Pool is latest fad to hit city

CHANDIGARH, Dec 7: For Chandigarhians, the word "pool" has finally started to mean more than just a swimming pool. For the stil...

CHANDIGARH, Dec 7: For Chandigarhians, the word "pool" has finally started to mean more than just a swimming pool. For the still uninitiated, the latest craze to hit Chandigarh is the game of pool a cousin of billiards and snooker. The game which was introduced to the city a year ago, is not only catching up with the youngsters but is also popular with the elderly. A number of pool tables have come up in the city recently and more are likely to spring up in the near future which sums up the growing popularity of the game.

In Chandigarh, most pool and billiards rooms are well lit, have cozy ambience and tables bathed in bright light and cheerful music welcome teenagers and old alike. For Rs 50, one gets to play for 30 minutes. Except at Indus Valley Club, where it is Rs 60 for 30 minutes. Another pool club called "Pool Den" has just opened to enthusiastic response in Sector 32. It charges Rs 40 from boys and Rs 30 from girls for half an hour’s play.

However, the credit of spreading the pool culture in the City goes to Indus Valley Cafe Club in Sector 35, who got the first pool table in City in early 1997. "Soon other restaurants followed suit," says Paramjit Lamba of Indus Valley. "Initially, there was lot of rush. Now, since the pool culture has spread all over the City, the crowd has been divided among the joints,” he divulges.

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Also, the "Billiards Club” which opened in Sector 34 a few weeks back by a Delhi based organisation, has two pool and two billiards tables. But the teenagers are yet to develop a taste for the place. "Not many youngsters know the place yet", says Manoj, who manages the club.

Seeing the growing culture of the game, another restaurant in Sector 7, "26 Carat” that introduces itself as a "family restaurant" also introduced the game to its customers. But it is yet to figure in the local aficionados’ list. "Not many people come to play here,” disclosed Laxman, who is the pool instructor at the restaurant. But E. H. Siddiqi, in charge of the recreation centre of Super Bowl, says the two tables there are busy round the clock and business is booming. Most of the pool joints open from 11 am till late evening.

Generally, teenagers flock to the pool table in the morning while couples and elderly people enjoy a game or two in the late evenings and at night. Since most people do not know how to play, all pool joints in town have kept instructors, except for Pool Den, where the owners, adept at the game, teach too. But beginners might end up only playing a singles game in the 30 minutes. Some, however, who are well versed with the game play two to three games. Unlike billiards and snooker, pool does not need much skill of a cueist. "All one needs is a couple of games under his belt to know the technically aspects," says Paramjit Lamba.

Sonia, a school girl and her elder sister Gina, regulars at one of the pool joints, say they "come to play pool, to see and be seen"!