Back In The Game

Small community trying to rekindle the love for Indian board games

Games are serious business for Pradeep Chakravarthy, a behaviourist and consultant who uses Indian history and mythology to train corporate executives to ideate and execute a plan effectively as a team. His primary tools: Aadu Puli Aatam and Dahdi, two traditional board games.

“Aadu Puli Aatam is a game of strategy; you can’t succeed unless you learn to collaborate. Dahdi is a survival game where you need to anticipate your opponents moves, says Chakravarthy, 43, explaining he uses traditional tools to equip corporate warriors at Mahindra, Ashok Leyland and Aditya Birla, among others, take on the challenges of a modern market place.

Kreeda is very essential to my work,”he adds, referring to the Chennai-based online store from where he gets his board games.

Kreeda was set up in 2002 by Vinita Sidhartha, 51, after she received positive feedback for penning an article on traditional games. It was common for her mother and children to play such games together. Sidhartha wanted to spread that joy and decided to ditch her content writing job and start a venture around her newfound love.

Kreeda and Bengaluru-based Kavade, which also has a brick-and-mortar presence, are among the two ventures that are trying to revive board games of yore. Both entities declined to share their sales numbers. It can be safely said the acceptance of such games has not become widespread yet. But they are the pin-up stars of those arguing that children should be weaned off from video games and TV to more beneficial activities. “These games develop our thinking, concentration, sensory and motor skills”, says Torsten Jarrett of Homeschooler’s Guild a group of parents who share resources among those homeschooling their children in Chennai. They are a perfect replacement to video games. Jarrett says some of the games even help boost counting skills. For instance, Chennai’s Ramanujan Museum and Maths Education Centre use the games to help teach basic arithmetic to students.

While the games in their present form were developed after research, the blueprints for these can be seen in the architecture of numerous temples.

Bengaluru-based GS Sreeranjini decided to quit her job in the life sciences sector and set up Kavade after she realised there were no ecofriendly and thoughtful games for her newborn son to play with. She set up a brick-and-mortar store in 2008 as she also wanted to interact with customers. When people come in, they often end up talking about games they have played as children. Based on this, Sreeranjini develops a prototype. She says this has helped many people relive their childhood and rekindle their cultural connect. “The essence of a game is in the conversation and the narrative around it,” she says. Sales have picked up since Kavade went online last year. But she prefers people come to her shop and buy. “The experience feels incomplete if they haven’t seen the physical game.

“Finding Kavade was like being transported to another world,” says 26-year-old Sachin Pathak, an entrepreneur. “I had played Chowkabara as a child. I missed that experience. What I like is that the games really sharpen your mind.”

Chowkabara, a variant of Ludo and popular in South India, was Archana Bhambhani’s favourite as well. Despite her Punjabi background, she used to enjoy this game during her childhood days in Bengaluru. “Regional barriers notwithstanding, these games are a part of our culture. The games are easy to comprehend across generations,” says the marketing manager whose 11-year-old daughter, Dia, too enjoys the games.

Another Bengaluru resident who has taken a fancy to board games is Tushara Harish. The former software engineer went a step further and designed Dharma Patha. This variant of Snakes and Ladders is played on a board that is marked in Sanskrit and it helps players learn about ancient Hindu traditions. Harish, who sells the game via Twitter, says the reception has been encouraging. “It has reached almost all states from Jammu to Kerala and Gujarat to Tripura.” She has sold 350 pieces since she started selling in February. “The details of the games are shared through Twitter, email and Whatsapp.”

The cultural sentiment resonates with Indians abroad, too. Sujata Srinivasan, a US-based journalist, got hooked to Paramapada Sopanam (similar to Snakes and Ladders) two years ago. “As my husband and I play with our son now, it’s gratifying to see that he’s connected to a great Indian tradition,” she says. Connecticut-based Srinivasan has since started gifting the games to non-Indian friends as well, who stocks up the games on her visits to India.

“The appeal of these games is very elementary,” says Kreeda’s Sidhartha. “It doesn’t matter what language you speak, or how educated you are, or where you live. 40% of my customers are from Maharashtra, Delhi, Kolkata and Lucknow.”

In the days of mobile games, it may not be always easy to get children to play such board games, concedes Kavade’s Sreeranjini. But it is worth a shot to expose them to these options. However, the pricing is a tricky aspect. On an average, a game costs around Rs 500. The simpler ones are available for Rs 100, while the more complicated ones can cost around Rs 1,000 or more. “The games that we used to draw on stools and play are now priced at Rs 500,” says Sreeranjini. Siddhartha says the games are made by local artisans from high-quality ecofriendly materials and so it is difficult to cut the cost. That is precisely why she finds it difficult to sell via Amazon. “It (Amazon) works on discounts. If I could sell the games at a lower price, I would. What we are trying to do is to create a sustainable interest in Indian games,” Siddhartha adds.

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