Local gives games back to home village — and the world

In his weekend language classes, Jasthi uses modern methods of language learning, including the use of games.

Jasthi also runs a nonprofit for his home village of 3,000 in southern India, Vunnava. He and others who have left the village have banded together online to fund education-related projects. When Jasthi visited, he was reminded of all the fun games he played as a child in India. Games facilitate learning, he said.

“You see the joys on their faces,” he said. “They learn by playing. … It reminded me of my childhood games.”

Jasthi decided he wanted to publish a compilation of popular games from southern India for the village school and others around the world to use as an educational resource.

Jasthi received a $3,000 grant from the Asia Pacific Foundation to compile the book. He partnered with another writer, Kandukuri Ramu, and illustrator, Dundrapelli Babu, who live in India. Together, they created a book with 100 games — “Let’s Play: A Treasury of Traditional Childhood Games from India.” It was published in both English and Telugu by the School of India for Languages and Culture and printed in India through crowdfunding. Another version of the book prints the illustrations in black and white so children can color them themselves.

The books were distributed free to schools in India and some have been given to schools in the Twin Cities.

Throughout his research, Jasthi discovered some childhood games seem universal — some games popular in India have roots hundreds of years old in places as far away as Italy, Egypt and Ethiopia.

English readers of the book may notice childhood games popular in America — hide and seek, hot potato, musical chairs and cops and robbers. And then there are games specific to warmer climates — elephant ride, palm leaf drag racing and tamarind seeds game.

Jasthi concluded games are an integral part of human nature and important to human function.

“(Just like) food and shelter, games are a part of human beings’ need,” he said.

Jasthi also discovered in his research that games can teach children the soft skills they will need when they grow up. At his customer service job at Siemens in the Twin Cities, he draws on skills he learned through childhood games.

“The skills we learned when we were growing up playing the games with other kids and the personal interactions — some of those skills you need to exhibit in customer interactions,” he said. “There are a lot of similarities.” Games can give children teamwork skills.

“Sometimes you lead a team, and sometimes you need to let others lead,” he said. “There are a lot of soft skills you can exhibit in grown-up life.”

In the book, each game outlines the soft skills children can learn through the game.

Jasthi has big plans for the book — it will likely be translated into other Indian languages, such as Hindi and Tamil. He would replace Telugu-specific games with ones specific to those languages.

“I hope to do one more each year,” he noted. “It is kind of becoming a lifelong project.”

Jasthi, also a computer science teacher at Metro State University, is building a website for the book with the help of students. The site would offer access to the games and the soft skills they promote to all educators.

“Some of these games are universally applicable,” he said.

Jasthi and his wife Bhas have lived in Shoreview with their two children for four years. Previously, they lived in White Bear Lake for 14 years. Jasthi moved to the U.S. 20 years ago.

For more information or to purchase copies of the book, visit www.silcmn.com. 

Sara Marie Moore can be reached at 651-407-1235 or shoreviewnews@presspubs.com.