Learning Lagori

This is the first part of 'The Lagori Champions' from your book, Santoor (Chapter 8). The book tells it as a play, with the children talking. Here it is, told in short.

On a sunny day, Ravi and Prakash went to the children's park near their house. Ravi's friends waved at him, and Ravi told them that Prakash was his cousin. Guneet said, 'Tomorrow is the Lagori match. Let's put Prakash in our team. He is a good runner.' Deepa agreed that he was quick.

But Prakash did not know what Lagori was! Everyone was surprised. Nidhi said Lagori is a game of seven stones. Then Imran came, and Nidhi said he was a champion of the game. Imran explained: seven flat stones are stacked one on top of the other. The stones are knocked down with a ball, and then players try to build the stack again while dodging the ball.

'Oh, you mean Satoliya!' said Prakash. In Rajasthan, he said, they call the game Satoliya. In the children's village, Sundarpur, it is called Lagori.

Guneet told Prakash that their team is called the Sundarpur Tigers, and Deepa is their captain, because she runs fast. They would play against the Green Warriors, a team from the nearby village. Imran told the rules: the field is marked with a boundary, and players must not go beyond it. The seven flat stones are stacked in the centre of the field. Prakash said Satoliya has the same rules. They were all ready for the match.