He had extraordinary skills in that game, not only in hitting the gilli and increasing the score of his team, but also in catching the gilli of the opposite team with such swiftness, in the twinkle of an eye, that the players as well as spectators were left dumbfounded. They would often wonder how a gilli that had been struck so hard landed in Merwan's hand.
The surprising part of it is that whenever he started playing this game, someone or the other would immediately pop up from somewhere and join him. Other times, he would, without any hesitation, pull young or old, known or unknown, whether they knew the game or not, into the game. The other person, whether rich or poor, regardless of community would be drawn to Merwan as if by some hidden power and felt themselves as Merwan's favorite and thus respected Merwan in this manner. This characteristic was visible in him from his childhood and is still there even today.
Once Merwan and his friends played quite a different game. Baily continues:
A table operator had set up his table between Merwan's house and his father's teashop at Quarter Gate. It was not directly visible from either the shop or the house, but we could see it daily while passing on the footpath. There was a sloped high table standing on four legs. On the top would be a white sheet attached to which would be British coins of that time (viz. small round two anna , four anna , eight anna coins and a silver rupee) fixed in a scattered and irregular manner.1 The operator would draw the attention of the crowd with encouraging words tempting them to play the game and win the money. For one paise he would give his customers three round brass rings each the size of a key chain. The customer was supposed to skillfully throw each ring one by one onto the table. If any ring fell so that a coin lay entirely within its interior, the operator would pay the player the amount of the encircled coin. The ring had to completely encircle the coin for the prize to be paid, and no payment was made if the ring rested on top of the coin.
Several times Merwan and I would stand by the table enjoying the show of the players and others watching the action.
Footnotes
- 1.An anna was a currency unit formerly used in India, equal to one-sixteenth of a rupee.