THE STOLEN LUNCH BAG GAME

By reciting one Hare Krishna mantra a player is chosen to be the cowherd boy whose lunch bag is stolen. The other children stand in a circle, and he stands in the middle. A ball represents the lunch bag. The child in the middle throws the lunch bag very high in the air. Whoever catches it has stolen the lunch bag and must say loudly, “Hari Bol!” so that the child in the middle always knows where the lunch bag is. The catcher then throws it to another cowherd boy in any part of the circle, who in turn throws it to another child, and so on. The cowherd boy inside the circle tries to recover his lunch bag by jumping and running to catch the ball as it flies in all directions above his head, but he may not leave the circle. No one is allowed to throw the lunch bag to the child immediately next to him. The ball must be very swiftly passed from child to child without stop. When the cowherd boy in the middle of the circle catches his lunch bag, the player who threw the ball becomes the new player in the middle.