Showing posts with label Väliväiniö. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Väliväiniö. Show all posts

Saturday, June 14, 2008

A new sport in Oulu, Gilli Dandu Cricket....

If one was walking around Oulu and looked in the direction of the Väliväinö Green, a delightful small park area adjoining India House in this quiet and peaceful suburb, the last few weeks strange things have been happening there.



The local residents watch with awe as grown men, Indians,



a faithful Finnish convert and



a well trained Finnish dog, (to do the fielding), make efforts to introduce a new sport to the region.




Looking at the handmade objects stuck into the ground, it reminded me of my days of playing gilli dandu in Bangalore in the mid fifties.



The large misshapen object being whipped around to hit a fast moving projectile had some resemblance to something they call a cricket bat.



And the ballerina like poses that the person throwing the ball at this misshapen broad blade stick reminded one of a Swan Lake performance in Covent Garden, London.

A new sport culture is coming to Oulu - and we must thank the Indian Software Engineers for bringing it to us.