Games and Activities Inspired by Indian Art: FATAC Cards and Folk Art Postcard Book & More

Indian art forms have been around for ages. Their persistence amidst changing times comes from their flexibility. They know how to sail each wave as it comes, adapting to newer styles and formats to keep culture alive without making it restrictive. In any case, why limit artforms to paintings that are only about looking and nodding your head as if you understand them? When there’s nothing to understand in paintings and everything to feel? So keep your feels ready as we bring to you a whole variety of Indian artforms as incorporated in card games, colouring books and DIY crafts which are more than trendy right now.

From Life to the Monopoly card version, everyone is hopping on the bandwagon. But too much of the same variety does bore and tire…and so, we bring to you unique games that are perfect for all scenarios from picnics and train timepass to a chill Sunday with friends and family. Their unique elements, the aspects that make them stand out from most other games, is that they have a dash of culture in the form of Indian art within them.

FATAC Cards

FATAC Card game has quite a few perks—guaranteed fun is the least of all it offers. It’s a pack of cards with 3 games in one. Each card has a motif, featuring a total of six Indian artforms—Phad, Cheriyal, Gond, Bhil, Warli and Mata ni Pachedi—and a total of 60 cards in a deck. Since paintings are a visual medium, the three games involve visual detection; deft eyes, quick reflexes and a modicum of strategy that is required in every good game.

SNAP: A Card Game To Test Your Reflexes

SNAP needs your spirit and your sportiness—because it’s all about who spots a match first. Players take turns to keep a card each in the centre, one over the other, and the first to notice when the motifs of two cards match and yell SNAP! wins the pile. The ones who run out of cards get eliminated and the one with the biggest stash of cards at the end wins. The best tip is to speed up the piling, creating a rush of adrenaline that might just give you an edge—or not.

The Classic Memory Game

Go for a real time, fun packed memory game when you want to change the vibe or when the group is intimate and small. Arrange the cards randomly, upside down, in rows and columns, flip two cards in each turn and begin the memory game! The one with the most matched pairs at the end wins. It’s a real test, for you find yourself forgetting what you saw just the last turn or when someone uses your revelation to their advantage, but that’s where the thrill and competitiveness comes in.

SLAPDASH: A Dash For Victory

This one’s the opposite of SNAP, but the premise is the same. Each of the players puts down one card face up turn by turn, and as soon as you spot a match, slap your hand on the pile. The last person in the group to do so has to take the whole pile. Meaning in this one, you don’t need to collect more, the one who gets rid of all their cards first wins!

These were the three we prescribe, but the sky is the limit, come up with more ways of playing FATAC Cards, post them on your instagram stories and tag us! Let’s all join in the creativity and fun.

Folk Art Postcard Book

Adult colouring books that are making waves all over, seem to have one thing in common—a shelf value. Once you’re done colouring and painting, the book becomes useless for all intents and purposes, unless you want to hold on to it for memory’s sake. So we thought about it and came up with something different, something that would stay with you and with those you decide to share it with.

Paint Them!

Folk Art Postcard Book is full of postcards with Indian art motifs and designs for you to colour and paint to your heart’s content. Through it, find not only a design to colour, but also a way to learn about the folk and tribal art forms that have shaped much of our culture and festivals.

Frame them!

Frame the postcards and put them as a decoration or as a token of Indian art on your work desk or house wall. A constant pleasant sight, and a sign of culture.

Post Them!

You can share them with your friends and family via post, basking in nostalgia of the days of yore when that was all the communication we had with each other. It’s the perfect gift to someone who you know is artistic. A gift out of the ordinary, one that doesn’t feel like a repetition of the same old things. Another interesting and unique use of this postcard book is as a memoir or a secret coming-of-age gift to your child or loved one. We all love the idea of doing something special, something with emotional depth for our loved ones every once in a while. Use these postcards as letters you write to your child’s older self, to your spouse, or maybe even yourself.

Get Crafty with Warli DIY

The best way to learn something new is to just begin. Warli art of Maharashtra’s Warli tribe is the most simple and elegant art form that’s easy and therapeutic. It adds that Indian touch to things while being cool at the same time. The photo attached is a case in point.

So just take up a plain household item like a mug, an earthen pot or just DIY a crafty pen stand or a coaster and you have your canvas ready. The geometric designs depicting community living and festive dances would look fabulous on any household item. You could even create a personalised scenario like Warli human figures to represent each family member with further personalisations of the action they are doing or their height.

Keats was onto something when he said a thing of beauty is a joy forever. These were ideas for things of beauty from our side to all who would like to bask in its joy. Stay tuned for more such creative and thoughtful Indian Art inspired activities that would add real value to your life and to your creativity.