It’s an egg tray… It’s a contraption to bewilder the onlooker… It contains secret holes to stash away the moolah… It’s actually a game. Sorry, no prizes for guessing. Called Pallanguli in Tamil (Vamana Gunta in Telugu), it is apparently played in Thailand too. Took me a long time to convince my friends this side of the Vindhyas. But this lovely piece I picked up for Rs 250 in the antique market of Karaikudi, in Chettinad, Tamil Nadu, brings back fond memories of hours of summer fun with cousins in the cool of my grandmother’s home in coastal Andhra.

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