Srinagar, June 26 -- Before childhood became confined to screens and scrolling, afternoons belonged to games fashioned from whatever nature or imagination can provide, where a stick became a bat and pebbles became toys. In a rural corner of Bandipora on Thursday, hundreds of students were given a chance to step into that forgotten world and relive a slice of Kashmir's fading childhood heritage. Hooting and giggles reverberated the air as students of PM Shri Government Secondary School Laharwalpora, along with children from its all four neighbouring schools, enjoyed these traditional games. The school organised a festival where it attempted to introduce various traditional games and the culture associated with them to some 600 of their students. Nostalgia and enthusiasm was evident on the faces of teachers and parents. As a yellow kite took flight, the excitement among the young tots refused to die down. Some took a keen interest in Lathkij Loth( Gilli Danda or tip cat) and Gulail (slingshot ) while another group cozied up to the sock filled ball to play Garam (Kashmiri version of seven stones or hitting the pile of terra). The young hands also tried their hands on balancing Truppan (Pebbles). Kanan, a unique Kashmiri version of Javelin throwing, was also tried in which the participants had prepared and chiselled their 'javelin's from the sticks collected from the nearby forests. Around 15-20 of the games were planned and well accepted by the students, which the mobile toting generation hardly knew before. "I have hardly seen anybody playing these games. It was so much fun. I enjoyed Garam and Lathkij Loth while Kanan needed a bit of effort to play," said a student of Class 8. As the students played, it was hard for the surrounding villagers to miss the action. The eyes of M Sultan Dar, a fisherman, gleamed as he saw his childhood replay before him. "I used to play Kanan and Lathkij Loth like these children are playing today. I just want to tell them what angle they should keep for the stick to reach far away," Dar said as he watched from the boundry wall of the school. "Mobiles and drugs have caused a lot of bad habits among today's youngsters," he said. A parent Abdul Hameed was all praise for the government school for the initiative. Laharwalpora is a remote village on the banks of Wular Lake where the people earn their livelihood fishing, sand mining and extracting water chestnuts from the lake. Head of the institute, Javed Jawad said that the festival was part of their attempt to introduce the new generation to old generation games. "Today was our bag-less day as per the new national education policy. Last month we had organised a food festival in which over 500 students had participated and today we organised this traditional games festival in which five government schools with more than 600 students participated," said the award winning teacher. "This would connect them with their culture. Also we wanted to give them an option of putting the mobiles down and play these games at home, many of which can be played indoors," he said....