Carroms

I took to carroms two years ago. During our second year my friends used to play carroms regularly and they used to drag me along with them to fill the shortage in players. I am the worst in the group and I used to scowl at them for using me to fill the gap. I tried and tried but my game was always the same; it refused to improve.

I slowly began to fall in love with the game. I constantly tried and tried to improve my game by polishing off mistakes. The more I played, the better I understood and enjoyed the game. I was enthralled to see the mind boggling strategies, tactics, skills involved in that game which made it appear like chess. Whenever I saw a new move, I used to emulate it as a player equipped with more moves is at advantage. Madhuhaas, Manoj, Sandeep and Pramod used to astound and inspire me ceaselessly with their skills.

Fellow players used to develop their own moves by perennially experimenting various configurations. Once one masters a move, it becomes a target for the rest of us to grab as each move comes with its own advantage. This incessant thirst used to take the game to a different level with each passing day. There were times when I played carroms for 8 hours in a day!!! We begin after dinner and used continue till 5am in the morning!

I want to reflect on the change of my perspective towards the game over time. When I was a beginner ,I could not understand much of the game, and I labelled it as a ‘boring game where luck plays everything’. Now it became an exciting, captivating and enthralling game for me. Therefore Outlook of sth/someone depends on the level of interaction, perhaps. A few days ago, I stumbled on these videos of Carroms worldcup on google videos which have loads of surprises in store for me or any other carroms enthusiast for that matter. The better one performs, nearer he will move towards the line called Perfection.

Thanks to all my friends for helping me realise this which in turn helped me in enjoying it avidly.

note: I’ve lost my singles game in carroms tournament today and I avow to make up for it by bagging the first place in the doubles segment. (going too far?! bragging about doubles where game is dependent on partner as well! Withal, It is healthy to pursue a goal now n thn)

update1: We’ve been to quarter finals with the help of 2 byes plus a win. 2 more matches and it’ll be finals and 1 more then to make it a history.

last update: we lost the game though we played decently. score is 25-0. my carroms dreams are shattered now.