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India: Demand for indoor games on the rise, as Covid lockdown continues

Vijayawada - The demand for indoor games has tripled and dealers say they are running out of supplies

It's back again to carrom boards, chess games, ludo, housie and indoor games. Goodbye for now to cricket, football and other outdoor games. And it's all because of the pandemic that has been raging across the world, and especially in India.

Playing outdoor games is virtually not possible with many Indian states and cities observing 12- to 18-hour long curfew like conditions. Schools and colleges are also closed, so kids are back to carroms and cards. And with demand for these games soaring, the stocks are depleting rapidly.

Gautham Reddy and Murali Krishna of Lakshmi Ganapathi Sports Planet in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh told a newspaper that sales of carrom boards have almost doubled to 15 a day.

“The sale of indoor games equipment has picked up,” said Gautham.

“But business is as usual as there are no institutional sales (schools and colleges). Prices have been increased by 5 per cent.”

People are increasingly buying housie, ludo, snakes and ladder and carrom boards, said another shopkeeper. Many dealers who were selling less than five chess boards a day now say demand has tripled.

“Stocks have almost exhausted, and we are unable to meet the demand,” said Thimmaya of General Sports, one of the oldest shops.

“Supplies from Kolkata, Meerut and Jalandhar have either come down, or stopped due to lockdown.”