Ep. 273 - Snake-a-doo with Peeyush & Khyati

16th July is World snake day - 4 days from today when this episode is released and on this occasion, we are doing a case study of Snake-a-doo, a board game about Snakes and Snake-bites. More than a million people have died due to snakebites in India in the past 20 years. “Snake-a-doo” is an original take on the conventional snakes and ladders game, only this time without any ladders (it only has snakes). It is geared towards education on 9 snake species commonly found in India including the 4 main venomous ones.

Today we have Peeyush Sekhsaria who conceptualised the game and Khyati Pathak who designed it. Peeyush has a Masters's in Earthen Architecture from CRATerre, France, and an M.Phil in Geography from the Sorbonne, Paris. He is currently based out of Delhi working as a Consultant in the domains of Environment, Disaster Management, and Development. Khyati is a writer and a cartoonist. Passionate about policy frameworks and also the host of Puliyabaazi Podcast.

Before we begin, I also want to call out the team who have designed this game with careful messaging, attractive colors, good photographs, and in the tradition of a good board game that will be fun and learning at the same time. Shubham Sayanke, Jose Louis, Parikshit Suryavanshi, Shashi Jha, and Vivek Sharma. Snake-a-doo has been brought to you by Indiansnakes.org and WASA Amravati. 50% of the profit from your purchase goes to support WASA, Amravati’s work in education on snakes and snake bite reduction, and 50% goes to support copies of the game for local groups. So head on to https://snakeadoo.wordpress.com to buy.

Questions

1. What is Snake-a-doo?
2. What made you come up with this idea?
3. Can you briefly share some numbers related to “people dying due to snake bites, types of snakes, density of snakes in different areas within India, snake deaths, impact on food chain etc…”
4. What was the process of making it? Initial iterations, user testing (🙂) getting it verified with experts and more? How did you adapt for tribal areas and villages?
5. How and why did you pick on these 4 main venomous ones? And which are the other snakes which are non-poisonous
6. What modification you made to traditional snakes and ladders. What were the challenges?
7. Seems like you have added few things like, points and notes along with rescue kits. Tell us some bits about it
8. Why did you decide to make on cloth and not a board or any other material?
9. Seems like it’s not just for kids? Who can / should play this game?
10. Why did you make in 3 sizes and 3 languages? Have you used local names for snakes?
11. Can it be replicated by locals and regional people?
12. How has the response been so far? How close we are to the Mission Zero Snake-bite Death. Is it possible?

Reference reading

1. https://snakeadoo.wordpress.com
2. http://indiansnakes.org
3. https://www.pashoopakshee.com/about-us
4. https://www.facebook.com/peeyush.sekhsaria
5. https://www.instagram.com/enthunature/
6. https://twitter.com/crepescularia
7. www.peeyushsekhsaria.com
8. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1534385603578576
9. https://www.instagram.com/snakeadoo/