Every year at the onset of April, the world for one day suspends all its faith and we become a global community of suspicion. Of course some April Fool’s pranks are more effective than others with hundreds of people buying into one idea with absolute faith. As a self-proclaimed Doubting Thomas, I believe that most of these concepts pass me by, but on Sunday I was so taken with a certain idea that it didn’t matter that it wasn’t, in fact, a reality.
I was tagged into a link for a new game called ‘Cards Against Sanskaar’, which promised a similar concept to the cult favourite ‘Cards Against Humanity’ but with a ‘sanskaari’ Indian spin. According to the site “Each round, one bhakt asks a dharm-sankat question from a black card, and everyone else answers with their funniest unsanskaari white card.” Clearly a promise for hours of ruthless, subversive fun. Links to the website for this wonderfully inflammatory game spread like wildfire through India’s social media with people signing up left, right and centre (well, the right probably didn’t), only to be met with a tongue-in-cheek ‘Visa to Pakistan’ that confirmed it was indeed a prank. Co-creators Adrita Das, Karan Dilip Worah and Akhil Singh were blown away by the popularity of what they believed to be a harmless joke. The idea had occurred to them the year before while playing the equally satirical ‘Cards Against Humanity’, they set up their website in a day and prepared to watch people chuckle appreciatively at their joke. They couldn’t have predicted the overwhelming response.
After it was revealed to be a prank, there were requests from across the country to make the game a real project and actually launch the card game to the public. Adrita, a recognised visual artist that often works in the satirical space claims that the success comes from the fact that it had a tinge of believability going for it, though there’s no shortage of the unbelievable in India “The ideas people have been sending us for the cards have been far more radical than our own ideas.” she laughs. She also believes that humour, especially in the terse political climate we have today is an important aspect of dissent because it allows people the freedom and medium to express their ideas.
They were a bit hesitant when it came to how far they could really go when it came to naming names and calling out real life situations but they decided that with the concept of the game being what it is and the response they had already received, holding back wasn’t an option. “We didn’t want to shy away from anything, so we’re all in.” So never fear, all your favourite names are sure to find a place in the deck. This is clearly the perfect game for anyone who’s wanted to have their say about the many frankly blow-your-brains-out absurd events that occur in India on a daily basis or people just looking to out their anti-nationalism in public.
To order your set, click here.