English: Class 4 — Chapter 9: Hekko

Chapter Overview & Origin

The chapter introduces Hekko, a traditional game and folk story from Nagaland, India.

Hek: Means to challenge.
Ko: Means tiger.
Hekko: Translates to Challenging the tiger.
The Folk Story: Originates from Nagaland, depicting a disagreement over superiority between Aami (The Man) and Aakho (The Tiger). Humans challenged the tiger, and this challenge became known as Hekko.

The Game of Hekko

Today, Hekko is a well-known team sport played in the Mokokchung district of Nagaland to identify the strongest people in the village.

A circle is drawn on the ground.
The Aami team must stay inside the circle, forming a human chain.
The Aakho team starts outside the circle.
Two players from the Aakho team enter the circle to push Aami players out. Pushed-out players are eliminated.
The Aami team tries to surround and catch the Aakho players. A caught Aakho player is only released when they say Joko (surrender).
Points are gained whenever a team gets an opponent out.

The game ends when one of the following occurs:

Special titles are awarded to outstanding players:

Vocabulary & Grammar

Words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings:

their / there: "There is a beautiful park..." / "They completed their work..."
two / too: "Two of my friends..." / "I was too tired..."
through / threw: "The bowler threw the ball..." / "I can see the clouds through my window..."
caught / cot: "My mother caught me..." / "I sleep on a cot..."
right / write: "Look to your right..." / "Write in a neat handwriting..."

Used to describe events that happened in the past.

Regular Verbs: Formed by adding -ed (e.g., live → lived, challenge → challenged, visit → visited, point → pointed, jump → jumped, enjoy → enjoyed).
Irregular Verbs: Do not follow the -ed rule (e.g., come → came, drink → drank, drive → drove, see → saw).

Traditional Games of India

The chapter highlights several traditional Indian games:

Lagori / Seven Stones: Players knock down a stack of seven stones with a ball and try to rebuild it before being hit by the opponent's ball.
Kabaddi: A team game where a raider crosses into the opponent's half chanting "kabaddi" without taking a breath, tagging opponents and returning safely.
Gilli-danda: Played with two wooden sticks (a short one and a long one) where the short stick is struck into the air and hit far away.
London Bridge / Arch Game: Two children form an arch with their arms while others walk under it singing a song; the caught player joins the arch.
Kancha / Marbles: Children use a marble to hit and knock other marbles out of a circle.

Let us Explore

Hornbill Festival: A famous festival in Nagaland held to promote and showcase the rich culture and heritage of the state.