Fingers primed to hit the striker as two unwavering glances cross paths at the target-- this is the customary image generated by the idea of carroms board game.
However, people swearing by the eye-hand coordination in carrom game, will now have to eat their own words. A specially designed carrom game gifted to the city-based Devnar School for the Blind places the stakes on the mind's eye instead.
With number of pocket-holes increased and dents made to facilitate touch perception, the board game is custom-made for the visually challenged players.
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Designed by Milan Dass, a Senior Research Officer from the National Institute of Visually Handicapped, the board has 21 holes altogether, three on each side, one in each corner, one in centre, and four forming a square around it.
A crescent-shaped striker allows for the alignment of the coin for an easy strike. Differentiation between black and white coins is achieved through a dent in the former. Red coin has a cut on its edge. The striker's reference line too is indented so as to help with the positioning of the striker.
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A ‘stopper' is introduced into the game to demarcate the target hole. It is a crescent-shaped holder with pins underneath which can be fixed into the three pinholes around the pocket-hole. The player can feel the holder with one hand and strike with the other so as to direct the coin. Steel cups are fixed into the pocket-holes so that the player will know through the clink when the coin is pocketed.
Rules
The mode of the game too is changed. Each player will have 10 coins including the red one. The opponent will choose one hole on his side of the board into which the striker has to hit his coin. Whoever is the first to exhaust all the coins will win the game.
“I have designed the game upon a request from our director, and gifted the first board to Devnar School. Bulk production, if at all, will be taken up by our manufacturing facility in Delhi,” said Dr. Dass.