Kasabaragi Dart

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India has been called as the ‘Cradle of Civilization’. From the very beginning, this land was known for it’s evolved knowledge and leadership in the many fields. Sports have not been an exception. We have given the world more precious stones than just the Koh-I-Noor. Many of today’s popular and highly paid sports originated in India. The modern game of Chess for instance descended from a military game called Chaduranga. It was invented around 500 A.D when members of the Indian royal court began to shift various objects on a board with each object representing a unit of the ancient Indian army. Another example is the Kabaddi invented around four thousand years ago. Though Russians have dominated the chessboards in the recent past and other Asian nations are slowly surpassing us in Kabaddi; the fact remains that the Indians have been ingenious in inventing sports. Many a time, we have invented a sport, introduced it to the rest of the world and won gold for the first time in an international arena. I have an acute loss of memory of the outcome of subsequent encounters in such sports.

There is a saying in Dharwad Kannada: "Hani Hani Koodidra Halla" (every drop of water is important in the making of a river). Dharwad stands proud for it’s own contributions to the Indian sports scene. It is unfortunate that not many of Dharwad’s contributions have trickled to the rivers of international sports. Though many of these sports invented in Dharwad were influenced by the existing ones, they have certainly added value to those from which they inherited. Take for instance, our own Batthi Manjya’s inventions - ‘Kasabargi Dart’ (Broom Dart), ‘Clay Court Hand Tennis’ and 'Notebook Table Tennis’…

At this point, I have a feeling that this sudden attempt to stretch the reader’s imagination may have serious consequences. I shall not be held responsible if at this moment the reader’s face suddenly twitched and got locked in to a shape from which it can’t recover. You know these things happen when you are immersed in some serious thought-provoking article and suddenly something awkward happens that makes you feel disgusted. The face twitches. Typically a Dharwadi face will look as though it is trying to crush a big chunk of sugar cane with its jaws. The face thrusts forward, eyes become small, the mouth opens in the shape of the Id-ka-Chand, you see wrinkles on the forehead and you ask yourself ‘WHAT am I reading???’. But don't be fooled by such down to earth usages like 'Kasabaragi Dart'. You are about to learn the unfolding of a revolution in sports that started in my own school.

Parents of Duryodhana and Dushasana did not name them so. Their real names were Suyodhana and Sushasana. Likewise, Batthi Manjya is not the name that Manjya’s parents gave him. Batthi is the title that his friends lovingly conferred on Manjunath, my classmate and friend. However, as to how on earth this title affected itself to Manjunath is not in the scope of this article. He was an average guy by most standards. Like most of us, he wore the trademark 'Haap Chonna’ (shorts) till the 9^th standard and pretended to fall unconscious with fatigue during the Saturday Physical Training classes. But there was something about Batthi Manjya that made him 'International throughout the school'. (For those few unacquainted readers, here is an analogy: 'International throughout the school' is much like 'National Ranking Championship Bullock Cart Race at Kalaghatagi'). Anyway, Batthi was a wiz kid when it came to inventing new sports. He was a lunch hour celebrity. On the stroke of the ‘Ootada Sooti’ (lunch break) bell, anxious eyes stared at Manjya. Any movement of his limbs would be under absolute vigil. More often than not, he would smile his characteristic shy smile looking out to the horizon through the classroom door. This amounted to a new sport being introduced in the school. Most of these new sports he invented involved low cost paraphernalia or still better, none at all. Typically he spent a day or two in Transfer of Technology (TOT) on the sport after which, commoners would exert arduously in rising to the expectations of the master inventor.

The 'Kasabaragi Dart' (K-dart for short) takes it's name from it's origin- the broom, which is it's primary raw material. The K-dart is played for the most part like a regular Dart. You hold the stem of the K-dart, take an aim at the 'Bull's eye' and swiftly throw the K-dart at it (CAUTION: Don’t try this on the real Bulls wandering near Yemmikeri). In our days, this was one of the most popular lunchtime sports. Now, here is how you make the K-dart: Without your mother watching you, quietly pull out a fine straw out of the broom she bought from Torgallmath General Stores (This store is to Dharwad what WALMART is to the U.S). Further, steal a generous length of thin strong thread from her sewing machine accessories box. Cut the straw to a length of 7 cm. The straw should be typically 2 mm in thickness (Don't worry if these specifications are not met. It'll work any way). After this, without your father noticing, get a ‘Tachani’ (ball pin) from his ball pin holder and also get his empty cigarette pack. (Here, the author assumes that his esteemed school going reader does not have his own cigarette pack). Now, tie the pin tightly to the thinner end of the straw with the thread. Cut a 1-cm slot in the rear end of the straw and insert two 1 cm x 2 cm foils you cut out from the cigarette pack. Your K-dart is now ready. You are all set to take over the world in the World K-dart Championships in Dharwad.

The use of the K-Dart was banned at home because it was a potential destroyer of wooden furniture and doors and windows. So the typical targets for practicing K-dart were the trees around the school and the wooden black boards and adjacent cabinets in the classrooms. But, the wooden boards and cabinets were used as targets only to irritate and intimidate the trainees from Teachers’ Training College that came to teach us. They came once a year with their many colorful presentation sheets and color chalks. Some of them used to be so nervous even their tongues trembled when they opened their mouths. (That was just an exaggeration but meant to give an idea as to how we treated them). They went through the ordeal of keeping us quiet, leave alone teaching some thing worthwhile. For our part, it was the only time we could avenge a race called 'teacher' and we made most out of it. It is said that to this day one can see the small holes on the seasoned wood caused by the mighty K-Darts. They remain as a reminder of this sport's golden age.

Clay Court Hand Tennis used to be one other significant new sport. It was played either as a singles or a doubles game. The ball was hit with the palm of the hand. This made it extremely important to train the fingers to spin the ball. Manjya invented Barehanded-Topspin (BT) and Barehanded-Volley (BV) techniques. The court itself resembled the one at Rolland Garros except that most of the times the surface would be a 'bit' (pronounced 'LOT') uneven. The ball on hitting the ground in the opponent's court often almost defied Newton's laws of motion. One never knew which way it would turn and this always kept the players on the nails of their tows. In those days, Manjya claimed that this was the specialty of C.C.H.T. He claimed it added a touch of surprise (and thus excitement) that was so missing in all "other" major tournaments around the world. We endorsed and propagated this theory. Among other things this sport chose to differ from Tennis was the composition of the net. It was typically a thread tied to two stumps. Now you can imagine how hard it was for the net referee to call a ball that went from below the rope from the one that went above it. Thus the uniqueness of C.C.H.T was in how much it relied on the net referee. Many times, the net referee was the one who ran more than the players themselves, in the sense that whenever there was a controversial call, he would run to save his skin from the supporters of the offended party. The game would be suspended for a long time, before Batthi Manjya appeared and cooled the tempers and asked the net referee to resume the noble cause. The sport became so popular, major league C.C.H.T tournaments were held and Manjya graced his presence as the match referee at the championship game.

There was one more obsession that I remember clearly. There used to be a Table Tennis room attached to the school building. On the moment the lunch break bell sounded, you could see at least twenty of us fighting with each other deciding who reached the room first. It really used to be that close a call. Needless to say, we spent most of our time in boxing, kick boxing, karate and Kabaddi on the table. Out of the little time left, the brats who had the table tennis bats usually got to play the real thing. This second fact was especially cruel on those of us who could not afford a table tennis bat. It was a very sad that money started becoming a factor in enjoying this game. It is not for a genius to guess what followed. Any Timmya, Dinya and Harya could've seen a need for a reform in these practices. That's when Batthi Manjya came in. He invented a game called 'Notebook Table Tennis'. In a very primitive sense it meant that you simply replace the table tennis bat with a notebook. But there is more to it than meets the eye. In the first place, N.T.T needs a lot of expertise in choosing the notebook. The seasoned players always came in with the math notebook, which was the thickest of all and produced good shots. It’s wrinkled and weathered cover gave the ball that extra spin. The manner of holding the notebook itself was a technique to be mastered. This was not a game for the ordinary. There were also techniques by which you could chop the ball, hit topspin or cancel the effect of a service spin and so on. To this day, I have a problem in playing with the regular table tennis bat where as I can beat a champion with a book.

I met Manjya last summer on the M.G road. He seemed so glad to see me and I smiled. we talked about some old times and we drank ourselves some beers. I figured out we were still crazy about those school years.

I am sure there have been a thousand Batthi Manjyas since I walked out of those rusty school gates for the last time. I am also sure that there have been a thousand new games invented since then. But that’s not the whole point of this story. It also says volumes about a totally different attitude we had as kids. In fact, there was a Manjya in each one of us. We had an amazing enthusiasm and inquisitiveness brimming in us in our school days. A drunken railway trolley operator once told us that the friction between wheels of the train and loose iron pieces on the tracks turned the pieces in to magnets. We spent weeks on railway tracks looking for magnets. I miss those days when there was not a care in the world.