Button, Button, Who’s Got my Button?

It’s a game children used to play, where one person would hide a button and others would try to find it. I always thought buttons were very interesting. They come in all shapes, sizes and colours and most people don’t know that buttons are closely associated in my mind with the origins of Kreeda.

When I started Kreeda and decided to expand it and continue production, the first question was what do we use for game pieces? The first set of 50 games had some game pieces locally made and painted. The local carpenter who had indulged me was not prepared to continue making these bits and bobs which he considered beneath contempt.

So, what were we to use for game pieces? I had many ideas. One of mine was to not give game pieces at all. How did people play in the old days? They picked up stones and shells and maybe nuts or grains or channa or rajma from the kitchen, or even bits of paper or sticks or broken bangles and used them in place of game pieces.  

I thought it would be fascinating to allow people to find their own game pieces. Truly, Indian in spirit, go find your own game pieces! Of all the crazy ideas I had, this one was shut down very, very fast. Nobody thought it was a good idea. My retailers were horrified at the thought, my friends thought I was crazy and deep down, I knew that I would not want to pick up a brand-new game and discover that I had to go hunting or scrambling in the garden to find game pieces. It was an idea that was no longer feasible. Not least because people did not have gardens anymore. Sadly stones, shells, twigs, trees are rapidly disappearing from our day-to-day life.  

So, the next question was what do we do? I woke up that morning with what I thought was a eureka moment – Buttons. I had in my mind’s eye this picture of hundreds and hundreds of cloth-covered buttons, each in the color that I wanted, neatly organized in boxes. These, I thought, would be fantastic game pieces.

It’s an idea that never took off, and I think that’s the fascinating thing about looking back. You think about all the ideas you had and the things that never happened and the things that did. You never know what’s going to work. So, the buttons did not work. Why??? First, cloth covered buttons worked out either too large or too small for what we needed. Secondly, they wouldn’t sit properly because I hadn’t taken into account the fact that there was a little knot at the bottom.

Game pieces and throw pieces were the bane of my life for a long time. It took us years and years of trial to get them right. Finally, we settled on three types of game pieces for the colored ones. This included round game pieces, the cone- shaped game piece which is the more traditional style, and what to me is my personal favorite game pieces shaped like padukas for our Ramayana series.  

Ayub Khan, my long-suffering supplier in Chennapatna who has churned out enough pieces to satisfy my various crazy ideas, diligently hand makes then in true traditional style.  These pieces satisfied the board games requiring four sets of colours, but there were many other games that required only two sets of game pieces. Wooden pieces were way too expensive We tried shells to start with until such a time an environmental agency wrote to us suggesting we stopped using shells as it impacted our biodiversity and our coral reefs. That was a big no no!

And so, we tried many things. We tried paper powder game pieces which seemed like a fabulous, sustainable eco-friendly option, but was simply impractical when it came to day-to-day life. The pieces would become dirty easily and more importantly, production was a huge challenge during rainy weather. Finally, we hit on the idea of using pebbles – natural, beautiful to look at and satisfying our requirements at cost.

I think that was the biggest challenge for me – balancing cost and the practicalities of production with aesthetics. How did we find that balance? How did we figure out what best to do? Well at Kreeda we are always reinventing ourselves to be better!  

As to my buttons, and my dreams of having boxes and boxes of them… Well, I can still play the game button, button, who’s got my button?