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 ”I am home!!”

The triumphant voice of Neelkanth Eknath roared as he moved to the first step of his home territory. He was thrilled as the home column squares are always safe since no opponent may enter them.

His final destination was now the victory triangle. He was now just five squares away from FINISH.

At the centre of the battlefield was a large finishing square, composed of coloured triangles atop the players' home columns thus depicting "arrows" pointing to the finish. His other family members Neelkanth Diwedi, Neelkanth Tripathy and Neelkanth Chourasia were already safe and tucked away in the ’finish’ of their home territory.

If all four of them managed to enter the ’finish’ safely and before their opponents reached their homes and their green ’finish’ triangles the Neelkanth’s would emerge victoriously. 

It had been an arduous journey for all eight of them. And it was a race. A dangerous race where one could be ’killed’ and sent back to the beginning yard.

Neelkanth Eknath had entered the first of the five steps of their safe territory of the Neelkanth home. As he was the last one left from the Neelkanth’s and if he managed to reach the ’finish’ triangle it would be game over for the Hariya’s -- Hariya Eknath, Hariya Diwedi, Hariya Tripathy and Hariya Chourasia.

Hariya Diwedi was in close pursuit and at the same time was trying his level best to thwart Neelkanth Eknath’s efforts to reach home ground. 

The other three Hariya’s who had finished and were safely tucked away in the green triangle of the Hariya ’finish’ space watched nervously. 

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The two families had challenged each other and this battlefield had originated in India ages ago.

It went as far as the 6th century.

 In fact, in its original version of Pachisi, it was one, where in the Mahabharata, Shakuni uses the cursed dice to beat the Pandavas and at last, after losing everything, Yudhisthira puts his wife Draupadi at stake and loses her too.

In ancient times it was also known as Chaupar. The contemporary version was played by the Mughal emperors of India; Emperor Akbar was a  notable example.

In 1896 Pachisi was modified to use a cubic die with dice cup and patented as "Ludo" in England.

A little know fact is that The Royal Navy took Ludo and converted it into the board game called Uckers.

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It was the 21st century and today the Neelkanths and the Hariyas were busily engaged in this board battlefield.

They were fighting on the battlefield of Ludo.

Their territory was diagonally opposite each other. 

As it was a battle between just two families the absence of the other two families was conspicuous. The other two red and yellow yards of Laluprasad and Peelamohan were empty. None of their members were on the battlefield today. 

The eight of them - four red and four yellow tokens, stood outside the Ludo board as plain spectators to the battle.

At the beginning of the game, both Neelkanth’s and Hariya’s four tokens were out of play and were staged in the player's yard.

This was one of the large corner areas of the board in the player's colour. When able to, the players would enter their tokens one per turn on their respective starting squares, and proceed to race them clockwise around the board along the game track. 

When reaching the square below his home column, a player continued by moving tokens up the column to the finishing square. 

The rolls of a single die controlled the swiftness of the tokens, and the final entry to the finishing square required a precise roll from the player. 

The first to bring all their tokens to the finish won the game.

A few moves earlier when just Neelkanth Eknath and Hariya Diwedi were the only people left in play it was a very exciting event. Neelkanth was two squares away from his home square and Hariya Diwedi close on his heels was five squares away from him. It was Hariya’s roll of dice and if he got a five he would end on a square occupied by Neelkanth Eknath.

It would be a kill and this would result in Neelkanth being returned to his yard.

The dice rolled flipping on all sides before landing face up with four dots being displayed. 

Oh No!! 

It was a Four.

Hariya Diwedi moved so that he was now on the square just behind Neelkanth Eknath.

He was literally breathing down his neck.

The play continued.

It was the turn for Neelkanth’s dice to decide. 

An ardent prayer was said and a blow of luck was made before the clenched palm was shaken and the dice rolled out onto the table.

Prayers were answered as it was a Two.

That was when the triumphant voice of Neelkanth Eknath roared, ”I am home!!”

The game was not yet over.

Throw followed by throw and Neelkanth Eknath could not get the numbers required to reach ’finish’ triumphantly. Entry to the finishing square required a precise roll from his dice and he was just not getting it.

Luck was now on Hariya’s side as quite a few high numbers and Sixes on the face of the dice helped him gallop at a faster pace to reach close to his home column. 

He was now just waiting outside and the roll of the dice with a Six would deliver him to his green ’finish’ triangle and his victory.

It was Neelkanth’s turn. He was exasperatedly waiting for a Two. The dice rolled, flipped and landed displaying a One. Neelkanth moved up a square just a hairbreadth away from victory.

The atmosphere was tense. 

Both were on home grounds and both were a dice roll away from the finish.

Hariya’s dice rolled. He needed a Six to win. It landed displaying five dots. 

He moved straight into his home column and now he also stood on the threshold of ’finish’, a doorstep away from victory. 

Both now needed just a One to win.

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As they moved into the final deciding phase of the battle a huge uproar exploded as the room door flung open and Mum burst back home from her shopping spree. 

”I am home!!”

She was in a foul mood.

By the sound and looks of it, she had not managed to get her bargains. She must have had an earful from Dad for overspending on his credit card.

She went on a rant.

”Raju and Rani, enough of playing Ludo for the day. You have your exams tomorrow and you are wasting your time over this stupid ludo board game.”

A swing of her shopping bag was enough to sweep the board, the dice and the coloured tokens all over the place. 

Both Raju and Rani stood agape.

There was a scramble as the sixteen Neelkanth’s, Laluprasad’s Peelamohan’s and Hariya’s went scattering and clattering all over the floor.

The ludo board flipped down shut and fell on the floor. The white dice with the black dots flipped up in the air and landed on top of it.

It displayed the number both Neelkanth and Hariya were anxiously waiting for to finish victorious.

It displayed a single dot.

It was a One.

Image Credit -- Internet