The centuries-old Indian game bringing people together

We’ve got over 800 people trying to get tickets tonight,” says Abdus Khan, the founder of ‘Karrom’, “but we whittle that down to 44 lucky players.” Subscribe ► https://www.youtube.com/user/theguardian?sub_confirmation=1 Khan runs a London-based community evening, bringing people together with a traditional Indian game, carrom. Widely played across South Asia, he describes it as playing pool “but with your fingers”. This tabletop game has evolved and is increasingly played around the world, including the US and the UK. “We now use this game as an exercise to promote diversity in a fragmented world,” Khan says. And it seems to be working. According to Khan, the game has grown into a grassroots movement of more than 12,000 players. His goal is to launch a super league, inspired by franchise models like cricket’s IPL, with ambitions to expand globally. The Guardian went along to one of Khan’s community nights to see how carrom is played and how it’s creating a space for connection offline. #carrom #india #uk #karrom