Navakankari Navakankari, also called Sālu Mane Āṭa or Chār-Pār, is a traditional Indian two-player strategy game, the same as “Nine Men’s Morris” in the West. Each player commands 9 pawns. Players alternate placing pawns on the marked intersections, then sliding them to adjacent empty points, aiming to line up three in a row (a mill). Every mill formed lets you lift away one of the opponent’s pawns (one not already inside a mill). A player loses on dropping below 3 pawns, or on having no legal move. It is a fine workout in counting, planning and “What if…?” thinking, the same spirit threaded through this whole chapter.