Had someone happened to witness the traditional sports organised at Anna Stadium here on Monday, he could have easily understood how the electronic gadgets and the Internet joined hands to destroy great sports of this land that once completely occupied rural youths’ quality time.
To resurrect the forgotten traditional sports of Tamil Nadu, the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu organised an event at the stadium as part of ‘Pongal’ celebrations.
While the boys showcased their skills in ‘silambam’, ‘uriyadi’, ‘kiliyaanthattu’, ‘gilli’, ‘pambaram’ and ‘aadu puliyaattam’, the girls enthralled the audience as they played ‘nondi’, ‘kannaamoochi’, ‘pallaankuzhi’, ‘thaayakattai’ and ‘silambam’.
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Much to the surprise of the organisers, over 1,400 students from various schools and colleges, including good number of budding engineers, participated.
To help the participants, the rules and regulations of each event had been displayed in the huge flex boards.
“Everyone should learn ‘silambam’, a great martial art, with which any girl can defend herself,” said S. Mahalakshmi, an engineering student.
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When Collector M. Karunakaran formally inaugurated the event, he took the stick from one of the participants and swirled it in the air for a while, much to the surprise of everyone there.
“It’s so refreshing to see the children displaying their skills in the rural sports that we enjoyed in our village 30 years ago. The invasion of television, communication gadgets, Internet etc. has almost wiped-out these events that gave strong psyche and physique to the rural youths. This noble effort should continue in the years to come,” said N. Muruganantham, one of the spectators from Palayamkottai.
District Sports Officer P. Frank Paul Jayaseelan said age limit of the participants was relaxed to encourage everyone to participate in the rural sports. “We’ll conduct it in organised manner from next year onwards,” Mr. Frank said.
“It’s so refreshing to see the children displaying their skills”