India: Woman takes father to family court after losing during Ludo board game

From giving the silent treatment to flipping the board, people react differently after losing at a friendly board game session but a woman in India’s Bhopal city took her grudge to the next level. She decided to go to a family court after losing at the board game of Ludo against her father, a family court counsellor, Sarita Rajani, told local news media.

As per reports, while India was under lockdown to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the 24-year-old woman, her two siblings and their father started playing the four-player board game regularly.

However, after reportedly losing a single game, the woman grew resentful towards her father so much so that the family ended up attending counselling sessions to resolve the issue.

The family court counsellor was quoted as saying that the woman said the way her father played against her made her develop trust issues against him.

The 24-year-old reportedly said that she trusted her father previously and did not expect to be defeated. Rajani also said that the father went on to defeat the daughter several times only to provoke her and the young woman even stopped addressing him as “father”.

"A 24-year-old young woman had come to us and said that when she was playing Ludo with her siblings and father, her father killed her tokens and she felt it was a breach of trust. She said she had trusted her father a lot and didn't expect to be defeated by him," Rajani was quoted as saying.

According to local media reports, Rajani said that the reason for “such” cases nowadays is that people are “unable to endure defeat”. The family court counsellor said that the need to learn how to accept defeat is as important as claiming victory.

The relationship between the family members appears to have improved after the woman received four counselling sessions. She had refused to communicate her grievances with family members and thus sought counselling about the matter, Rajani said. The 24-year-old, youngest of three siblings, is currently pursuing studies elsewhere while her family resides in Bhopal.