Pen fight, Raja Mantri Chor Sipahi, Red hands, Chinese whisper, and other games that will take every ’90s kids back to school

1. Pen Fight

This game needed two pens, one desk, and laser focus. The rule was simple: flick your pen to push the other pen off the table. No lifting, no double-touching. Best of three usually settled the battle.

2. Name–Place–Animal–Thing

The participants would pick a random letter and fill in the four columns — a name, a place, an animal, and a thing — before anyone else. Unique answers got full points, repetitions got half. Speed + handwriting = victory.

3. FLAMES

A hushed favourite among most students, the game would predict whether the two people would end up becoming friends, lovers, affair buddies, get married, become enemies, or remain siblings. After writing two names, the common letters were cut out, and the rest were counted. Then the player would go around the FLAMES acronym, and wherever the count landed was the ultimate “relationship outcome”.

4. Book Cricket

The kids would open a textbook to any page, and the last digit of the page number would be their run. Zero meant out. Entire matches were played in silence when the teacher didn’t come to class.

5. Flip the eraser

The eraser would be kept on the desk and flipped by pressing one corner. If it flipped clean and landed flat — you got a point. If it landed standing upright — which was very rare, by the way, you’d be declared a legendary winner.

6. Truth–Dare–Situation

Next gossipy staple, and a subtle platform to confess your crushes, was the juicy game of truth-dare-situation. Either a bottle was rolled in the middle of a circle, or the three options were written on tiny folded chits. Whatever the person picked, the group would assign a task or question accordingly.

7. Stone–Paper–Scissors

The timeless classic just needed your hands to be the tools: stone beats scissors, scissors beats paper, paper beats stone. The players would shake their hand, count to three and unleash their hand tool! Typically, there’d be five rounds. Whoever won the most rounds would win. A quick, decisive and perfect match for settling classroom arguments.

8. Chinese Whisper

The game was a perfect showcase of how gossip and grapevine communication worked. One student would whisper a sentence to the next. The message travelled around the circle and was spoken aloud at the end. The final version was almost always hilariously wrong.

Raja Mantri Chor Sipahi is a type of role-playing game in which each of the four players takes up the roles a Soldier (Sipahi) who has to guess the identity of the thief (photo: wikimedia commons)

9 . Paper Planes

This one was as simple as it sounds. Fold your notebook page into an aeroplane and get ready for a promised dose of fun. Distance, flight time or landing accuracy — each group had its own rules. The teacher confiscating planes was part of the tradition.

10. Tipy Tipy Tap (Paper Fortune Teller)

A colourful sheet of paper would be folded into a four-flap picker, with each side featuring different words or categories. The other player chooses a colour, then a number. The flaps would be opened and closed accordingly. The final flap revealed a “prediction” which felt too real and scandalous!

11. Raja–Mantri–Chor–Sipahi

Four chits with four roles. The Raja (king) automatically got 1000 points. The Mantri must guess who the Chor (thief) is. If they failed, the Chor stole the points. The Sipahi’s (sepoy) job was to catch the Chor—a complete little drama in under two minutes.

12. Dots & Boxes

You’d need a paper, a pen, and a competitive spirit for this one. Several rows of dots would be drawn, and then each player would take turns adding one line. Completing a box earned you a point and another turn. Initials went inside each completed square to claim it. The one with the maximum squared to their name won.

13. Red Hands

Easily one of the most adrenaline-rushing games in the classroom, Red Hands thrived on patience and your pain tolerance. It started with one player placing their hands palm-down, followed by others violently swinging and slapping their palm over theirs. If you scream, you are out. The one who would keep mum till the end was the ultimate winner.