Games people play

Pandora Melly discovers what people really do in their spare time

Arvind Oberoi, 55, Company Director

I'll give you a game to play. I don't know what this is, but I played it once at a party in New York. Here is what you do. You get a sheet and throw it over the head of the host, and then you ask him, what does he have on him that we want? So he takes off his watch and his ring and gives them.

Meanwhile, you are walking around with a piece of paper on which is written: "It's the sheet". That is always the last thing he thinks you want. The name of the game is that he gives away everything. If you play with very close friends, then it becomes bizarre, and it's more fun when it gets a little kinky. You say: "It's something my wife wants." He's shouting: "Should I take off my trousers?" One man took off his wedding ring and his wife was furious later on: "How can you let go of my wedding ring?"

When I was growing up in Bombay, I used to play a game called "Kitty- Kitty". You have two teams and one guy leans against a wall. The others bend over and hold each other round the waist, then the other team climbs on top. Ninety-five per cent of the time, what happens is that they all jump on the weakling. The hilarious part is if you have a lady playing. Then you tap one of the people on the back and say: "Kitty-Kitty, what number?" If he guesses the right number, all these guys jump off.

Where we used to play, we had this very pretty girl who later turned out to be a big model and film actress, and everybody was dying to jump on her.

`Popular Sports and Pastimes in India' (published in 1973 by the Indian Ministry of Education and Social Welfare) is available, for reference only, from the British Library.

Plain white sheets are currently available at very reasonable prices in the January sales.