Board Games - A Child's Play

Summer vacations are on, cartoon shows on television are the most favourite and preferred pastime for kids these days as I see my nephews glued to one or the other shows on the idiot box. That was not so a decade or two back, summer meant exams followed by loads of fun in the form of indoor and outdoor games and sports.

Since last eight days the Kreedaa Kaushalya exhibition has been successful in attracting lot of kids. Children are enthralled seeing varieties of board games with colourful pawns, dice and cowries to play with.

Bhavya, here, liked Aligulimane (Mancala). Oblivious to the surrounding he started sowing fourteen pits with cowrie shells round and round.

Little Shakti, dressed in her best was intrigued by the richly painted chess men which looked like two armies marching forward. She was hesitant to touch them and rather preferred appreciating them from afar.

Yash, in blue shirt, is a kid from the neighborhood who comes daily to play with his cousins at the game parlour in the exhibition. He is filling cowrie shells into one of the beautiful mancala boards crafted out of brass in lost wax process.

Little Anagha was disturbed by the way pawns were arranged on this game-stool sporting a version of Goats & Tigers game. She diligently went about removing pawns from not only this game but all others too.

Ayush, here, loves to play chess and when he saw this beautifully crafted wooden chess men painted with 18 karat gold leaf could not take his eyes off. He started nagging his parents to buy the set for him. He had to settle for a humble board of Snakes and Ladders handpainted on cloth.

Younger generations are growing up ignorant of the rich gaming tradition of our land. They play and love Ludo but do not know that its predecessor is the Indian game - Pachisi or Pagade. Kids love to climb up the ladders and slide down the snakes in Snakes and Ladders but are unaware of the fact that it is the European version of the original Indian game 'Paramapada'.

The motto of Kreedaa Kaushalya is to reinvent these games in a new avatar, present it to the public and create awareness about the gaming tradition which lies buried under layers and layers of time.

Come, rediscover our games, understand our roots.