Academic Extention Activities

Games

#OnlineGames

#VirtualSportsFestival

As a student of Literature, I have observed the ways in which literature has played a massive role in shaping me as an individual. Similarly, I believe each and every event comes with so many opportunities to learn from. Today, I take an opportunity to write about my learning outcome from playing games in mobile apps with friends who are remotely located. The credit of this idea - playing games in mobile apps with class friends and recording the chain of participants, their opponents, and winners goes to the Sports and Recreation Committee of the Department of English who came up with the novel way of celebrating sports day virtually in the time of COVID19 Crisis. The Committee thought it better to organize the event online to avoid public gatherings as an attempt to stop the chain of corona. The festival was planned between 18th to 20th April 2021.

Thanks to the advancement of technology that elevated games to a virtual platform. The Internet acted as a backbone to carry out such a conventional game to an easily accessible platform. People play many games on mobile to feel somewhat relaxed but I totally felt the opposite while playing Snake and Ladders, Ludo, Chess and Carrom. Instead of getting relaxed, it was increasing heart beats! But I must mention that it was full of mental enrichment. And it is necessary to point out that absolute attentiveness is demanded from both the player's side and from the internet also.

These games kept me very much occupied that all my patience level was tested. It generated some competitive vibes when I was playing with my classmates. The names of participants as opponents were drawn by spinning the wheel of names and following the knockout fixture draw - Byes (2 n- N).

Talking about chess, I have learnt that we make strategies in order to win the game, we work on those strategies but unknowingly, we also fall in our own trap of strategy when moves go wrong. Isn’t this worth exploring!

I learnt that a lot of concentration and farsightedness is required while playing chess. A single wrong move can destroy the whole set up. Chess allowed me to jump into the opponent's mind to capture his/her thought of implementation. This analysis is very much beneficial while studying literature. Instant planning skills are evident.

Ludo needed a special decision making capacity, judgement and analytical skills. I never had played Ludo so seriously and with concentration as I had played for the Virtual Sports Festival. And I came to know that Ludo can be among the least favourite games in my list. As it is the game of dice, the chance of winning is at grave risk. IT requires a lot of patience and it is a time consuming game. But it helped me to learn how to restart again and again in the moments of dire frustration and mind wishes to stop continuing the work.

The Snakes and Ladders game was fun. It revived the childhood memories of playing in conventional mode and now in virtual mode. Both Carrom and this game was entertaining.

I would like to mention a special note of thanks to Prof Dilip Barad Sir and the leaders Hina Malek and Amit Makvana for providing such a wonderful opportunity.