Hyderabad, February 09: Surya in the latest Bollywood flick, Striker, may be a reel life character that emerged from a ghetto to become a carom champion on the silver screen but we have amidst us a real hero who fought against odds to become the Junior National Carom Champion.
Sixteen-year-old Komervelli Srinivas, son of a roadside barber, braved financial constraints and severe cold at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh where the competition was held recently and brought laurels to the city.
“It was biting cold in Varanasi and with the whole body shivering we could hardly stand and balance ourselves. But I took it up as a challenge and won the final,’’ Srinivas, who defeated Abdul Rehman of Uttar Pradesh, told Expresso.
Mention of `Striker’ brought a flash in his eyes. “I saw the film on the first day itself. At least here is a film about our game.
Of course, it is a different story,’’ said an excited Srinivas, who himself is a deadly striker on the board. “I like to the finish the game in a jiffy,’’ he said.
Brought up in abject poverty, he fell in love with the game when he was a third class student. “It all started when I was playing marbles on the roadside. A neighbour in Parsigutta asked to me play carom in a nearby club. What started as a curiosity, became a passion for me. I even skipped classes to play the game from morning to evening,’’ he recalled.
With the club closing down, Srinivas had difficulty practising the game for the next two years. However, VSK Naidu came to his rescue. A student of Netaji Public School, Srinivas participated in an inter-school drawing competition. He came to know by accident that his school was participating in the carom championship too and he immediately enrolled his name. To his teacher’s surprise, he won the title. “Naidu Sir immediately asked me and my brother Tirupati, also a junior national player, to join his club,’’ said Srinivas.
There was no looking back since, and Srinivas excelled in the State and National sub-junior championship before finally winning it in 2006. “I used to borrow my father’s bicycle and participate in camps and local meets. I have to give credit to my coaches Shoban Raj and Madan Raj who encouraged me a lot,’’ he said.
“I owe a lot to my father. Despite a meagre earning of Rs 100-150 a day with which he had to run a family of four brothers and a sister, he never said no whenever I had to attend a camp. He borrowed money and sent me to a camp at Vizag. I did not have money for my return journey and my friends helped me,’’ recalled Srinivas.
Srinivas doesn’t have a board to practice and looks for clubs for practice sessions.
He has three strikers in his pocket. “The board is too expensive (Rs 3,000), I can’t afford it,’’ said a poverty-stricken Srinivas, who is thinking of quitting his Intermediate and also the game. “I will participate in the senior inter-district championship for a place in the State team for the Senior Nationals and then I plan to quit the game. I have to search for a job to make my ends meet,’’ he said.
BK Harnath, president of the Hyderabad Carom Association, said there were a few more like Srinivas. “Srinivas has come up the hard way. We have tried to help him by giving the best of facilities possible. There is another girl called Savita, the State women’s number one. She is also from a family of barbers,’’ he said.
Srinivas can continue to play only if he gets a sponsor, like it happens in Maharashtra.
Harnath hopes some Good Samaritan will come to help Srinivas. Hope `reel’ striker Siddhartha is listening.
–Agencies