Sports Day: Learning about Indian Culture and Sports

Hindi students playing Kho Kho in Duke Gardens
Hindi students playing Kho Kho in Duke Gardens

In September, I joined my Intermediate Hindi class to take part in a “Sports Day,” in which my classmates and I immersed ourselves in the world of Indian sports from the comfort of Duke Gardens. “Sports days” are athletic events unique to Indian schools, in which students showcase their athletic prowess at the behest of their teachers. When I was in elementary school in India, “sports days” made up my fondest memories. Our class’s “sports day” stirred up those old memories I had again while allowing me to explore traditional sports in India that I had never previously learned about. 

We started our “sports day” with a yoga warmup. While yoga has attained mainstream prominence in American culture, our sports day stayed true to the more traditional Indian counterpart of modern yoga. We performed exercises not on plastic mats indoors but on the grassy lawn of Duke Gardens. We learned Sanskrit words for the exercises, or aasans, we performed instead of using terms like “Tiger’s Pose.” And in tandem with exercises that stretched our muscles, we performed breathing exercises and meditation to practice mindfulness and soothe our mental health.  

After a yoga warmup, we learned how to play Kho Kho, a traditional North Indian tag game in which a team playing offense sits crouched in a horizontal manner while one of their players attempts to tag one of 3 defensive players attempting to not get touched. The team playing offense scores a point for every defending player they tag. Kho Kho is commonly played in Indian schools during recess, and on September 25, my Intermediate Hindi class also participated in that experience.  

Learning Kho Kho was a challenge for all of us because its distinctive rules. Initially, we found maneuvering as a team challenging because American tag games are traditionally not team-oriented. That said, Kusum ji and Ashul ji did an excellent job in ensuring that we eventually learned the rules by providing us with feedback and having us practice. After 2-3 rotations, we began to enjoy Kho Kho. Sitting crouched on the grass on a warm Fall Day transported me to an Indian school recess - where many rounds of Kho Kho would be played in the span of an hour.  

When the fun came to an end at the hour’s end, I was tired but thoroughly captivated by my newfound knowledge and interest in Indian sports. After having learned about Indian approaches to wellness, I felt a stronger connection to my roots – to the backyard games that my parents and grandparents must have played when they were younger. 

A few Hindi students also added their comments about the sports day below:

Margaret - Coming into class, I hadn’t had time to exercise or just relax all week, since I had been jumping from meeting to meeting. The downtime as a class was incredibly relaxing and also quite educational, at least for me. My favorite experience from Sports Day was learning about and playing kho kho. 

 

Naman- It was a good opportunity to apply our classroom knowledge to a fun activity where we got to hang out with our peers.

 

Namit- The yoga/sports day was very fun! It was great learning a new sport commonly played in India. I hope we have more opportunities for cultural immersion in the future! 

 

Pranay - I really liked playing Koh and thought it was a fun game and a cool concept. The most memorable experience was learning to do surya namaskar.  

 

Riya - It felt really good to move around and learn new sports. My most memorable experience was playing Kho Kho. It was such a cool game once I figured out the rules! 

 

Meera - It was super fun doing yoga, learning to play Kho Kho, and playing the color game. My most memorial experience was desperately trying to find something purple in the color game.  

 

Saahith - I found yoga to be very relaxing, and the games were really fun. What made the experience even better was that we got to do the activities at the Duke Gardens.  

 

Purnima- I had a really fun time doing yoga and sport activities for the day! It was nice spending time outside of the classroom and learning something new that still pertained to Indian culture. My most memorable experience from Sports Day was learning how to play Kho Kho, because even though it was confusing at first it felt really enjoyable once I got a good handle on how to play! 

 

Alex F-I thought the sports day was fun! Kho-kho was definitely the most memorable, it is always fun to learn how tag games persist across cultures.  

 

Kushi - I enjoyed sports day! I thought there was a good balance between physical activity and mentally soothing activity, and I think it was really nice to bond more with classmates. Would love it (if we do it again), it’s a great engaging activity while learning Hindi. 

 

Arin - I loved sports day, as it was a stressful week, and it felt like it really helped me clear my mind. I enjoyed the ko game especially as it allowed me to bond with my classmates and have a good time.  

 

Sujay - I enjoyed sports day a lot! It had a very good mix of activities, and I especially loved learning how to play kho kho and kaun sa rang. My favorite part was definitely kho kho, since that game was the most physically active and the most strategically interesting.  

 

This workshop was supported and funded by Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Duke India Initiative and Duke Service Learning.