Bachpan ke games: the childhood games of India, and how to play them again

Updated 2026-09-28 · Mandli

Summer holidays at nani's house. Power cut in the afternoon. Six cousins, one notebook, a pencil that kept breaking, and a board game with half its gotis replaced by rajma. If you grew up in India, you know exactly what that felt like.

This is a list of bachpan ke games, the school and childhood games so many of us played for hours without any screen. For each one, we've written the rules the way you'll remember them, so you can teach them to your kids or play them again with friends who are now spread across cities.

Most of these still work best with paper and a board. But if your old gang is scattered, Mandli, our free desi party-games app, has many of them, so you can play together from different cities with voice chat, and nobody has to hunt for the missing dice.

1. Raja Mantri Chor Sipahi

The chit game from every summer holiday. Four chits are folded: Raja, Mantri, Chor and Sipahi. Everyone picks one. The Raja announces himself, and the Mantri has to guess who the Chor is. Guess right and everyone keeps their points. Guess wrong and the Chor takes the Mantri's points.

In Mandli the classic points are there: Raja 1000, Mantri 800, Sipahi 500 and Chor 0, with extra roles like Rani and Senapati as more people join, up to 8. For bigger groups of 5 to 15, Chor Sipahi, bada group adds a second Mantri, a Daaku and a Jasoos who can secretly peek at one chit.

2. Naam Jagah Janwar Cheez

One page, four columns, one letter. Someone says 'M', and everyone races to write a name, a place, an animal and a thing starting with M. The first person done shouts 'Stop!'

The fights were always about scoring. Is 'Mumbai' a place if two people wrote it? Does 'Mango' count as a cheez? In the app, you get 60 seconds, a unique answer is worth 10, the same answer as someone else 5, and a wrong or empty box 0. Everyone can challenge a doubtful answer with a thumbs down.

3. Antakshari

Bus trips, school picnics, family weddings. Antakshari was everywhere. Sing a song that starts with the last letter of the previous song. Teams, arguments over whether 'Ha' counts as 'H', and one uncle who knew every song from 1965.

In Mandli, the app shows the letter and gives each singer 30 seconds, and the others judge the song. Every 5th turn is a special round, where you sing a song of a named star or hum a tune for others to guess.

4. Saanp Seedhi and Ludo

The two boards every Indian home had, often printed on either side of the same board.

In Saanp Seedhi, you roll the dice, climb the ladders, slide down the snakes, and try to land on exactly 100. Some families needed a 6 to start, and Mandli has that as a host option.

In Ludo, a 6 brings a goti out of the ghar. You go round the board, cut other people's gotis to send them home, and hide on the safe star squares. The rule every family fought over: does a 6 give you another turn? In Mandli it does, and so does cutting a goti or reaching home.

5. Chor Sipahi and the chit games

In many schools, Chor Sipahi was just another name for the Raja Mantri chit game, or a version with only a Chor and a Sipahi. Either way, it was the game you could play in the back row with torn pieces of a notebook page.

If your group has grown, the bada group version is closest to how it felt with a whole class: more chits, more suspects, and more drama when the Mantri guesses wrong.

6. Pallanguzhi

In many South Indian homes, the wooden Pallanguzhi board with its two rows of 7 pits was a treasure, often played with seeds, shells or tamarind seeds. You pick up the seeds from one pit and sow them one by one into the next pits, and capture seeds depending on where the last one lands.

Every family had different rules. Mandli plays one clear set: 14 pits, 5 seeds each, 70 in all, and the pasu rule on by default: whenever sowing leaves a pit with exactly 4 seeds, the owner of that row takes them.

7. Navakankari and Bagh Bakri

Two board games often drawn with chalk on the floor or scratched onto a stone.

Navakankari is played on three squares, one inside the other. Each player has 9 kankari. Take turns placing them, then moving them. Make a line of three and you remove one of your opponent's pieces. When you're down to three, you can fly anywhere.

Bagh Bakri is four tigers against twenty goats. The tigers hunt by jumping over goats. The goats try to surround the tigers so they can't move. Catch 5 goats and the Bagh wins; trap all four Bagh and the Bakri win.

8. Carrom, Daba Khel and Vyapaar

A few more that belong on the list:

• Carrom: the colony clubhouse board, the powder, and the one friend who always pocketed the Rani and forgot to cover it.
• Daba Khel: dots and boxes on the last page of a school notebook. Draw a line, close a box, and draw again.
• Vyapaar: the buy-cities-and-collect-rent board game that every family played with fake notes and real arguments. Mandli's version uses Indian cities, and the money is Mandli rupaye, a play currency worth nothing outside the game.

Outdoor games we still remember (not in the app)

Some bachpan ke games can only be played in a gully or a school ground, and no phone can bring them back. They deserve a mention anyway:

• Kho-kho: the chasers sit in a line, and the runner has to dodge while the chaser taps a teammate with 'kho'.
• Gilli danda: a small stick, a big stick, and one broken window per summer.
• Pithoo or Lagori: a stack of flat stones, a ball, and a team rushing to rebuild the stack.
• Chhupan chhupai: hide and seek, with the dhappa rule.
• Stapu (hopscotch), kanche (marbles), langdi and Vish-Amrit.

If you have kids, teach them one of these this weekend. They need nothing but a free evening.

Playing childhood games with your old friends again

The best part of bachpan ke games was the people, and those people are now in five different cities. Make a room in Mandli, drop the link in your school or cousins' WhatsApp group, and everyone joins with a name, no login or app needed. There's voice chat inside every game, and scores carry across games in the room, so you can finally settle who was the best at Naam Jagah Janwar Cheez.

Sawaal jawaab