CARROM TOUCH & BRUSHES!

CARROM TOUCH & BRUSHES!

Sure the BEST indoor game of all.  Watched many great players at Wanmali Hall & when we organized an interstate tournament. Duri ng those days, I was lucky to see stalwarts of the game, playing with each other.  The Game of Blocking, Brushin, Double & Skills ! Break to finish, Start to finish were common!  The likes of Suhas Kambli, Arun Deshpande, Ramesh Chitty, Iqbal Khan (was friend) were Awesome! My memories with the board are closely  bonded with our society Ganeshotsav. For three long months we were in the society hall for most part of the day.  Babu, Bhaskar, Kiran, Dr. Dan, Chimana were the Champions.  Ganapati days are here again & I am seeing the brightly lit boards in my mind !

Here I remember my early days with BEST at O & M (North) Wadala with friend Sadu Shinde from Lalbaug. As our job was related to load distribution & overload monitoring, we used to have ample time to play Carrom & TT at the Gymkhana. My partner, Sadu Shinde was ace Champion. So in the Gymkhana (Mostly invaded by Drivers & Conductors in Uniform) we used to lay our Cob Web, by sitting & striking the coins anywhere but in to the pocket! This was the trap! Drivers/ conductors watching us playing, then used to come forward & propose a bait game, for which we reluctantly used to agree. Misal Pav @ Wadala depot canteen was 'Yahoo' during those days and usually a lure for the game. Once the bait is placed, Sadu used to go wild & finish the game in three boards to fill our tummies with the Green hot Misal ! We were licensed Cheaters then, and soon drivers/ conductors started avoiding us in Gymkhana area saying, "Are basu naka, te numbari cheaters aahet !!"