Back to Tribune. HomeT-Magazine. Another turn for ludoT-Magazine. Next Story. Another turn for ludo. Once a
“Back to Tribune. HomeT-Magazine. Another turn for ludoT-Magazine. Next Story. Another turn for ludo. Once a family pastime, the board game is finding a new life at chai hotels. ByNabil Tahir|Design by: Anusha Nas…”
Back to Tribune. HomeT-Magazine. Another turn for ludoT-Magazine. Next Story. Another turn for ludo. Once a family pastime, the board game is finding a new life at chai hotels. By. Nabil Tahir|Design by: Anusha NasirfacebooktwitterwhatsuplinkdedemailPUBLISHED August 16, 2026It is supposed to be just one game. Four friends sit around a Ludo board at a chai hotel, each insisting they don't have the time to spend the entire evening here.
Some places provide them themselves; at others, customers have been bringing their own boards for years. And sometimes, what begins as a way to pass the time over chai becomes the reason to stay for another cup. From Chai to Ludo. For Muzammil Hassan, a Ludo board is also good for business. At his chai cafe in Gulistan-e-Johar, there are around 50 seats spread across 10 tables.
New chai and coffee places are increasingly keeping cards and board games for customers, something he believes gives groups another reason to sit together without everyone disappearing into their phones. But the idea of playing Ludo over chai did not begin with the newer cafes.
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Long before Muzammil put four boards on his tables, customers at traditional Quetta hotels were already arriving with boards of their own. Before the Cafes caught on. At Qadeer Khan's Quetta chai dhaba in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, nobody quite remembers when the first Ludo board appeared. It has been years, Qadeer says.
And everyone has at least one tea during a match, sometimes two, so by the end of a best of three or best of five, that's a lot of tea.”It was hardly a professional tournament, but the instinct to turn a casual game of Ludo into a competition is not entirely new in Karachi.
In December 2011, Royal Rodale Club organised what was billed at the time as Karachi's inaugural Ludo tournament.
Players still choose which token to move, when to leave the safety of home, whether to chase an opponent and when taking a risk is worth it. Karachi never appears to have developed the kind of regular, visible tournament circuit that the organisers of the 2011 competition had hoped for.
What begins as their game can quickly attract an audience, with people they don't know choosing a player to support and reacting to what is happening on the board. That is also what they feel is missing when the same game is played on a phone. Digital versions have made it possible to play Ludo without carrying a board, finding three other people or even sitting in the same room.
At one table, though, four coloured sets of tokens are being arranged back at their starting positions. The board that once came out of a cupboard at home has found another place to stay. And despite what the players may have evening, apparently there is still time for one more game.
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Written by Ahad Raza Mir
Aman-e-Pakistan Senior Journalist & Bureau Reporter
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