“I just put a LION in the hole.”

Preamble

The author assumes that people who read this have basic knowledge of carom game.

Last weekend, I went to play the Inter-corporate carom doubles tournament at Nehru Stadium in Chennai. Though we went down in the quarter finals, after a paltry performance, I had enough time to watch a kid with his mom hanging around there. It seems his dad came to play carom, and they just accompanied him.

A few other incidents woven together to this one, I thought of this short conversation that might happen somewhere in Chennai at a later date. It is written in conversational style, where alternate sentences are by the same person. In the conversations below, I am introducing two kids and a Mom. You make sure you understand who’s who when you read on.

First Part – Some house in Chennai, a kid talking to his mother.

“Mommy, I ain’t going school tomorrow on. I hate being there.”

“Whats the matter dear. Did the teacher cane you? Did you quarrel with someone? A fight? Do I need to talk to your class teacher?”

“Nooooooooo. Nothing like that. What irritates me is that my friends show new flashy stuffs everyday and I don’t have anything to show them. Every day they say new things that they did or saw and most of the time I have no clue on what they talk about. They call me a fool now.”

“I can’t get you new things now. Will think about it next year. Here is what you should do when they boast about themselves. Pretend that you have either seen it already or used it earlier and got bored. Also never give a chance for them to score over you. Play it down by showing no interest or term it silly. He will surely feel bad and after a few attempts he wont show off any more.”

“Ok Mom, I will try that next week.”

Second Part – A School in Chennai. It is a Monday and two kids are in conversation during the lunch break.

“Hey, I went to Nehru Stadium last weekend with my dad to watch the inter-corporate carom game tournament. We had a nice time there. While my dad was playing the tournament match, I played two games with my Mom there and lost one because I put the STRIKER in the hole twice.”

The second boy had never heard of carom game earlier. Also what he heard was “TIGER” instead of “STRIKER.” He remembered his mom’s words, and without a moment of hesitation, he replied, “Eh, that is all? It is a long time since I played it last. And you said you put only TIGER.  Dude, I put a LION in the hole back then, and that too thrice, and still won. You know, LION is bigger and stronger than TIGER.”

The first boy had no clue and drew blank. “Did you say you put LION in the hole thrice. LION!!! What are you saying? There ain’t any LIONs in carom”, he squeaked after a while.

The second boy sensed blunder and guessed, “Looks like LION cannot be put in a hole. Only elephant are caught in that way.”  He regained composure and said, “Oh, poor me, I forgot. It was an elephant that I put in hole thrice and I had a tough time taking it out. Every time my mom, dad and grandfather helped me.”

The first boy was close to nuts. “Hey dude, What are you saying? There are no elephants and lions. Looks like you played some other game.” His voice came down and instead of excitement on his face, he was anxious.

The second boy understood that he was in deep shit. He had to come out of the conversation by saying something and all he thought about was some animal that can be associated with a game. It was then he remembered seeing a horse bust in a chess board, though he didn’t know what game that was. Also he wasn’t sure whether there was any hole involved. Still, he gathered all his courage and said to the other kid.
“You know, it was a horse that I put in the hole. I took it by it’s head and slowly put it in the hole. It had only a head and neck. But trust me,  I didn’t kill it.”

The first boy was already on his heels