People of Madras
Ep. 07
Vinita Sidhartha
Published on October 01, 2022
Kreeda Games began as a company that Vinita Sidhartha founded in 2002 which re-designed and sold traditional games of Tamil Nadu. Vinita says that the inspiration stemmed from watching her children connect with their grandparents through games. A unique initiative, Kreeda takes up something that most people dismiss as trivial and has managed to document the histories of many games ingrained in Tamil Nadu culture.
Their latest campaign is titled “Preserve Our Games and Protect Our Floors”. It is an initiative that aims to document the various games found on temple floors before they are lost in the wave of temple renovations taking place in the state. The work of documenting games in temples is not new to Kreeda, however. 2009 was a particularly successful year, Vinita recalls. She urges people to join this campaign.
“There are three things people can do,” she says. Firstly, to sign up, for there is strength in numbers. Secondly, people can take pictures of games they find in temples, along with a short video that shows where in the temple they found the game. This would help analyse its nature. Lastly, to talk to the elders in one's community to try and identify the game, its rules, and stories.
When asked about a memorable incident Vinita experienced in her 20 years running Kreeda, she recounts meeting an elderly man who approached her after a talk she gave in Chennai. He asked her to guess his age; surprised, she did. He laughingly replied that she was wrong because right then, he felt seven years old again. That event made her realise how Kreeda impacted people. Vinita says she loves seeing people interact with the games. The elderly play with a sense of nostalgia, while the young adults use it to get in touch with their heritage. For the children, well, it's just a whole new game, she adds.
A journalist by profession and a director of an IT company, Vinita has her hands full. Not that she seems to mind! “It works for the mind, body, and soul,” she says, “And Kreeda is definitely the soul.”
🖋 Rhea Suresh
