Ganjifa, an Indian Card Game is revived by Sunish Chabba of Sydney, Australia

• Ganjifa is known to exist in the times of European renaissance in the land of Persia
• The initiator attempts to get off the concept of revival and bring in a combination of form and function
• The Dashavatara form is recognised in the west being sold in the west as modern paintings

Sunish Chabba an inhabitant of Sydney has tried to rebuild the lost Indian Card game. Ganjifa, an ancient form of playing cards in India, is inspired by the mythological figures of the country. It has religious connotations and is making comeback through kickstarter, which is considered the best platform for crowdfunding throughout the globe.

• It is believed that the game existed in the 17^th century "as an idea for a design challenge to revive lost or almost forgotten traditional arts & crafts (of India) while pursuing a course on Design thinking/Human-Centred Design."
• The initiator attempts to get off the concept of revival and bring in a combination of form and function. However, he aspires this mythological realm to regain its lost identity.
• Ganjifa is known to exist in the times of European renaissance in the land of Persia. The game reached to many parts of India acquiring new forms. The Dashavatara Ganifa is the most popular one played in most of the south-Indian states. It is based on the different reincarnations of Lord Vishnu.

• Ganjifa-kishor.com states that: In Maharashtra and Orissa, it was a widespread Brahmin pastime. A later Brahmin rationalization of this pursuit was the notion that the performance of the game is pleasing to God. Around 1885 Hari Krishna Venkataramana argued that by playing the Vishnu memoriser game, sins are washed away. It is said in the Bhapwatam that by invoking the name of Vaikuntha by gestures and even by way of joking or abuse, sins are made to wash away. If the name of God is used during the game saying "your Rama did this" or your Brahma did that" or "your Narasimha lost and my Matsya won" then, by this repetion of God's name sins are remitted. "

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• The Dashavatara form is recognised in the west being sold in the west as modern paintings. Thus, Sunish has created a programme to bring it into the vogue. The project addresses collectors, card players, artists, Indian mythology and history enthusiasts or students.
• The project is to make every effort in making the art form familiar by designing a deck of 130 cards illustrated with various mythological figures and Madhubani paintings.
• It claims highest quality standards on a premium Casino graded card stock making it a true collector's delight and pledges worldwide free shipping.
• With the funding goal with Kickstarter Sunish will be able to run his first stock in print. The campaign is planned to wrap up by the 21^st of June. One can visit the following for a greater knowledge: Guru Ganjifa – A Beautiful deck of Playing Cards
• One can also help Guru Ganifa, the project, by contributions starting from $1 AUD. The entrepreneur, Sunish can be reached at guruplayingcards@gmail.com for any other queries about the campaign.

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About Kickstarter: "Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform that helps bring creative projects to life. Think of Kickstarter as a place where you can help support a project like this and in return you are offered a series of rewards depending on your pledge. Once you've chosen what type of reward you would like to receive, Kickstarter will ask you to register in order to record your pledge. They will safely set up your payment but you will ONLY be billed at the end of the campaign IF this project reaches its funding goal. Remember, if the project isn't fully funded during our Kickstarter campaign, you won't be charged a dime (and, unfortunately, the deck won't be published). You can always go back and change or cancel your reward level before the campaign ends.

–by Megha Sharma, a freelance contributor at NewsGram. Twitter: meghash06510344

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