Now don't be all smart ass and type "Golli" in Google search and expect a neat wikipedia page on it ok? On second thoughts, I must speak to the engineers on the search team, explain them that what we are talking here is of national importance :-)
Remember Golli (aka Gotti) my Indian mates? The awesome, epic street game of marbles, colorful ones at that. Marbles I used to steal from my brother and other street kids to make my own collection. Yes, all is fair in love, war and game of marbles.
This was epic. More so because my parents loathed it. You know how you get a kick of it, by doing something that your parents intensely oppose? So not only did I steal (or win marbles, yes I was the envy of the local guys) but I also had to constantly change their hideout. I always kept it adventurous. It was all so thrilling as a kid. Specially since we had no Internet or Ipods or Iphones then. If they had Internet then, I would have published a blog on how Golli increased the niche skills of concentration and competitiveness among kids and showed it to my parents.
I mean which Indian kid in the 80's didn't enjoy a game of marbles, braving the tropical heat of India? And the best part is how serious we took the game for. I mean really all those blames on each other of cheating and then an eventual fight breaking out. For example, I constantly blamed guys of lifting their thumb of the ground while aiming with their forefinger at another marble. As an aside, I had pretty good nails, ready to claw up guys if a fight broke out. Yes, I had claws. A girl has gotta take advantage of her DNA (for defense purposes only)
My mom could tell, when I came back home with unkempt hair, grime in my finger nails and darting eyes (as I had to quickly arrange for a hideout for my marble loot from today's game). She mostly overlooked it. And since my dad was mostly somewhere in the Middle East at the time, working his ass off for kids he thought were doing their homework diligently, I was in a marble friendly world. Until he came on vacations and I had to put on a skirt and act all goody-goody with this godforsaken doll of a thing. Yes I hated dolls. There I said it. Too. Much. Pressure.
Now who wants to play golli with me?
Because you don't want to invite the wrath of Crime Master Gogo - Aankhen nikaal kar gottiya khel tha hoon gottiya.
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