What does thulla mean? A Bhabhi card game glossary
Bhabhi has a small vocabulary, but half of it is regional and none of it is written down in one place. These are the terms you’ll actually hear at a table, defined so each one stands on its own. The rules behind them all live in the full how-to-play guide.
Thulla
A thulla is a card of a different suit, played when you hold none of the suit that was led. It ends the trick on the spot — nobody after you plays — and whoever played the highest card of the led suit picks up every card on the table. Thulla is Hindi slang for a policeman: something official turns up, proceedings stop, somebody gets punished. In parts of North India the whole game is named after this card — Thulla, the game — and it’s where this app’s name, Thulaa, comes from. The mechanics are spelled out in the rules, step by step.
Tochoo
A tochoo is the same card as a thulla — the off-suit card that ends a trick — under the name used in Nepal. Pagat, the standard reference for this family of games, records both words as interchangeable. Which one your table uses mostly depends on which of the game’s ten-odd names your family learned first.
Trick
A trick is one round of play: each player contributes one card, starting with the leader. In Bhabhi a trick ends one of two ways — everyone follows suit and the cards are thrown away, or someone plays a thulla and the cards land in the hand of whoever was winning.
Leading, and following suit
The player who puts down the first card of a trick leads, and the suit of that card is the led suit. Every other player must follow suit — play a card of the led suit — if they hold one. There is no choice about it, which is exactly why running out of a suit matters so much.
Void
You are void in a suit when you hold no cards of it. A void is the most valuable thing in Bhabhi: it is permission to play a thulla the moment that suit is led. Experienced players engineer voids on purpose — the strategy guide is largely about when to build one and when to spring it.
Shedding game
A shedding game is any card game won by getting rid of your cards — the family that contains Bhabhi, Uno, Crazy Eights and President. Bhabhi is the trick-taking end of that family: strict suit-following, no wilds, and a loser rather than a winner. The full Bhabhi–Uno comparison is here.
Getting away
A player gets away by playing their last card and leaving the game safely — the escape that gives the game its English name, Getaway. Everyone gets away except one person, and the game is really a race not to be them.
Waste pile
The waste pile is where completed tricks go when everyone followed suit. Cards in the waste pile are out of the game for good — which is why counting what has passed through it is the core Bhabhi skill.
The Ace of Spades opening
The first trick of every game is led by whoever holds the Ace of Spades, and they must lead it. Since the ace is the highest spade, the opening leader is guaranteed to win — or be stuck holding — the first trick. The opening rule, and what follows it.
Donkey
The donkey is the loser: the last player still holding cards when everyone else has got away. Kerala’s name for the whole game, Kazhutha, just means donkey, and Donkey is the usual English name at tables that want one. There is no winner in Bhabhi — only the one player named at the end.
Bhabhi
Bhabhi is the game’s most-searched name, used across Punjab, Pakistan and Bangladesh; the word is Hindi and Punjabi for “brother’s wife”. Worth knowing: using it for the losing player carries real offence in Punjabi usage — Pagat documents why — and most tables now say “donkey” for the person instead. The game name itself is fine, and the Bhabhi rules page covers the rest.