Pune: Friendship Day plans in the city have become slightly less predictable this year. From bluffing and bargaining to building empires and solving clues, more friends have opted to spend this Sunday around board game tables at cafes, breweries and house parties across the city.These tabletop gaming events are drawing both seasoned players as well as first timers eager to trade routine catch ups for a few hours of strategy, teamwork and conversation. Popular games include Catan, Codenames, Dixit, Ticket to Ride, Monopoly, Exploding Kittens, Flip 7, Bollywood Battles and Five Lies.For Krupa Halgekar, founder of the Pune-based board game community Side Quest, the appeal goes beyond the games themselves. Hosting the Frienimies Friendship Day meetup at ARC Cafe in Balewadi, she believes board games create the kind of social interactions many people are looking for to make friends.“Young people often say they have a lot of friends, but when you look closely, many of them are just acquaintances. We wanted to create a space where strangers could meet through a shared activity instead of awkward introductions. We’ve seen people who met at our events continue meeting outside them, developing their relationship into a friendship that goes beyond sending memes,” she said.Most participants attend such events on their own. The evening begins with an ice breaker before attendees are intentionally split into groups outside their comfort zones, even if they arrive with friends or plus ones. Organisers explain the rules and play the first round before participants move from game to game at their own pace. The community, which has been organising events informally for about a year, now hosts 40 to 50 participants at venues across Pune, with each neighbourhood bringing a different social dynamic.Halgekar said Exploding Kittens is almost always the first game to disappear from the shelves, while Flip 7, Bollywood Battles and Catan remain crowd favourites.Regular players at such events say the appeal lies less in winning and more in how the games make spending time together feel effortless, even among people who have only just met.“Having a game on the table helps people open up easily. It breaks the ice and there’s no pretense. You get to see who a person really is when they’re playing a game. It’s a more honest way to make friends,” said Priya Khelwani, a 21-year-old student from Aundh, who regularly attends board game meetups in the city.For 29-year-old IT professional Ayush Joshi, who is hosting a Friendship Day game night at his home in Hinjewadi on Sunday, the format works because it removes the pressure that often comes with social gatherings.“Board games are introvert-friendly because they give quieter people a structured way to participate without feeling overwhelmed. They’re also an affordable way to celebrate since hosting a game night at home costs much less than going out for dinner or drinks,” said Joshi.For Ishan Singh, a 32-year-old hospitality professional, it is the moments between the moves that make the evenings memorable. “Board and card games like UNO create the kind of playful rivalry that leads to inside jokes people still laugh about years later. That’s what keeps everyone coming back to the table,” said Singh.
