Playing Carrom

Carrom board isa game that is like billiards or snooker, except the board is much smaller, about 44" square and can be played sitting on the floor like Ludo.

It was a time long long back that I used to be an exceptional player. In our city we used to have boards which were different. The boards that we played on were larger, smoother and the 4 pockets were oblong in shape instead of being circular. And you could hit the coins hard - they wouldn't jump out or fly in those boards as they do in boards in other parts of the country.

There are 2 parts to playing carrom well.

1. The mental part.. how the old man in the hospital visualized putting the red coin in the movie Munna Bhai MBBS. That's the plan or design.
2. The actual skill which is a motor function. It decides the position of striker, angle, velocity. Here the old man has to execute what he planned earlier. He needs to place the Striker at the right location, hit the striker with the right speed and pointing at the right direction.

It is a sorry state of affairs when you still retain the first part but have lost the 2nd (possibly because of age, arthritis or Parkinson's or whatever). You can see what you can do but your fingers do not hold the same skill. I am reminded of what the old tailor Mr Siddiqui says in the movie Jolly LLB 2 - that his fingers aren't as they were before and they don't work well now. What a loss.

The mind can figure out but the body isn't able to keep pace. But isn't this better than having the body in shape while the mind has settled down with Alzheimer's?

Amen.