Playing Parcheesi in my Pajamas

Within the last couple of days, Isabelle has learned to play Parcheesi.

At bedtime, a big part of the ritual in the Riddy household is 'putting on the pajamas'.

Yesterday, we were considering make a run to an IMAX theater to catch the new movie Avatar (still haven't done that).

It's an Indian vocab day!

Recently, I found myself explaining what an avatar was to one of my nongaming colleagues (I'd like to call him a luddite, but since he uses more technology than any other teacher I know, I guess I won't go there).  However, my brother is the one who pointed out to me that the word is Indian in origin (from the Sanskrit avatara - originally for the crossing over or manifestation of a god on Earth).  The computer based use of the word really took off after its use in an influential 1992 sci fi novel, Snow Crash.

Pachis means 25 in Hindi, the highest 'roll' (of sea snail shells rather than dice!) possible in the parcheesi precurser Pachisis.

Pyjama come to us westerners via Hindi as well, although it is originally from the Persian word for leg garmet, Payjama.

We are communicating today in a language that has more words than any other and most of that is due to our easy adoption of the foreign words and novel uses of old words.  Our language is our cultural heritage whether we know it or not;  No British Empire in India, and I would just be playing another cross-and-circle game in my leg garments wondering if I will ever get a chance to see that latest film "Manifestation"...