Category: The Story of Kreeda

With this, I come to the end of this series of blogs – a 20 day countdown to Kreeda, completing 20 years. Like any stage performance, I cannot wind up this blog without introducing the principal characters – the games. No series on Kreeda can be done without the games. It is these games that have made Kreeda…

As I have said before, my grandmother was an incredible storyteller. Many of the stories were strange when you think of them as children’s stories, but today, with age and maturity, I find that many of them have important lessons for us. One such story is of a little lamb who was drinking water from…

One of the most exciting things about Kreeda, has been listening to people share their memories of play. It all started one day, when my father had come home, and we had just received the prototype of the Bambaram (top). Like an excited little boy, he took it from me, took the cord, wound it…

There is an old proverb which says, “May you live in interesting times.” I’m not sure if I have got the wording correct but that’s the essence of it, and Kreeda definitely has given me all the interesting times I need. There have been highs and lows, the thrill of creation, the pleasure of an event,…

We sometimes need someone to state the obvious. It could be staring us in our face, and it won’t strike us till somebody tells us. I’m reminded again of one of my grandmother’s iconic stories: There was an absent-minded fly buzzing around one day. Now in the Tamil language, a fly is called “Eeee.” Now…

Kreeda gets called to the most fascinating of programs. We have conducted games for upanayanams (the sacred thread ceremony), for weddings in various occasions – the Mehendi, the Sangeet and even the Pandakal pooja (the pooja that initiates the wedding in the bride’s house). We have been called for family get-togethers, we’ve been called for…

All the tales I’ve heard about traditional games being played in the olden days, as well as my own faint memories of childhood, have helped me develop an image in my mind ― a large family gathering with bustling aunts and noisy uncles, children running around, grandparents indulgently watching, everyone surrounding a game of Dayakattam…

For many years now I have been working to revive traditional games. But to me, it was games, it was fun, some part of our culture that we ought not lose. But that’s where the meaning or the essence, the importance of it ended. However, various things happened that slowly changed my perspective and it…

For the longest of time, Kreeda was about rediscovering old games, understanding their rules and reviving them. It was about games, and it was about play, and while I realized there were some learnings, to a great extent, I thought of those as frills.  All that changed one day when I went with my mother…

For many reasons, today was a very stressful day at Kreeda. Many things didn’t go right. I was waiting to get answers to certain questions. My computer was having a problem. Just a number of little things but when they all come together, they make for a terrible day. It’s easy to assume that because…