One day, it was just me and my little six year old cousin at her house in India. We’d just finished playing Monopoly with slightly catastrophic results, lets just say there were little green and red hotels stuck to the wall and shreds of monopoly money in the bin, oh and I cant forget a little silver iron which she ‘accidentally’ dropped in a saucepan of curry.
And by now I was getting slightly stuck for ideas, having created so much havoc already. Then I saw a large board sticking out from behind a cupboard. I brought it out: it was a large square board, with little holes on all four edges and a double border surrounding it. It was a carom board! I quickly found the rest of the playing pieces and sat down to play with my cousin.
But then I decided against it, looking around me I was sure this game would create no good. Instead I watched some television with her.
But I wonder how the game would have turned out…let me imagine…
This review is inspired by those of you who write really nice role plays in theirs! :-)
The persuasion
Me: Come on sweetie, lets play some carom! We all love carom don’t we?
Cousin: Noooo, me no like carom. Carom is boring.
Me: That’s right, do you know how to play?
Cousin: Me no know, but me no play!
Me: Come on, it’ll be fun! I used to love this game when I was little.
Cousin: Hmm (looking distractedly at the hotels on the wall), ok then.
The teaching
Me: Well basically this is a carom board…
Cousin: (sarcastically) No this is a fridge.
Me: (looking shocked at sarcasm) Anyway, this is what we play on and then we have these coins (emptying the coin box onto the carom board).
Cousin: Ohhh me want a sweetie!
Me: Er…no, they’re not sweeties, they are coins. Now see the black ones are worth ten points and…
Cousin: I count ten: cero, con, coo, c…
Me: Wait a second.... why are you replacing all of the first letters with a ‘c’?
Cousin: My teacher say when you count, you must see numbers in head so I add c to help me see.
Me: (looking confused) Ok, well never mind. So this black one is worth ten points and this white one is worth twenty.
Cousin: Mummy say she twenty.
Me: (raising eyebrows) I’m sure she is, anyway, then there is this pink coin…
Cousin: I like pink, that a sweetie then (tries to eat it)?
Me: No (snatching the coin from her mouth, she bites me), ow, that’s still a coin. This pink one is worth fifty points…its called the queen.
Cousin: I wanna be a queen, I wanna be a queen, can we play dressing up?
Me: Er…no, we’re playing carom now, so anyway…
Cousin: waahhh (starts crying)
Me: (loudly) You have to shoot all of the coins into the holes and then you get to keep them.
Cousin: (stops) Mummy say shooting bad, and can I eat them if I shoot them?
Me: Not this kind of shooting and no you cant eat them. So you have to place them into the holes using this big coin.
Cousin: Oh, cookie!
Me: No its not a cookie it’s a coin. You have to flick it with your finger and try and get the little coins into the holes from these lines around the board.
Cousin: Why cant I just do this? (putting the coin into the hole.)
Me: Because that’s cheating. If you get the queen in then after that you have to get one of the black or white ones in or you wont get to keep her.
Cousin: Ohh, I want the queen.
Me: That’s right. The person who wins at the end is the one who has the most points from all of the coins. So do you want to play?
Cousin: Can I have a cookie?
The Game
Me: So do you want to start?
Cousin: Ok. (takes the big coin and shoots at the circle of coins in the middle. One goes in)
Me: Wow well done! That was so lucky…er…I mean a very good shot!
Cousin: Me got twenty, I’m like Mummy now!
Me: Yes well, now you get another go.
Cousin: Ohhh (gets another coin in)
Me: Oh, er, well done…(she gradually manages to get all of the coins in until there is just the queen and a black coin left)
Cousin: I want queen. (shoots and misses.) Ohhh no Chandra I missed I missed!
Me: (looking relieved!) Er…its ok, its my turn now. (I get the queen in!)
Cousin: Haha but you have to get black one now. (I get it in). Waaaahhh, me want queen, me want queen! (starts crying again!)
Me: (giving her the queen to shut her up) Well done, you won! Of course I let you win but well done anyway.
Cousin: No me win, you not let me win! You cheat and get queen, me see, me see!
Me: What? I would never cheat!
Cousin: Can I have a cookie now?
I seriously doubt my cousin would have won, it would have seriously doubted my carom playing skills if a first timer six year old would have won! But that just goes to show, anything is unexpected!
Hope you liked my little dialogue! Don’t forget to RRC…:-) This review isn’t very er…relevant but I felt in a very random mood today! :-)
