Farah Khan – Paper 1 (Game Analysis A)

Kola Gach (Banana Tree)

Culture

Kola Gach, translated into English as Banana Tree, is a game my parents brought with them from Bangladesh, but is probably played throughout the Indian subcontinent. It is a casual game that’s usually played before a game of Carrom. The game is meant to allow children and inexperienced Carrom players to practice at pocketing the pieces. In fact, the ease of the game may directly relate to the name: calling somebody a Kola Gach suggests his or her incompetence or low skill.

Play

Since it’s a free-for-all game, 2-4 players can play, and are standing or sitting on stools around the four sides of the carrom board, which is on table. Usually 2 people or 4 people play, but if there are 3 players, then nobody can use the remaining side of the board. Each person takes a turn in a clockwise direction, and no other players can touch the board when it is not their turn.

Because there’s no pressure to pocket only one’s own pieces as in Carrom, the game is more relaxed and can be a real morale booster as players gain the pocketing skills necessary for Carrom. It is still somewhat competitive though, since you’re trying to pocket as many pieces as you can, and sometimes the game can get nasty if other players deliberately make pocketing the pieces difficult for you by pushing the pieces to the hard-to-reach edges of the board.

Rules

Equipment

The game is played on a square carrom board, about 30 inches on each side, with bumpers to keep the pieces from going overboard, and pockets in all 4 corners for the pieces to fall into. The pieces are small disks called carromen. There are 9 black carromen, each worth 1 point, 9 white carromen, each worth 2 points, and 1 red carroman called the Queen, worth 5 points.

There is also a larger disk called the striker, and it alone is used to hit the carromen, similar to the cue ball in billiards. The striker can only be shot from

within the marked boundaries on the board, which are in concentric squares 3 inches and 6 inches from the edges of the board. The goal is to pocket the carromen by flicking the striker at them. In this game, anybody can pocket any piece, and the goal is to get as many pieces as possible, and have the highest total of points at the end of the game.

The board is powdered, usually with boric acid, to allow the pieces to glide across easily.

Definitions

Striker – the larger disk that is flicked to hit the carromen.

Shooting – flicking the striker to hit the carromen.

Carromen – the pieces that are to be pocketed in the game. Black is worth 1 point, White is worth 2 points, Red is worth 5 points.

Queen – the single red carroman.

Break– When the first person breaks the arrangement by hitting a carromen with the striker.

Pocket – when a carroman falls into one the pockets at the four corners of the board.

Overboard – when a piece goes flying off of the board because the striker hit it too hard. It’s returned to the center of the board.

Scratch – not hitting any of the carrommen.

Bank – the place to keep the carrommen after the player pockets them. Everybody has one.

Goal-Oriented Rules

1. All of the pieces are stacked up high, alternating black and white, with the queen sandwiched between the top and bottom 9 carromen. Sometimes they’re arranged in smaller stacks to reduce the chances of pieces going overboard.

2. Somebody volunteers to go first. It’s a casual game, there may be some arguing and voting in the first round. In following rounds, the person with

the lowest score gets to break first. If they do not hit any of the carromen, then they lose their turn and the person to their left gets to go.

3. If the player pockets any carromen, they take out the carroman from the pocket, put it into their bank, and continue their turn, trying to pocket more. If they fail to pocket a carroman or hit anything, then they lose their turn and the person to their left gets to go.

4. If a carroman goes overboard, it’s returned to the center of the board.

5. After all the carromen are pocketed, the players total up all the points by calculating the worth of the carrom in their banks. The player with the highest total wins that round. If there is a tie, the players play another round.

6. In the next round, the person with the lowest total puts in all of his carromen and the other players put in pieces to match that point value. The carromen are again arranged in alternating colors, in a high stack.

7. The game ends when one player is able to pocket all of the pieces, or when everybody mutually agrees that they’ve had enough practice and would rather play Carrom.

Boundary Rules

1. You can’t take too long to aim and hit something. The other players will get annoyed, and after some time, may set a time limit for you to shoot.

2. You cannot slide the striker; you must flick it. 3. If you fail to shoot your striker very far, no pity begging for another shot.4. You cannot intentionally try to send a carroman overboard so that you can

sneak an excuse to touch the pieces in the center.5. Hands off the board when it isn’t your turn.

Critique

Many of the boundary rules are hard to enforce because it’s such a casual game and everybody is self-regulating rather than having an objective umpire. Often, people are engaged in conversation to distract other players and cheat by moving the pieces by hand, or making excuses for sending pieces overboard or begging for pity.

A good strategy is to get as many pieces on your side of the board as you can. It’s easier to pocket that way, and your turn continues as long as you keep pocketing pieces, so more points for you! If you get to break, make sure you hit the carroman at the bottom of the stack straight on so that the stack topples onto your side of the board. Also, since you don’t need to cover the queen like you do in carrom (covering

means securing the queen by pocketing another piece directly afterwards), it might be a good idea to get the queen, since she’s worth 5 points.

Since the game is only meant for practicing to pocket as preparation for Carrom, many of the skills carry over into Carrom. Not only will it be good for building skills, it’s also fun, and good at building morale. Children especially enjoy the spectacle of when the carromen topple over. Even though it’s a game mainly for beginners, advanced Carrom players may make it more competitive by utilizing Carrom tactics like blocking and making it hard for other players to get any points.