Bowling boredom away

SOMETIMES YOU get an uncomfortable feeling that most outings with children end up with them heading for the omnipresent video games while you window shop. Computers have invaded our lives to the extent that children have developed an insatiable appetite for gaming on the PC to the exclusion of typical Chennai pursuits like gilli-dandu or flying kites. It is another matter altogether that the country's first private internet service provider has a kite for a logo!

Perhaps the new century's children would get to know of quaint games only from R. K. Narayan's "Swamy and Friends". Therefore, on a family outing on one of the few evenings in a month, one braces up for the customary tussle of keeping a watchful eye on one kid immersed in a video game while the older kid glowers from behind a pillar. Soon, popular demand weans away the video game enthusiast for a tense drive to dinner before heading home to catch the TV serial.

How many salubrious evening jaunts end up like this? For a refreshing change in the scenario described above, try out Down Under on 123, Marshalls Road, Egmore. Situated in a sprawling air-conditioned basement, Down Under hopes to provide wholesome entertainment for the family with bowling and mini-golf embellishing the offering along with the ubiquitous video games (!), billiards, video karaoke, large screen TV (for the couch potato) and a snacketeria.

The four-lane bowling alley at Down Under gets a lot of traffic and kiwi sports. There are instructors to teach the nuances of the centuries-old sport to the uninitiated. Armed with colourful polyurethane balls as big as basketballs (weighing more than 12 pounds), the players square off and launch the measured attack down the alley. And then realise that the saying, "falling like ninepins" may not quite apply to their efforts in bowling as it is quite difficult to knock down all the ten pins with the two throws permitted in a frame!

Chennai youngsters have taken to bowling with great alacrity and Down Under's manager, Gerard D'Nazareth points with justifiable pride at the weekly best performers consistently recording scores of over 180 points in a ten frame game. Every pin knocked down over two throws gets you a point and therefore, a maximum of 20 points can be obtained in each frame if you knock down all ten pins.

Bowling has traditionally been a popular sport like darts in pubs and "strong men" in England play the game until their eyes bubble in inebriation. Paradoxically, in Chennai, the sport is becoming very popular with all members of the family playing against each other. College students are more commonly seen in Down Under bowling alleys on weekdays though. Eight pound balls are recommended for children and women. The ball has two holes on the surface into which the middle and ring fingers of the throwing hand are inserted and pressure exerted from the forefinger and little finger at the throw. The alleys are made of maple wood and oiled periodically to help the spin on the ball and hi-tech cameras record the falling pins to register the scores on a colour monitor.

Mini-golf at Down Under is quite delightful and the three hole course is landscaped nicely. Kids mainly use this and one can also see some adults trying to play to par here. The first two holes have to be completed in two strokes while three strokes is par for the third hole. If you land in the sand bunker, one stroke is forfeited and you can play from just outside the hole. Mini-golf affords an admirable opportunity for kids to experience the deeply addictive game and it is quite cute to hear them express dismay in parliamentary terms over flubbing a shot as distinct from the adults on Chennai golf courses.

Down Under plays some great music and runs imaginative promotions enabling players to claim free soft drinks and snacks at their cozy fast food restaurant. For a thoroughly enjoyable evening, not too heavy on the wallet, Down Under scores well. The name perhaps is dictated by the basement location though the promoters are Kiwi and not Down Under from Australia. The players here respond with new zeal and - have fun!

M. SRINATH NARAYAN

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