CHESTER - Have you ever heard of the game carrom? It's a hoot, so I thought I'd share it with our readers.

When I stopped by my ex's to drop something off for our son, I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a game of some kind.

Being curious - not nosey - I asked Jeff Higgins about it. His eyes lit up, and he asked me if I wanted to play.

It didn't take any coaxing on my ex's part. I barged right in to check it out. The 41" x 41" board game resembles a billiard table since it has pockets.

"To me, it's like a combination of marbles, pool, and air hockey," said Higgins of Chester.

Higgins's coworker at Fort Lee introduced it to him.

"My friend Harish Doshi showed me a picture of him playing it with his family, and I was intrigued," said Higgins.

Doshi was introduced to carrom at age five in his birthplace Lunawada, Gujarat State in India. 

"Most of the kids played it on street corners to pass time," shared Doshi of Chester.

Wikipedia describes carrom as a tabletop game of Indian origin. The game is very popular in South Asia, and is known by various names in different languages. In South Asia, many clubs and cafés hold regular tournaments. 

Carrom is very commonly played by families, including children, and at social functions. Doshi and his family play carrom together and also Scrabble, Monopoly, and Risk.

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Higgins was a little rusty on the rules since it had been a while since he played.

"I forgot about it for a while but the memory came back as I was watching a Netflix series about Indian cooking," said Higgins. "I thought I would like to immerse myself in a little Indian culture and bought one."

Funny side note...my ex and I sometimes would hit our Foosball table to settle a dispute. The winner had bragging rights and won the argument. However, rematches were negotiable.

The game is made of plywood and has pockets with nets at each corner to catch the small disks known as carrom men. We each used a striker piece to push the carrom men and the queen across the board to the pockets.

A fine-grained powder is used on the board so the pieces slide easily. The red disk is the queen. She's the most valuable piece...of course.

My ex showed me how to flick the striker with my fingertip across the smooth surface of the board. It is similar to strike and pocket games, like pool, with its use of angles, rebounds, and obstruction of opponent's carrom pieces. 

We really didn't know exactly how to play by the official rules, so we made up our own until Higgins has a chance to figure them out. 

The game is not as easy as it looks. However, I would definitely play it again since it was a lot of fun.

"It was a little more difficult to make the shots than I thought it would be," said Higgins.

When I asked Doshi what he likes most about the game, he responded, "It indirectly teaches physics."

The International Carrom Federation describes the game as a very interesting indoor game which is thought to have originated from pool billiard about 150 years ago in Indian sub-continent. 

The game played by two people [singles] or four [doubles] is a game of skill and requires strategy and concentration coupled with physical and mental fitness.

Carrom is not a patented game. Different standards and rules exist in different areas, and tournaments are held in the United States and other countries. Visit icfcorram.com for more information. 

Where can carrom be purchased?

"Harish suggested I go to Richmond to the Royal Bazaar Farmers Market which is a large Indian grocery store," said Higgins. "They carried three sizes; the most expensive was $129."

Higgins got lucky and discovered a board marked down to $90 on a top-shelf. 

Doshi commented that most ethnic Indian grocery stores sell the game as well as Amazon.

Due to his fancy thumb move, my ex beat me by one carrom man. My inner warrior princess accepted a future rematch.  

- Kristi K. Higgins aka The Social Butterfly columnist is the trending topics and food Q&A reporter at The Progress-Index. Have a news tip on local trends or businesses? Contact Kristi (she, her) at khiggins@progress-index.com, follow @KHiggins_PI on Twitter, and subscribe to us at progress-index.com.