12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Rooftop gaming: Delhi's board gamers find their haven at Got Board in Paschim Vihar
Under fairy lights and fronds of tropical plants, players lean over boards filled with tokens, maps, and colour-coded coins. This is Got Board, a rooftop in Ankit Pal's Paschim Vihar residence, where the 35-year-old has transformed his terrace into a board-gaming sanctuary. Every weekend, strangers and friends gather to roll dice, build cities, form alliances, and huff their way to victory — beating Delhi's sweltering summer under a canopy of greenery and gentle rooftop breezes.
With over 400 modern board games in his possession, Pal considers Got Board as a game library open to enthusiasts across the city. His collection includes beginner-friendly titles like Azul and Splendor, party games like Where's My Hat and Flip 7, mechanised Eurogames like CATAN, and Clans of Caledonia and games by Indian designers such as Tess. He hosts three weekend slots, each five hours, for a modest `200. For him, it's not a business but a space to nurture hobbies and build a community of serious board gamers. 'Here you learn the games we'll play — and if you want to try something specific, we can learn together,' he says. 'You have the option to explore the hobby on your own.'
Pal's journey began as a child with Business and Ludo. In 2010, a college friend introduced him to the world of board gaming with Saboteur, a hidden-identity game of miners and saboteurs. 'We played aggressively. Six times a day, for two hours,' he laughs. In the past three years alone, he's added nearly 300 games — collecting as many as 100 titles' worth every year.
