on the edges of your feet. You then had to toss one stone up in the air and knock the others one by one into the little depression formed by your feet, and then pick them all up in one final move. 

Today, stones are rarely found on the side of the road and parents are far more safety conscious and would hate to have their children play with sharp-edged stones. When I started researching games, I started looking into aspects of safety, and I was told that many younger children were given grey nicker beans, or the kazhakodi as it is called in Tamil. These are lighter, rounder, and would not hurt while the child was still learning the hand, eye coordination, and expert manipulation required to play this game. 

I played with the seeds and found them too round and light for my liking. I, however, remember my mother making small cloth pouches filled with rice to play these games safely. That could well be another option, especially in today’s homes with flooring that could get damaged with sharp-edged stones.

However, the feel and heft of the smooth stones in your hand, the thrill of tossing and picking successfully, and the rhythmic nature of play are very soothing much like Greek worry beads that are meant to calm the mind. Some people even sing a song, a chant almost, which would keep pace with the dropping and picking and help with the flow of the game.

Another interesting twist I discovered during a visit to Rajasthan is beautiful, colourful pieces of lac made by artisans and used much like five stones. These pieces are a far cry from the blue metal stones I used to play with in my childhood, but the memories are the same. 

The act of sitting cross-legged on the floor, the hand-eye coordination and reflexes required for the game, and the sensory stimulation of rubbing stones together — there is much we can take away from just five stones!