WHAT IS KREEDA? WHAT DOES IT MEAN? WHAT DO YOU DO?
These are questions many people ask me. The word Kreeda means “play” in Sanskrit. The Kreeda brand of Indian Traditional Games is owned by the firm Masterpage of which I am the founder.But to just call Kreeda a brand of games is to understate its importance. It’s so much more than just that. Kreeda is a passion born out of a deep desire to find our traditional games and to ensure that all of them are back in play.
We essentially look at games from three perspectives – Research, Retail and Revival. When I say research most people seem to think it’s just about finding other games. Yes, that’s definitely an important aspect of what Kreeda does. But it’s also about understanding why we play the games we do; how these games impact life or how they reflect life
It’s about documenting references to games in popular culture because, they indicate the impact games have had on us. It’s about finding indications of games and stories related to them across the country because it gives us some sense of the antiquity of the games. It’s about finding games carved in various places, graffiti games, and trying to understand how they came to be there. It’s about sharing the experiences of people who have played many of these games and what it meant in their lives.
I remember having a conversation with my father once, when the Bambaram (or spinning top) had just been made. My father looked at it and started laughing as he recollected many stories about how he played with his brothers and friends. These stories were fascinating from many points of view and it gave an indication of what happy memories he had of playing the game. In much the same way these games have left happy memories in the lives of so many people. It was also fascinating as a daughter, to understand that there was a time when my dad was a child as well, happy, laughing and carefree. Think about it. How often do we get to see that.
The second part of what we do is retailing the games. While yes this is a very important part of our business, it also comes from the deep desire to bring the games back into play, No amount of dusty books left on library shelfs or pages and pages of research will save these games from extinction unless people actually play these games. And if these games are not played in the next generation or two, we run the risk of losing them forever and with that the rich culture of traditional games we have in our country.
In an effort to revive interest in these games, Kreeda conducts many events, talk shows, game sessions, and the like, bringing games to people from different walks of life. The purpose of these is to revive the passion and excitement that traditional games can bring to us. To understand that the games are not something that are apart from life but a part of life itself.
To sum it all, Kreeda is an organisation, a brand but so much more. To me it is an initiative, a movement to bring our traditional games back into play. A movement which I hope you and I can together make a success and preserve these games for eternity.
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