Drinks Walla Changing the Game
Posted on December 10, 2021 | by Maria Diment
It’s a typical day in New York City. People are on the go, drivers are impatiently blaring their horns, and something is always happening. But it wasn’t just another day for Brown Girl Magazine; that afternoon was the Brown Girl Mag pop-up.
Up on the 7th floor in a deceiving, stumpy old building on 31st street was a room filled with South Asian artisans, from apparel to jewelry to chai.
Exiting the elevator into a tall, white room, was like being immersed into another world. Visitors and vendors were chatting, admiring the decorated tables, taking photos, and Trisha Sakhuja-Walia, CEO and Co-Founder of Brown Girl Magazine, the pop-up host, was there too.
“We’re so lucky [to host this event] because we sincerely have almost every type of small business that you can imagine,” she says cheerfully. “We have a card game, we have jewelry, we have clothing, we have denim jackets, we have a lot of street style clothes, we have gift boxes, we have candles, we have hair accessories– you name it, we have it!”
This pop-up, alongside other events, is all part of a self-described Brown Girl ecosystem. “At Brown Girl Mag we’re truly trying to create an ecosystem where we have content, we have our community-led events just like our pop-up, and we also have our commerce … truly building a world where everything interconnects and all of our Brown Girl readers can come back and consume again and again.”
Table after table are layouts of beautiful and intricate pieces and designs; hand-painted garments, self-made jewelry, chai and other delicacies. But amongst the crowd is a vendor that’s changing the game: Drinks Walla.
Inspired by representation and Desi culture, Drinks Walla was born out of quarantine and a desire to laugh and connect. It’s a celebration of culture in a modern way.
“We realize there’s nothing really that celebrates our culture in a way that’s relatable and fun where you can celebrate and ironically poke fun at it too, because I think that’s okay too,” shares Malini Lakhaney, co-founder of Drinks Walla.
“If you look at the actual box, it’s a modern woman meets a very traditional aesthetic and that’s intentional. I think you can be two things; you can be really modern but you can also really love your culture and we wanted to embody that.”
Designing the packs took longer to perfect than the actual cards, despite the numerous testing. “We tested a bunch of different categories and then netted out with the eight categories and tested them amongst all different kinds of people to ensure that we were talking in a way that people could relate to. A lot of it is done through a first-generation lens, so if you have an immigrant mother, an immigrant father, an immigrant grandparent– or even if you don’t and you relate to the culture, you very much will love Drinks Walla.”
But what can one expect from this card game? “To laugh,” replied Malini. The game launched in June 2021 as a way to bring people together to laugh and have a good time, but their goals don’t stop there.
“We’re already writing additional packs and we have really big dreams. The long-term dream is obviously to create more packs to celebrate Desi culture and where we can really go niche with micro-communities. Separate to that, we want to build a gaming company that celebrates all different cultures beyond just Desi, so if you’re Jewish, if you’re Italian– if you’re a New Yorker! Different communities is the goal and to bring people together around things they identify with.”
You can follow Drinks Walla on Instagram @drinkswallagame and buy a pack too online!
Follow our journey.
