India's traditional games are disappearing. Not dramatically — quietly. As children move indoors, drawn to screens and away from streets, games like Hopscotch, Gilli Danda, Chain-Chain, and Seven Stones are fading from everyday life. With them goes something harder to name. A shared physical culture, a way of playing together, a piece of childhood that belonged to everyone regardless of background or means. The aim was to make people stop and notice what was being lost.

An illustrative series celebrating India's traditional games bringing Blindfold, Gilli Danda, Seven Stone, and Chain-Chain to life through warm, characterful illustration. Each piece captures not just the game but the feeling of playing it, the energy, the noise, the joy of being outside together. The series was designed to work as both a cultural document and a visual celebration. Something that evokes nostalgia in those who grew up playing these games, and curiosity in those who didn't.

This project started with the memory, the kind that lives in the body more than the mind. The sound of chalk on pavement, the rules explained by siblings, the argument about whether someone was really out. These games were never just games. They were how children learned to negotiate, cooperate, take turns, and belong to something together.

The illustration series was a deliberate act of documentation and celebration , way of saying these games exist, they matter, and they are worth remembering. The warm palette was chosen to feel like late afternoon light, the time of day when children used to spill out of houses and into the street. Each illustration was designed to trigger recognition in those who played these games as a child, and curiosity in those who never has.

This series is a small act of remembering — before these games are too far gone to recall.

year

2023

timeframe

6 Months

tools

Photoshop

category

Personal Project

01

Illustration 1, Blindfold

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Illustration 2, Gilli Danda

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Illustration 3, Chain-Chain

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Illustration 4, Seven Stones