A family stuck at home in 1985 had lots for entertainment – chess, carrom, ludo, cards…. A family stuck at home in 2025 still has those options, but chances are that every member will pick something else – the phone.
“I played so many games as a child… chess, ludo, the card game dosh pochish, kori, pasha, but I’m unable to introduce my son to many of these as they are nearly extinct. I couldn’t even find a bagatelle board in shops to teach him,” says Sudip Pandit of CG Block.
Pandit is an international-level bridge player, but plays any indoor sport he can. “Carrom is still played in street corners, and I join wherever I see it being played,” he said on the sidelines of the pan-India 67th Ashok Ruia Winter Nationals bridge tournament at Biswa Bangla Convention Centre that is underway till December 11.
Blame it on phone
Onkar Banerjee, joint secretary of the CK-CL Block committee, blames the smartphone to a great extent. “The most popular indoor game now is fidgeting on the phone,” says Onkar. “People use it minimally to talk or send texts and waste most of their time on social media. So there’s no one to blame but themselves.”
Banerjee’s block has introduced indoor sports facilities in its hall, with mixed results. “Table tennis and carrom still get some players, but chess has very few. There are talks of getting coaches for these games to increase participation,” he says.
The ladies’ round at the 67th Ashok Ruia Winter Nationals bridge tournament at Biswa Bangla Convention Centre on Monday. Picture by Brinda Sarkar
Tripti Majumder Bhattacharya, a PT and Bengali teacher at FE Block’s municipal school, has always been an avid sportsperson but says children today are least interested in sports now, indoors or outdoors. “They do the bare minimum required for marks and nothing beyond. They care more about how to sneak phones into class. The phone has single-handedly ruined the popularity of many games,” says the BL Block resident.
The lady still plays ludo and snakes and ladders at home, and last year, when BL Block’s Kali puja committee held a carrom contest, she won it too. “Our carrom board got damaged during house renovation, and I hope to pick up a new one from the Bidhannagar Mela (Utsav) this time. Last year I bought a chessboard, and my daughter Proma, in Class X, is still teaching me,” she says.
Barriers to entry
“One is most likely to play bridge if one’s parents played it, so now every generation will be lesser and lesser exposed to it. Plus, in India there’s still a stigma around card games,” says Joyjit Sensharma, bridge player and coach to players from 27 countries, including legends like Pakistani-American player Zia Mahmood.
Sensharma, a resident of Jal Vayu Towers, was at the bridge tournament at Convention Centre. “Card games like poker are adopted more easily as the rules are way simpler than bridge. Even chess can be taught much faster. But for bridge one needs to be handheld by a player, and one needs to read a lot to learn it. How many can invest such patience today?” he wonders.
Bridge is also a partner game. “You cannot improve in this game by yourself. At a time when even individual players are dwindling, how many can match timings with partners to practise? And since bridge is not a spectator sport like chess, sponsors are limited. Without sponsors, how many can travel to different cities and play against the best players to improve?” he asks.
Even so, Sensharma adds that West Bengal has the highest quantity and quality of bridge players in India. “There have been times when state-level events here saw higher participation than national-level tournaments elsewhere,” he says.
Debasish Ray, general secretary of the Bridge Federation of India and West Bengal Bridge Association, seconds him. “The fact that this tournament is happening in West Bengal after six years itself indicates massive participation. This time it’s an 11-day event with 700 participants. And youth are still attracted to the game as the Railways and Central Excise departments provide jobs to good players,” said Ray.
Piggybacking online
Some games have benefited from their online avatars. “I learnt bridge during the lockdown and could only form a steady partnership with my Calcutta-based friend Ramani Menon as we could co-ordinate online,” said Ekta Chadda, who had come from Delhi for the bridge tournament.
Several games that were dying a natural death got a new lease of life during the lockdown. “Offline ludo is dead, but online ludo took over the country during the pandemic. Many continue to play it,” says Shameek Dey Sannamath of BL Block. “There have been times when four of us friends, sitting on a bus, have played online ludo with each other to kill time.”
His friends also regularly play the card games 29 and Monopoly Deal. “We meet at someone’s house one or two Sundays a month and play all night,” he says. “In 2020, when puja functions were limited, we’d meet at the pandal and play these too. Monopoly Deal is hugely popular among MBA students as it’s about strategising, and 29 is something we’ve been playing since childhood.”
Dey Sannamath is also a senior committee member of Spectrum, the cultural fiesta at BL Block’s Kali Puja, which is famous for indoor games.
Most youths prefer spending time on their smartphones these days than giving indoor games a try
“Video games are the most popular there. To accommodate new games, we’ve tried to remove these, but the kids protest. We introduced carrom last year – it got 20 or 22 entrants – and also chess. The gaming console PlayStation is a huge hit across homes, and many players log in daily. But we want to promote offline games to get players to meet and socialise,” he says.
Shelly Mukherjee of AE Block played lots of games as a child, but now her prime pastime is online ludo.
“I started during the lockdown, and now I play about two hours a day. I can play with friends or strangers. Since it’s a global game, I can even log in at midnight if I’m unable to sleep, and always find players from different parts of the world ready to play,” Mukherjee explains.
But the online version has its downsides. Besides being addictive, other players can be pesky.
“Sometimes they send unwarranted messages asking if you’re married, saying they don’t have a girlfriend, and use foul language. I’m not able to block the messages, and I’ll lose virtual money if I quit, so I have to put up with it,” she sighs.
Her daughter Anwesha Kanjilal is in Class XII and busy with school, “but I’ve played UNO and Bingo off and on. I tried chess but quit when I couldn’t follow it. Online ludo is all right, but I prefer watching baby and dog videos on Instagram,” she smiles.
Mass appeal
BD Block-based club Balaka Salt Lake City started a carrom tournament a few years ago that has hit the jackpot.
“We get maximum footfall during this contest. Friends and family come to cheer the players, spectators develop favourites…. We always had carrom boards in our club, but the tournament has sparked renewed interest,” says former president and advisor of the club, Kanchan Jana.
The tournament is named after his mother Dr Nilakshi Jana.
“We started this event to save the game,” he says. “We could have started a bridge tournament too, but the game may be associated with gambling and addiction, so we decided against it.”
He’s not wrong. Several footpaths of Salt Lake have men sprawled out in the afternoons playing cards, but when The Telegraph Salt Lake approached them, they were too scared to speak. Passers-by guessed that gambling was involved.
Amal Kumar Basak, a 78-year-old from CG Block, has been stellar at bridge, chess, carrom, and table tennis, playing some of them even at the state level.
“Some years back in Bangalore, I saw some Bengali engineering students buying an expensive carrom board. I was delighted and offered to teach them the game, but they said it wasn’t for playing. Their flat was infested with rats, and they wanted to use the board to kill the mice! I was so shocked and saddened to see the state of the once popular game,” he says.
But carrom has a future in the lanes and bylanes, Basak assures.
“Our garbage collector plays carrom at BH Park, and whenever we pass, they throw away their bidis and invite my wife and me to play with them,” he says.
During his IIT days, Basak played chess so much that he had started talking of moves in his sleep.
“It was taking over my life, so I quit. This is why I don’t want my grandson to learn chess. It consumes you and becomes an addiction,” says the resident, who was a member of a township-based bridge club too, but quit when he felt its culture was getting diluted.
“Bridge is a game associated with utmost decorum, but the players today swear, shout and reduce the gentleman’s game to that of a roadside’s. They come only because they are addicted to the game. I don’t want to be part of it anymore,” he says sadly.
Change in demand
When Gift House opened near the Swimming Pool in 1991, for about 10 years, customers would come and ask for indoor games by name.
“Then came a stage when they would say they have such-and-such game and look for new ones. Then the smartphone came and changed everything. Now ludo and chess are the only games that sell somewhat, and that too, only among the older generation,” says Barin Sarkar from behind the counter.
Kaushik Sarda, of the kids’ store Lil Champs in City Centre, rattles off multiple games that were once hugely popular.
“Carrom, Business, Ludo, Connect Four…. These were legendary games. Newer titles are coming up now, but none will reach that cult status as players don’t even give them a chance. To play these, four people need the patience to sit together for two hours. Who can invest so much time today?”