The heist

In this fast-evolving phase of life, as we are battling through the days to pass by, one day on my way back to home, I see a few kids struggling to pull the ball that went into the bushes while playing. They were a bunch of kids, and I stood there to see if they could make it, as it’s not too difficult. I thought of helping if they couldn’t, but am glad that they got it. They were giggling and got back into their game. Seeing those kids coordinate with each other and find the ball reminded me of my childhood days.

It’s summer, and there used to be large power cuts during the daytime in our village. Unlike today’s kids, we used to hang out under trees and in fields throughout the day and play many outdoor games. We used to play many games like box cricket, marbles, hide and seek, etc. One of these games is “Deccans”. I am not sure how many of you are aware of this. It’s a game that is played using cooldrink caps (the metal ones), which we call “Deccans.” In this game, players will draw a circle, and each player will bet an equal number of decans, as they mutually agree.

For better understanding, I will explain it with an example. Assume there are two players, each willing to wager five decans. The game starts as one of them collects 10 deccans and throws them into a circle from a fixed distance. The opponent player will select the toughest deccan (of his choice) from the circle, which the participant must eliminate from the circle by hitting it with a stone without touching other deccans in the circle. If he does, he gets all 10 deccans; if he couldn’t, then it’s his opponent’s turn to repeat the process, where he picks the deccans and throws them in the circle. The cycle repeats until one of them wins. If, while hitting, the participant’s stone touches another deccan or if he is unable to eliminate the selected deccan despite hitting it, the opponent wins.

There were other interesting rules, where while throwing, if any of the deccans fell outside the circle, the opponent would put those deccans on the circle line and hit them back into the circle with his finger. The interesting part is that these deccans carry value. A normal cool drink cap is equivalent to 1 deccan; the cap of a soda drink or green beer is equivalent to 2 deccans; whereas the cap of Hayward’s 5000 Bear, which is red in colour, is equivalent to 5 deccans. We made these rules to make our games more interesting and facilitate trade, just like our currency. I used to play this game a lot as a kid and earned a good number of decans. I used to have around 400 to 500 deccans and carry them in a shoe box with wheels and a rope to drag them on. It feels like a royal walk.

We made these games so popular that it created a shortage of Deccans in the village, as most of them are owned by a few players. So, we started selling them to newbies for actual money, like 5 deccans for one rupee. I used to earn like 5–10 rupees a day sometimes, which was more at that point in time. I am speaking of days where we used to get candy for “0.25 rupees.” We no longer have any big players as we grew older, as my boys and I became professional players who bet around 100 deccans at a time. It’s 200 deccans in a circle, and imagine how difficult it is to eliminate one deccan from the circle without touching the other 199 deccans. You should have a sharp eye.

As time passed, me and my friends decided to do something big and saw an opportunity on the outskirts of our village. There is a small room where liquor is sold unauthorizedly, and most of our village men drink over there. My friend mentioned that there is a leap of deccans inside the room, the red ones. Greed filled our eyes, but one question is bothering us: “How do we get in?” as they will kick us if they see us around and won’t let us in. So we came up with the plan to steal them without entering the room in broad daylight.

We decided to do it in the morning as most of the men leave for their work in their fields, and another reason is that our parents wouldn’t let us go out at night when we were kids. On the big day, we placed one of our friends on the road to alert us if someone was coming. I broke an old radio and took the magnet from the speaker. We then tied a rope to it and slowly released it into the room through the window. I was standing on my friend’s back as he bent down so that I could reach the window. We were lucky enough to find many Deccans in the room, and we kept pulling them up using magnets. After we were done, my friend who was monitoring came towards us in excitement to see how many Deccans we had collected so far.

As we are looking at the deccans we collected, I hear the cycle bell “Tring, tring,” and as I turn around, it’s my father on the road. Two of us stood there with an awkward smile on our faces, while the other was busy counting the deccans.

Guess what happened next? He didn’t beat me or scold me. That’s the content for my other blog. Till then, keep smiling and stay connected.

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Thanks,

Avinash Reddy.

Note:- Image used in the blog is for representational purpose only. Ownership resides with respective owners & is taken from a Telugu movie “Mishan Impossible” .