The physics of granular systems runs into both kinematic and dynamic issues. Unilateral constraints that arise from rigid objects not being able to penetrate each other give rise to problems that are kinematic in nature. Furthermore, the presence of dry friction gives rise to dynamic issues. I will present an alternative geometrical framework to deal with such situations and demonstrate its utility by using this framework to explain a few simple but highly counter institutive experimental results, e.g., objects climbing against gravity, sand piles that cannot be flattened by shaking it, etc. These examples highlight our attempt to use the kinematic and dynamic issues to our advantage.