Carrom I believe is the game that brought us together. I still remember Nandan my test project lead at Newgen called me one day in conf room . I thought it was to discuss some work and instead he told me that there is a plan to play carrom at my home at Atta in Noida. He told me to go to CP and buy new carrom board. I left Newgen at lunch time and took auto and went to CP. I found myself short of money and went 1 KM away to ICICI bank to get some more money. I think that was the second time I withdraw money from ATM. I then went ahead a bought wooden playing 'Ghotis' and 'Striker'. We finally changed it to plastic one later.
The Carrom board was finally shifted to 437 after it was famous is my atta house. Pankaj never used to play but always rank people. The key players
were - manish/rahul/nandan/avinash. Rahul was famous to take all the 9 points. Avinash was consistent and always strike. Nandan always use to take the points with shaky fingers. I never use to take a straight point and was famous for the cuts.
Some things to remember...
1. Nandan/Manish lost 9 staright games and had to switch partners. Nandan was seen frustrated during those times.
2. Who said these famous lines' Oye Syal and Rahul thek sae kehlo.nahi tau utha ke bahar phek dunag...'.
3. We played upto 4 am with candles on four corner at my atta house.
Thanks to Carrom .
Where is that famous Carrom these days?
The story of four people and a friend who stayed at 437, Sector 37, Noida, UP, India when they were young.
3 comments:
Good one Manish.
atta ke peechhe vale ghar mei...
krishna ke haath ki chai (jo ki patile mei ubal kar overflow kar jaati thi) aur saath mei pakore.
chakram ka office jaate hue syal se game hamesha le lena (aur to koi bhav deta nahi tha usse)...
carrom - we played last in 311, overseas tower. phir yaad nahi ... shaayad dehradoon pahunch gaya ho samaan ke saath.
Carrom was a big hit at 437. One of us even had a certificate for winning some kind of tournament. :-).
The couple of things which we used to jinx the winning team were:
1. Before every game we used to put some boric powder on our faces.
2. Before starting the game the partners would do a handshake and shake it over other team members.
There were other players who were invited to play like Saran, Durga, Nitin Pandey, other Pandey, Maneesh, MG, Vijyant and others.
For me it was hard to improve on perfection. Avinash used to play good, Ravi was calm and consistent he used to wear a Kada (bracelet) which had to be adjusted before he attempted any shot, Syal was fast and experimenting types. Nandan was all ra-ra and until the last game he used to fight. At one point i guess he even maintained a notebook for who won and who lost :-).
Not sure where it is now but I think the carrom was last at 311 or may be Nandan's place. I am eagarly waiting to taste victory again when we all are together.
syal - its carrom and not carum.
Saran aka SDS (and whose mantra was 'never say die') said those golden words to syal and tewari. And I remember that he came to syal's place on 14th aug and was rushing to leave before 12 nahin to border seal ho jaayega :) :)
I thought that its at my place which I lost to my kaam-waali when I moved out of C3C, Rajat Vihar.
Incidentally there is carrom board at my office and we play a lot (we have one at our own floor, just for our group kinds). in last doubles tournament i was part of winning team.
Interesetingly MG and Saran are on the same floor as me, what a small world, though they dont play as much as i do but yes I do see them.
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