KARACHI: Saleem and his four-year-old daughter had many board games, including ludo and checkers, lined up along the black iron grill of a little park in Phase II of the Defence Housing Authority and there were several cars which passed them by at first but then, after being prompted by somebody inside those cars, their drivers slowly reversed for a better second look at the games.

“Usually, it is not a child but a grown-up who is interested in these games,” Saleem told Dawn. “The lockdown has presented us with the luxury of time to introduce them to our children. Otherwise all these indoor board games were lost in time,” he added.

“And the lockdown has also forced me to think of a new way to earn my livelihood,” he says, explaining that he used to polish cars at a cars’ showroom on main Korangi Road earlier.

“Seeing the revival in popularity of these games, I also bought several in bulk from places such as Boulton Market and Jodia Bazaar. There are so many people selling them on footpaths there against the closed shop shutters,” he said.

Saleem had picked up some nice pieces from the market. He had ludo boards as well as the same in a form of a bigger plastic sheet, which one can spread on the floor to sit around. Among the other board games he had checkers and Crorepati, an Urdu version of Monopoly. Only the checkers game was worth Rs300. All the others he was selling were under that price.

‘This isolation from the world due to the pandemic is bringing us back together inside the four walls of our homes’

“I have noticed big supermarkets and stores these days also displaying these games but they are slightly costly there. Mine are not costly at all, and God Almighty has been very kind to enable me to retain my dignity and earn some money through the sales I make every day,” he said.

Away from ‘depressive news’

“The television and social media has kept us glued to the screens during this pandemic and this lockdown. It will do us a lot of good to get our minds off all the depressive news, especially during Ramazan,” said an elderly customer, who said that he wanted to introduce his grandchildren to the games, especially ludo and checkers, while school was off.

He also asked Saleem if he had Scrabble too or carom, but he didn’t and promised to get them the next day.

“They are all much more than mere board games. They used to help family members bond,” the gentleman spoke about indoor board games. “Today everyone is in the habit of playing games on their smartphone or the computer, which is another kind of isolation. But this isolation from the world due to the pandemic is bringing us back together inside the four walls of our homes. We may keep our distances physically, but we are talking more to each other and have more time to listen to each other,” he said.

Meanwhile, another customer after buying all two of the board games from Saleem, drove off and reversed a third time due to an afterthought. “I remembered my childhood when all of us brothers and sisters along with our cousins had our worst fights around these games when the dice or any of the pieces got misplaced or lost,” she laughed sharing a childhood memory. “Bhai, would you happen to have extra dice and pieces?” She turned to Saleem, who gladly sold her extra pieces packed separately for both ludo and checkers.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2020