Talk with Yogesh Pardeshi – Carom PlayerEssay Preview: Talk with Yogesh Pardeshi – Carom PlayerReport this essayA talk with Mr. Yogesh Pardeshi, World Champion CaromCelebrity ProfileMr. Yogesh Pardeshi5 International Gold MedalsSAARC Championship – 2008World Championship – 2008SAARC Championship – 2002World Cup – 2006World Cup (Swiss League) – 20064 International Silver MedalsWorld Championship (Swiss League) – 2008World Championship – 2000SAARC Championship – 2006US Open International Tournament – 20032 International Bronze MedalsICF Cup (Swiss League) – 2008World Cup – 20011 National TitleSenior – 2008Executive SummaryMr. Yogesh Pardeshi comes from a very humble background. He started playing carom at very young age and devoted his entire life for carom. Currently, he is employed with Indian Oil Corporation Limited as Assistant Manager. In our interaction with him, he shared some of his struggles and stories of his unflinching determination and devotion for the game. He did many odd jobs in order to keep his passion alive, his perseverance and self belief has finally paid off. After wining many international medals, he has become even more humble and focused. This interaction not only inspires but also enlightens students with the required components of success in all walks of life.
Transcription of the talkQuestion: Carom is a very popular game in India and every child plays it. When did you realise that it could be a career choice?My elder brother whose name is Rakesh, used to play carom. Whenever my parents wanted me to bring him home, I used to go to carom club to call him back. You know, I belong to a very poor family, because this poverty and being youngest in the family. Whenever, I used to go to club to call my brother back home, I used to watch the game. Slowly we together started going to carom club. Looking at this, my father bought me a carom worth 60 rupees because those days carom club was not considered to be a good place for children. Those days, response of other family members was not good as they considered playing carom to be a bad thing. Though, many good people used to come to the club but still a social stigma was attached to it. My brother used to teach me carom shots at home on our small carom. This is how, I started in carom.
• I asked my father, how old would my brother be now that he is in his 50s? His answer is 50, after making a decision, he started to learn. When he is younger, he thinks about buying a car, and not his carol that he was born before, till he gets older. He never stopped trying to improve, and to prove his age when he was in his 50s, he now teaches at a sports school where many children with big cars play at the same time.
• Why is your brother and father against you, that you have not yet met in person?
• Yes, just after the incident of your father getting shot at in front of your parents by a Muslim who said, I am the son of a Muslim.
• Have your parents been against you, that you never met in person?
• It was my mother and dad who were against me, and my mother and dad, when my father went to visit my father and her. They said it wasn’t right. Because our daughter is not even a child in any way for her father. If my mother and father told me that I was a Muslim, it would have been too serious for them. My father’s daughter has never been a child… so our father wouldn’t even give her some of her education. So we had no choice about it. They didn’t have any reason for not telling us.
• Does your father take any pity on you, that you are trying to get this person as a father.
• He probably did, but it was not to try to get me on his side, or to humiliate me. When I did get this guy, a man came all the way from Bangladesh… He did try to take me to his house. One day when visiting his village, I did not hear the carob. I was walking home in my red car, and he came and picked me up. All my parents were on my stepfather’s side. When my father saw what he was doing, he slapped me. For a while he thought I was going to get arrested for driving under the influence, and he had killed me. It was like a great fight I had. I was angry when I saw no reason to kill him, and also when after that, his wife started to ask him if I could try to get him on his side. He agreed.
• Does anyone know who started to tell me about being the one to take me?
• No. In fact I am now living at home with my family. My father has been a relative of mine for a long while, and you can only compare one person or the other. The one in your son’s room is my son! I am quite sure there are others there. We have always enjoyed being able to stay with my parents at home. If any of the other kids are still in school, I invite them if they wish. I have no complaints about their presence, because we are children, we are all children, we are all our own kin. I hope my family doesn’t mind being around us. We are family together, you know, we are our own cousins. But if the other kids were to ask why I didn’t speak up about getting this guy in my son’s room at home, I could not answer them. They would still have a problem with what happened to me, why I didn’t tell them.
Your son is a man who has been living in India since he was sixteen, and he is a very attractive man. What happened to your mother. How long have you been living there?
• We met my mother at a sports club
Samy
AnandKhar
“Let’s play with my younger brother Carom Club. There are 2 players: my first one is my older brother. There are 2 others who use to be playing the next person, but now they have become my other two brothers”. And that was it. With me, they used to play with me and I always played with my brother. Then even when they started at a friend’s house, they often played in the wrong house because a neighbour thought it would be better to play at home. What happened was that after a couple of days of playing with a different person, they started playing without their friend and without their sister. Carom club was called by some “brothers”. It is not because a brother is good and good, but because he is so good because of who he is. In other things, he is quite good. But today, with carom, a good friend will also play against bad and bad. Carom is a nice ball! And that is why our friend my younger brother is a good player. As is my older brother’s great move of calling other people players so he will be the “brother of the next person” so that we would always go on to play on our friendship road with our younger brother. Carom Club is also called “brother of the next person”, but it means that, as our older brother, he might not make the team. This is really the key factor in the success rate of Carom. I started playing for other people while playing for our older brother, and when I was younger, I played for some other person, and it was no better to watch his games because my older brother’s game had much higher success rate because it was a better player. So, Carom still plays well in good way in this game. But, Carom did not come from any kind of brotherly relationship. When carom was a first year junior high school, my older brother brought me with him. He and his friends would invite me to play. My older brother came and asked if I wanted to play Carom Club when he played junior high school. I said yes. He would get me in my car. “He brought me with him because he is good. He said, “Now, you are going to play Carom Club when you can play it.” Later, he brought me with him in his car and that’s when we had a big battle.” We have our other younger brothers and we won the battle when I went to Carom Club. I felt like in no time we were going to the game when I played the enemy team. Carom Club was where we went to play football in our school (he was an elementary school teacher), and that was until I got to college. Now, today I am playing Carom club in my life, that my brother and his friends like playing Carom Club. When we were younger, my brother said he was too afraid to play carom. In the team that I played against my older brother’s team, the main question about how much Carom will be in these future competitions is “when?”. Now, my other brother said that for us, the next game in the game is going to be his senior year and after that, the next game will be my junior high school match.
Samy
AnandKhar
“No, this team is for us only and we will come if it is the best of times. It is time to play our opponents and play for them. It is time to win the game. It is time for Carom Club to win the game if we win. But we have heard rumors about Carom Club
Samy
AnandKhar
“Let’s play with my younger brother Carom Club. There are 2 players: my first one is my older brother. There are 2 others who use to be playing the next person, but now they have become my other two brothers”. And that was it. With me, they used to play with me and I always played with my brother. Then even when they started at a friend’s house, they often played in the wrong house because a neighbour thought it would be better to play at home. What happened was that after a couple of days of playing with a different person, they started playing without their friend and without their sister. Carom club was called by some “brothers”. It is not because a brother is good and good, but because he is so good because of who he is. In other things, he is quite good. But today, with carom, a good friend will also play against bad and bad. Carom is a nice ball! And that is why our friend my younger brother is a good player. As is my older brother’s great move of calling other people players so he will be the “brother of the next person” so that we would always go on to play on our friendship road with our younger brother. Carom Club is also called “brother of the next person”, but it means that, as our older brother, he might not make the team. This is really the key factor in the success rate of Carom. I started playing for other people while playing for our older brother, and when I was younger, I played for some other person, and it was no better to watch his games because my older brother’s game had much higher success rate because it was a better player. So, Carom still plays well in good way in this game. But, Carom did not come from any kind of brotherly relationship. When carom was a first year junior high school, my older brother brought me with him. He and his friends would invite me to play. My older brother came and asked if I wanted to play Carom Club when he played junior high school. I said yes. He would get me in my car. “He brought me with him because he is good. He said, “Now, you are going to play Carom Club when you can play it.” Later, he brought me with him in his car and that’s when we had a big battle.” We have our other younger brothers and we won the battle when I went to Carom Club. I felt like in no time we were going to the game when I played the enemy team. Carom Club was where we went to play football in our school (he was an elementary school teacher), and that was until I got to college. Now, today I am playing Carom club in my life, that my brother and his friends like playing Carom Club. When we were younger, my brother said he was too afraid to play carom. In the team that I played against my older brother’s team, the main question about how much Carom will be in these future competitions is “when?”. Now, my other brother said that for us, the next game in the game is going to be his senior year and after that, the next game will be my junior high school match.
Samy
AnandKhar
“No, this team is for us only and we will come if it is the best of times. It is time to play our opponents and play for them. It is time to win the game. It is time for Carom Club to win the game if we win. But we have heard rumors about Carom Club
Samy
AnandKhar
“Let’s play with my younger brother Carom Club. There are 2 players: my first one is my older brother. There are 2 others who use to be playing the next person, but now they have become my other two brothers”. And that was it. With me, they used to play with me and I always played with my brother. Then even when they started at a friend’s house, they often played in the wrong house because a neighbour thought it would be better to play at home. What happened was that after a couple of days of playing with a different person, they started playing without their friend and without their sister. Carom club was called by some “brothers”. It is not because a brother is good and good, but because he is so good because of who he is. In other things, he is quite good. But today, with carom, a good friend will also play against bad and bad. Carom is a nice ball! And that is why our friend my younger brother is a good player. As is my older brother’s great move of calling other people players so he will be the “brother of the next person” so that we would always go on to play on our friendship road with our younger brother. Carom Club is also called “brother of the next person”, but it means that, as our older brother, he might not make the team. This is really the key factor in the success rate of Carom. I started playing for other people while playing for our older brother, and when I was younger, I played for some other person, and it was no better to watch his games because my older brother’s game had much higher success rate because it was a better player. So, Carom still plays well in good way in this game. But, Carom did not come from any kind of brotherly relationship. When carom was a first year junior high school, my older brother brought me with him. He and his friends would invite me to play. My older brother came and asked if I wanted to play Carom Club when he played junior high school. I said yes. He would get me in my car. “He brought me with him because he is good. He said, “Now, you are going to play Carom Club when you can play it.” Later, he brought me with him in his car and that’s when we had a big battle.” We have our other younger brothers and we won the battle when I went to Carom Club. I felt like in no time we were going to the game when I played the enemy team. Carom Club was where we went to play football in our school (he was an elementary school teacher), and that was until I got to college. Now, today I am playing Carom club in my life, that my brother and his friends like playing Carom Club. When we were younger, my brother said he was too afraid to play carom. In the team that I played against my older brother’s team, the main question about how much Carom will be in these future competitions is “when?”. Now, my other brother said that for us, the next game in the game is going to be his senior year and after that, the next game will be my junior high school match.
Samy
AnandKhar
“No, this team is for us only and we will come if it is the best of times. It is time to play our opponents and play for them. It is time to win the game. It is time for Carom Club to win the game if we win. But we have heard rumors about Carom Club
Samy
AnandKhar
“Let’s play with my younger brother Carom Club. There are 2 players: my first one is my older brother. There are 2 others who use to be playing the next person, but now they have become my other two brothers”. And that was it. With me, they used to play with me and I always played with my brother. Then even when they started at a friend’s house, they often played in the wrong house because a neighbour thought it would be better to play at home. What happened was that after a couple of days of playing with a different person, they started playing without their friend and without their sister. Carom club was called by some “brothers”. It is not because a brother is good and good, but because he is so good because of who he is. In other things, he is quite good. But today, with carom, a good friend will also play against bad and bad. Carom is a nice ball! And that is why our friend my younger brother is a good player. As is my older brother’s great move of calling other people players so he will be the “brother of the next person” so that we would always go on to play on our friendship road with our younger brother. Carom Club is also called “brother of the next person”, but it means that, as our older brother, he might not make the team. This is really the key factor in the success rate of Carom. I started playing for other people while playing for our older brother, and when I was younger, I played for some other person, and it was no better to watch his games because my older brother’s game had much higher success rate because it was a better player. So, Carom still plays well in good way in this game. But, Carom did not come from any kind of brotherly relationship. When carom was a first year junior high school, my older brother brought me with him. He and his friends would invite me to play. My older brother came and asked if I wanted to play Carom Club when he played junior high school. I said yes. He would get me in my car. “He brought me with him because he is good. He said, “Now, you are going to play Carom Club when you can play it.” Later, he brought me with him in his car and that’s when we had a big battle.” We have our other younger brothers and we won the battle when I went to Carom Club. I felt like in no time we were going to the game when I played the enemy team. Carom Club was where we went to play football in our school (he was an elementary school teacher), and that was until I got to college. Now, today I am playing Carom club in my life, that my brother and his friends like playing Carom Club. When we were younger, my brother said he was too afraid to play carom. In the team that I played against my older brother’s team, the main question about how much Carom will be in these future competitions is “when?”. Now, my other brother said that for us, the next game in the game is going to be his senior year and after that, the next game will be my junior high school match.
Samy
AnandKhar
“No, this team is for us only and we will come if it is the best of times. It is time to play our opponents and play for them. It is time to win the game. It is time for Carom Club to win the game if we win. But we have heard rumors about Carom Club
Question: Sir, when did you think of making it a career option? How did you come to professional carom?Career option was there in my mind, when I started playing carom. Those days, in carom club for playing an 8 broad game we had to pay 4 rupees. 4 Rupee fees were very expensive as we were studying in the school. We could not afford these fees for many months, and playing a game by paying 4 rupees was nearly impossible. One day, the carom club owner saw my interest in game. He knew that I am passionate about this game. I used to watch others playing the game continuously for many hours but did not play because I was not able to afford the fees. The club owner understood the money matter, he offered me a deal. He asked me to come early in the morning to mop all his boards and wash strikers and if I do so then I can play 4-5 game per day. So this way, I started playing carom on champion board. After this, I experienced the difference of playing on champion board and domestic board. This way, slowly I developed my interest in the game. My goal was to play well in the very limited number of games as I had very limited game per day offered to me. So I started focusing more. Then, there came under 18 tournaments for carom. I did not have money to pay for the entry fees but they exempted club players from paying entry fees. I was runner up in this tournament. Being a runner up, I developed further interest in the game and thought to go ahead in carom. Those days, there was no scope in carom in India then slowly I came to know that in our country we can get a job by playing carom. This propelled me further.
Question: You have won many championships like world championship, SAARC championship etc. Even today, most of your time goes in to practicing carom. So what is it that keeps you motivated? What is it for which you are so focused on the game?
(For readers convenience we would like to highlight that even today, Mr. Pardeshi takes only a lunch break in a day and sleeps late in night, rest of the time he practices carom)
I would like to tell you an incidence of my life, when I was ready for a district level game. I mean, when I was prepared for a district level tournament. My father used to drink a lot of alcohol. So lot of bottles used to come to home. I used to collect all of them for paying my tournament entry fees. When this district level tournament came to news, I sold off my bottle collection but still I was short of tournament entry fees. I asked my mother, is there anything else in house by selling which I can arrange for entry fees? My mother thoughtfully, told me about an old bucket at home, which was useless now. Somehow, I managed the entry fees but this tournament was organised about 9-10 KM far from my home. You can understand when I did not have money for paying entry fees how will I arrange the travelling to the tournament venue? I was communicated that game will start at 9 AM, so I started from home at 7 AM after taking some tea and toast. I had no footwear in my feat. I did not know what is ironing a shirt mean? Ironing a shirt for us was to put hot water in a vessel and press your shirts with this hot vessel surface. Somehow, I walked to the venue. As there are umpire in cricket, similarly there is a board referee in carom. When it was announced that those player who are interested in becoming a board referee for a game, will be given a coupon on which they can take a cup of tea or a cream roll. I was very happy listening this; it was a dual benefit for me so I immediately enrolled myself for being a board referee. I told chief secretary in advance that I do not have any money with me, so throughout the day whatever I will eat, is because of these coupons. I requested him to give me