Chp 321. Comon, let’s Carrom Board! :P

The past few weeks, I’ve been taking a break from work every day from 6 to 9pm. I spend that time in the gym burning calories and desperately trying to reduce my rum-belly. Yes, I did take a long sabbatical from the gym but now it’s back to the grind and treadmill.

After my gym session, I’d go for a few rounds of carrom board game in our office! Hehehe, that’s the new recreation our Creative Director introduced two weeks ago, and it became an instant hit. At first most of us were like, “Who the hell plays carrom these days?” But the moment your finger touches that striker and slides across the board pocketing your coin, memories of days long gone and ex-girlfriends now married and fat come rushing back. Nostalgic!

Around 9pm, I stop playing and switch back to work, trying to finish anything that is still pending, and if it’s one of those rare days when there’s no work, then I play Counter Strike with my colleagues (mostly the Tech department guys), making teams and blasting the hell out of each other. Hehehe…

Coming back to the topic. Carrom board.

Carroms was one of my favorite pastimes back in Mizoram. I don’t know about now, but back in the early 90s, every government office (Power & Electric dept., PWD dept. etc.) used to have one. People would spend the afternoon in office playing the game while smoking and eating our local paan and cracking dirty jokes now and then.

Even we had one at home and I used to spend a lot of time playing with family and friends. Pu Manzuala was one of my favorite playing companions, during his Chief Secretary days. He would pass our house on his morning walks and drop in to challenge me for a quick game. I would of course beat his ass every time, but he’ll definitely deny this Ah those days…

When I was sent to a boarding school outside Mizoram and had my first “mass interaction” with non-Mizos, I discovered one thing – We had a completely different style of playing!

While most people in Mizoram use “scissor style”, most other Indians use “middle finger and thumb” style.


[Middle finger and thumb style]


[Scissor style]


Even till now, the number of non-Mizos I’ve come across who use scissor style is just a handful. I still remember back in Tamilnadu, my Engineering classmates actually disallowed me from playing because they thought my style was illegal as they were seeing it for the first time!

Having played for a long time, I think when it comes to “cutting” (angled) shots, people with scissor style can cut much better, whereas when it comes to straight shots, people with “middle finger and thumb” style have better control. In fact, I hardly play direct straight shots even when it’s clearly possible – I always cut it with a little bit of angle.

Although a lot of this is quite basic, here is a good link about how you can improve your carrom technique.

And oh, I was just googling about carroms just now, and guess what your coins (black and white) are officially called? Carrom-men! In Mizo, we call it “sa” which in English literally means “meat”. White is my meat, black is your meat, etc. Not that we are going to eat it literally, but when you pocket your coin, we actually use the verb “ei” which means “to eat”. Eat it, eat that, you ate my meat etc. (Same mizo words apply for chess, checkers, chinese checkers etc.)

Having played carroms at different locations in India with different people, one very important announcement about carroms that you’ll have to remember before playing any game –

Carrom board, being an indoor game, is played with different rules all over the world. It all depends on where you come from. Even though I think there is some International Carrom Board Association or something like that with an official (standard) rules, people follow their own rules. Some of the rules like “half-red”, “covering a queen”, “striker must touch both lines” etc are the same everywhere, but there are a few rules that differ from place to place.

Hence, before playing any game with different people for the first time, it would be in your best interest to discuss all the rules before the first strike. Because people may disagree with your rules during the game, and sometimes that can get quite ugly

First of all, discuss about “fines” with your opponents. In case of a double fine (you managed to pocket your coin and then your striker also goes in a pocket), some people are fined two coins and given one more chance to play, while others play with a rule called “chance” in which, after committing a double fine, they get one more chance (without placing their fines on the table). If they managed to pocket one more coin, then only one fine is placed in the center, but if they miss, then two coins are placed on the table.

Similarly, when there is just the queen and one of your coins left (for confirmation), and by mistake you pocket in your last coin before the queen, then some people simply put that coin back in the center, while others are penalized with 5 coins. I’ve even played with people where the rule was – all your coins are placed back on the table if you commit that particular foul!

Also, it is important to discuss before playing if pocketing is allowed or not. Most people (if not all) from the North East play with pocketing rule, whereas at many places in India, pocketing is prohibited! So if you have your coin behind your strike line, you cannot hit it directly (thumbing), and must rebound the striker from the opposite side to hit that coin of yours.

Like that, there are quite a number of different rules when it comes to carroms. So just make sure you lay out all the rules on the table before you start your match. Some people say World War II was started over a disagreement between Hitler and his Jew friend over whether a queen is worth 5 points or 3 points… Kidding… but quite possible!

Happy striking.