Bonding over board games

Once a childhood staple tucked away in cupboards for summer holidays, tabletop play is back at the centre of adult lives, community spaces, corporate cultures & wellness routines

- VAISHALI DAR

WHILE GROWING UP in Ludhiana, Shradha Jain, the founder of Studio. Clock. Works, a creative studio, watched generations bond over tabletop games like tambola, rummy and ludo. But it wasn’t until her early 20s, during a visit to the Luba Hamied Centre for children in Mumbai, that the 40-year-old gaming enthusiast felt “like stepping into a wonderland”, surrounded by traditional board games.

“I can never forget how I felt. That one visit got me delving deep into the world of board games. I started researching online about all the traditional games that I’d never played,” says Jain.

Today, Jain is part of India’s tabletop community, volunteering with TTOX, the tabletop games expo, supporting Indian designers, and building game libraries everywhere from Bengaluru classrooms to Himalayan villages. “Games are equalisers, spaces where age, background, language and status dissolve. In cities such as Pune, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru, there are strong gaming communities, and over 100 to 200 exclusive gaming cafes,” adds Jain.

In a world where our thumbs do most of the socialising, scrolling, tapping, the simplest act of sitting around a table, rolling dice, and sharing a laugh makes one feel refreshed. Board games, once a childhood staple tucked away in cupboards for summer holidays, are back at the centre of adult lives, community spaces, corporate wellnes and wellness routines.

The new social glue

While there are communities nurturing this segment, TTOX India is accelerating the demand. With over a hundred tabletop games played and explored, the biennial convention in Bengaluru has rapidly transformed from a community gathering into a critical commercial launchpad for the Indian market.