Issue 03: The Games We Play

LURU’s third issue turns its gaze to the many games that shape how we live—on the field, on the screen, onstage, and in our everyday negotiations with power, love, and identity. From dog shows and drag kings to childhood consoles, hospital clowns, mythic villains, ageing actors, and the choreography of breakups, The Games We Play gathers stories that reveal how performance, strategy, rivalry, and playfulness run through the city’s cultural and emotional life.

Across reportage, translation, personal essays, and photography, this issue asks what our games expose and what they allow us to hide. Whether in the aftermath of RCB’s long-awaited win, around a chowkabara board, or in the quiet pause of a Chickpet street, these pieces explore how we learn the rules, bend them, break them, and remake ourselves in the process—inviting readers to consider not just why we play, but what playing makes possible.