Fake currency and real betrayal: The city’s new favourite hobby

Somewhere between overpriced cocktails, “We should catch up soon” texts that never happen, and dinners where everybody is secretly on their phones, Chennai’s young adults have found a new social currency: weaponised Uno cards, emotionally devastating Taboo rounds, and friendships hanging by a thread over Catan trades. Across the city, board games and card games have quietly become less of a hobby and more of a lifestyle ritual. What starts as “just one round” quickly turns into recurring game nights, hyper-competitive friend groups, customised house rules and the kind of offline interaction people suddenly seem desperate for. In Chennai, the hottest social scene right now might not be a club at all, it might just be somebody’s dining table.

‘You start recognising people by how they play’At public game nights and cafés around the city, regulars say friendships now form faster over gameplay than small talk. “There’s a guy who comes every Thursday and acts like Catan is Shark Tank. He’ll reject a wheat trade like he’s negotiating international policy,” says Keerthana, UX designer. “Codenames has ruined my perception of intelligence. One friend gave the clue ‘Ocean’ for shark, mermaid, and dentist. Dentist. We still bring it up,” laughs Pranav, a law student. Over time, regulars begin recognising each other through gameplay styles alone: the aggressive Uno stacker, the Taboo screamer, the person quietly dominating Catan while pretending not to care. “People think board games are wholesome until Monopoly starts. I’ve seen fully grown adults emotionally manipulate their partners for fake currency,” admits Aditi, a hair stylist.

‘Nobody wants another loud bar conversation anymore’
For some young adults, these nights are also replacing clubbing culture altogether. “After my breakup, I made an entire custom board game about my relationship,” says theatre artist Nisha. “One square made people name 10 unbearable things about my ex or drink two shots. Another forced them to dramatically read his old texts in fake accents. The worst square was called ‘ThreeMonth Situationship Loop’ — if you landed there, you had to move backwards emotionally and physically.”

Meera, one of Nisha’s friends who attended the breakup game night, adds, “It somehow became the perfect mix of chaotic and therapeutic. People were taking shots, scream-singing Taylor Swift in the kitchen, exposing relationship lore nobody asked for, and arguing over Uno till 2am. It still felt like a night out, just without the loud club and ₹1,200 cocktails.”

From game-night Google Sheets to custom-made GuessWho boards For many newly-married couples and merged friend groups, hosting game nights has become its own hyper-curated ritual. “Our group literally has a shared Google Sheet,” says Vela, a product designer from Velachery. “Game night happens at a different person’s house every week, so there are assigned snacks, game rotations, and backup games in case Monopoly gets too heated.”

“We made a full custom Guess Who board with our friends’ faces instead of the original characters. People ask things like, ‘Does this person own multiple tote bags?’ or ‘Would this person realistically be late to their own birthday dinner?’ and somehow everybody still gets identified within two rounds,” says his wife, Nithya. “One couple in the group printed playing cards with everybody’s faces on them. And there’s a standing Uno rule that if somebody forgets to say ‘Uno,’ they’re immediately out for the next round no matter how close they were to winning,” the couple adds.

Written By: Aashna Reddy