Ludo: 68 Boxes, 7 Safe Zones, 4 Players, 1 Dice, No Winner!

(05 Sep 2020, 08 minutes read, By Shashikant Murkute)

For me this pandemic / lock down has brought many interesting things with it. I am spending a lot of time with my family, playing games with my nephew, working on my relationships, reading new books, inking my thoughts and list goes on. It’s been couple of weeks, we have bought Ludo board game for my nephew. I bought it from a local vendor, so even board quality is not that good, but game is real fun. Since, Ludo is simple game with minimum rules and required minimum efforts to play, my nephew is obsessed with it. Can you imagine there is play station in my house, but all my nephew want is, to roll a dice. So, every evening four of us, we play Ludo. Me, my nephew and his dada dadi. I been playing for a while now and since I have a habit of relating things with life, I thought what’s better way to spend the teachers day evening than penning down learning from the board game.

Here are things which I observed / learned from simple 68 boxes board game,

1)   Same efforts yield different results

On box its written ‘Ludo strategy board game’. Those of you who are not familiar with game, it’s really simple, all you have to do is just roll a dice and move a token according to the number on dice face. Sounds simple right? But those of you who have played this game earlier knows sometimes you have to roll dice more than 10 times to get that first 6, and sometimes you get that in first roll. What is the difference between the two cases? there is none. That’s a first life lesson,

In life we all put equal efforts, we try to follow our friends, seniors, try to copy them and expect similar results. We try to mimic their success, but hardly we succeed in that. Sometimes we taste success in first roll, sometimes we have to roll it more than 10 times. We have no control on the outcome, all we can do is roll a dice, put best of our efforts. Remember no matter how honest efforts you put, sometimes efforts will go in vain. Ludo teaches us to deal with our luck!!

2)   No one is late

There is another rule, to decide who will roll a dice first. Each player rolls a dice; the highest roller begins the game, and then each player get turns in a clockwise direction. Logically first person has the advantage, but it’s not like the person who start the game always win. That’s a second life lesson,

It is not always about who starts first, you might be the last to roll a 6 but if you play well, you still have equal chance to win the game. The same applies to real life. Doesn’t matter when you start working on your dreams, you can still achieve them if you play it right. You have to wait patiently for the right time to make your move, you are never late. But when there is a opportunity you should know which move is best for you.

3)   Patience

This game is like any other board game its full of probabilities. There is always a chance of unexpected things. I have seen people rolling 6s in rows and changing entire game in couple of turns. That’s a third life lesson,

Have patience with process, more important have patience with self. Sometimes we think that we are losing it, we are up against the wall, there is no way out, unprecedented time like this make those thoughts even stronger. But have a patience, don’t give up, you never know when life will roll 6s in rows for you to put you in the lead position.  

4)   Strategy

Like any other game, this game can be played in two ways, aggressive or defensive. My nephew loves to kill my token, he loves to play aggressive game. At one time just to kill my token he changed his original strategy and end up losing that game. That’s a fourth life lesson,

 If life we always have two options either work on our craft or do politics to kill the competition. Will be honest with you, I have no issue with politics, if your organization, jobs demand for it, do it. But don’t focus your energy on unnecessary things, you have limited time. One should plan his or her, aggressive or defensive strategy based on situation, keeping larger goal in mind.

5)   Balance

The first person to move all his tokens in safe home wins the game. You need a balance plan, to move all tokens safely to safe home. You cannot focus just on one token, if you focus just on one token, there is high chance you will end up losing the game. That’s a fifth life lesson,

Those four tokens are, your health, work, love and your calling. I see many people (artists) kill themselves for their calling, for money, fame. People work insane hours and neglect their relationship and health. But if you really want to win the game, you need to find a perfect balance between all the four tokens. Remember you only win when all the four tokens are in ‘‘safe home’

6)   Real human nature

One time my nephew started crying, as I was winning comfortably. So, my parents / his grandparents and he all three ganged up and tried their best to stop me. All three had only one goal to kill my tokens. That’s a sixth life lesson,

Like Ludo, in real life everyone wants to win. At a time, people will gang up against you, they will try their best to pull you down to cut you lose. Don’t let them feed on your fears, they are just jealous. Winner / successful peoples are more focused on their target than negativity around them. Its human nature, sometimes that bring worst out of us, but don’t give in to that negativity.

7)   You can always start fresh

At one time I was leading the board when three ganged up and killed my all tokens. My all tokens were back in the cage. It took me multiple turns to get all my tokens out again, but guess what? I end up winning that game (maybe I was bit lucky that day). That’s a seventh life lesson,

The world we live in is highly complex, it always breaks you no matter how strong you are. But the good thing is, you can always start fresh. I know, it’s easier said than done, it’s not easy, it’s extremely painful and difficult process to start all over again. But if you are clear with your end goals, you can not only start a fresh but also end up winning the game. Don’t be afraid to start fresh.

8)   No winner

Ludo is intense, competitive game. You have to focus, think twice before moving a token. It’s important to make a right move every time. Even if you play one wrong move you may end up on losing side. But since we play friendly matches, there is no gift for ‘winner’. That’s an eighth life lesson,

This is the biggest life lesson I have learned by playing Ludo with family. That it’s fun game and there is no winner at the end. We all are caught up in rat race, the moment someone say ‘successful’ or ‘winner’ we all think about ‘money’. Well for those who haven’t figured this out yet, human life is nothing more than endless number of races. Our race starts with sperm race and only end with death. The worst part is races are overlapped on each other, the moment you complete one, before you realize you are part of another one, and the sad part is there is no prize, no medal at the end of the race.

On a daily basis we are part of many such races, which has no meaning, no real sense of achievement. We just argue with our friends, family for argument sake. But many time just to win the stupid argument/ stupid race we end up damaging the very fabric of relationship.

So, it made me think if there is no real winner, no prize, no medal, should we even take part in such rat race? Shouldn’t we just enjoy the game? 

Its very simple board game but it teaches you to how to deal with luck. You have no control over what number will come on dice when you roll it, but you have full control on which token you want to move forward. In life every day you have a choice, you can invest your limited time either in health or job or in relationship. But remember one thing to win the game, all four tokens must reach the 'safe home'.

A simple board game not only helping me create memories with my family but also helping in breaking covid chain.

Remember like Ludo, in this pandemic you are safe only at two places either in bio bubble or in your home.