Friendly Fights

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Friendly Fights

1965: IIT KGP:

Most every home with kids used to have two sizes of carrom boards in our small towns during my childhood. These were labeled Junior and Senior.

But when I reached Gokhale Hall, its Common Room had what to me looked a veritable Giant.

It was huge, its walls led practically to what I learned as "elastic collisions", its pockets were not tiny holes but big arcs of circles, its floor was as smooth as what our Lalu called "Hemamalini Cheeks", its coins were bigger, flatter, and stronger; its striker glided and collided multiple times with the walls zigzagging and scattering coins on its way like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the whole setup invited power-play rather than the touch-play we were used to.

There were several passionate devotees of the game.

Dr P always carried his ivory striker in his pocket just in case; Dr Y canvassed for carrom championships at the national and international level; Dr X bought packets of the costly boric acid lubricant powder (rather than the cheaper chalk version) and used to fill up homeopathic vials with his powder and brought them down when he wanted to play.

And there was this Dr A who didn't believe in power-play. 

He had a wee tremor in his hands. And when his turn came, he would place the striker in position, make a loop with his thumb and forefinger, place the combo behind the striker, and wait and wait and wait shivering till he finds a fleeting moment when the tremor seemed to subside.

Meanwhile his opponent would go mad but could do nothing. And when Dr A's forefinger gently released its striker, the coin invariably slid into its intended pocket.

And the next again again and again..

He won, not so much by skill, but hypnotism.

You may think that only contract bridge led to postmortem fights (and divorces when wife and husband partnered).

Carroms was no less...

My friend, Prof NP Rao, related to me this crazy incident to which he was witness:

This Mysorian Dr M was playing a singles-match against this Punju Dr B, a clutch of boarders watching in the common room.

Apparently the Punju learned a few Kannada galis (bawdy oaths) from one of his friends. And whenever he lost his strike he released one of his Kannada oaths:

"xxxxxxxxxx"

And Dr M protested and requested his opponent not to utter that vulgar oath since it disturbed his concentration.

But next time around the Punju would release a different one:

"ffffffffffffff"

After a few more failed requests, Dr M released the only Punjabi oath he knew, as a revenge:

"CCCCCCCC"

And then both got up and were at each others' throats....

Then this political Bengali gent Dr R tried to separate the warring lions...

And then this wily Malayali Dr N took hold of the Bengali's collar, pulled him back shouting:

"Let go! I have been waiting and waiting three years to witness a prize fight in our common room; and when God granted my prayer you bob up from nowhere and try to spoil the show!

Shame on you!"

End of fights :)

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