When was the last time you dusted up your good old Ludo board and had a game before bedtime? Or played Snakes and Ladders, whispering silent prayers so you don’t end up inside the mouth of the snake that awaits just a block away from the winning mark? If you still fancy your old Monopoly board over virtually slicing fruits on a phone screen, then Good Old Games, a mini-museum and retail outlet in Hyderabad, could be your next gaming hub.
From Ashta Chamma to Pulijudam (Game of Goats and Tigers) to a chess board fashioned after Baahubali, Good Old Games is selling some of the oldest traditional games from India. These games are a treasure trove for a generation that transitioned from playing gilli danda on the streets to being glued to their smartphone screens.
At the Good Old Games store at Hyderabad’s Banjara Hills, over 150 varieties of games are neatly arranged in shelves with a yellow light dazzling upon the glossy wooden dices and boards.
Archana and Sangeeta, the masterminds behind the store, say that while the intention behind setting up the store was to introduce a whole new world of games to children, it’s mostly adults who are hitting the game museum now, eager to revive the memories of an era bygone.
“It was a series of incidents that made us realise that we need to revive the ‘good old games’ before they go extinct. Sangeeta and I have been friends for the past 12 years and most of our discussions revolve around our children and their schooling. We have always been amazed at how this generation of kids prefers to stay indoors, play on their iPhones and wear their glasses around like a badge of honour,” says Archana, one of the owners.
One day, as Sangeeta fell sick, the two friends wanted to kill time and played a board game which was lying around the house. “We realised we had not lost touch and thought why not introduce our children to the games we played, rather than just describing our lively childhoods to them,” she tells TNM.
Baahubali chess board
Good Old Games is not a game parlour but is a retail outlet where kids and grown-ups can have a look at the myriad board games and pick one after reading the instruction manuals kept beside each game. One of the most popular games, according to Archana, is the Ashta Chamma, played using dice or cowry shells (smooth, shiny shells with a slit-like opening). It is one of the oldest traditional games in India that even finds a mention in the Mahabharata epic.
With faint similarities to Ludo, Ashta Chamma is a two or four-player board game played using cowry shells. For every four shells landing with the mouth down, a ‘chamma’ is formed and the player gets a point. If all four shells fall with their mouth up, an ‘ashta’ is formed and the player scores an additional four points. The game progresses as the players move upward on the board according to the points they score.
Ashta Chamma
“Goats and Tigers is also an equally popular game, where one player gets the goats and the other the tigers,” Archana explains, adding, “If the tiger has to win, it has to kill all the goats and for the goat to win, it has to remain defensive and surround the tigers. It’s a strategic game where the players have to think a lot and be calculative. During our childhood days, such games helped a great deal in honing our counting capabilities.”
The duo not only has expertise in board games but also sells toys, rattles, tic-tac-toe games, pamparams (ancient tops) and non-toxic masks.
“All the games in the store are hand-made. For non-toxic games and articles, we procured natural, chemical-free sources to dye them. Since some of the games are made using fabrics, we use hand-painted kalamkaari, and for others, we used Sholapur wood. Since the games are customised, the raw materials are not procured in bulk,” Archana adds.
Taking grandma’s help to finding artisans
To curate the 150 games available at the store wasn’t an easy feat, Archana says. Until a year ago, Archana and Sangeeta occasionally held exhibitions in the city and overwhelmed with the response, the duo decided to set up a retail store.
“We first made a list of all the games we knew. Then we sat with our grandparents and wrote down the games they played. We met people who were extensively into playing games. But the actual work began when we had to decide who would make the games for us. It isn’t a piece of painting or an artwork. If a safe zone has to be on the third row, second column, the artisan has to make sure it is at the exact spot. One mistake and the whole game goes wrong,” Archana says.
Sangeeta and Archana took four years to set up the store. They travelled across the length and breadth of the country in search of artisans who would make the boards according to their specifications.
“Most of our orders are worked upon by artisans from Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka. It was one of our friends who suggested that we visit the Chithirai Thiruvizha jatara held in Madurai, a fair that is sort of a tribute to the almost extinct games in the country. And hence our first collection was also commissioned in Madurai,” recalls Archana.
As Archana shows the visitors around the store, she says many of them come in search of games that could be presented as gifts and that there are still people who buy games to decorate their living spaces.
“Though the purpose remains to cultivate the habit of playing in groups, we are happy that the games are creating curiosity and people are willing to make it a part of their family. After all, traditional games are all about playing a large groups, involving the family, sharing and learning that a world exists beyond the virtual reality that we have got so accustomed to,” Archana adds.