Had a very interesting day today. The Commonwealth Cue Sports event concluded yesterday in Ahmedabad (a city of ~ 8.5 million people, and home of Dhvaj Haria who won silver in the snooker event). Flew to Mumbai from Ahmedabad today to meet Dhruv Sitwala. 

I was standing at the luggage conveyor when my cue case came along, and the guy standing next to me says “were you playing in the [CCS] event in Ahmedabad?”. When I said yes and told him I was playing billliards, his ears perked up. He asked where I was from and I said Canada, and he knew that we had held the PanAm Cup in August. Turns out it was Ashok Shandilya, the 2002 Asian billiards champion and current Indian snooker and billiards manager/coach. 

He has a daughter living in Toronto and considered coming to our event but couldn’t get a visa in time. He was interested to hear we’re going to go again in two years. When I told him that I was in Mumbai to meet Dhruv, he stood with me and called Dhruv to tell him exactly where we were so I would have no problem meeting him.  Very nice of Ashok. We always talk about one degree of separation in Winnipeg, but this was about two degrees between Winnipeg and India.

Dhruv and I took a taxi to my hotel, and thank God for him because I don’t think I could have figured it out on my own. After I checked in, we walked 5 minutes to the Cricket Club of India (entry fee the equivalent of USD $350,000), where he, Pankaj Advani and Geet Sethi are all honorary members. Five classic billiards tables in a very 19th century dark wood atmosphere. 

Two years ago, at the request of Dhruv and Pankaj, the CCI paid to bring in Dave Causier, Rob Hall, Peter Gilchrist and PeterSheehan to play friendly matches against Dhruv, Pankaj, Sourav Kothari and Geeti. They played match play, long up, doubles and scotch doubles over 2-3 days at the club. That would’ve been fun to watch!

After leaving there, Dhruv took me on the open door transit train (only one stop - could have walked but he wanted me to have the experience) to the Hindu Gymkhana Club, which is an hour by train from his home, and where he practices from 2:00-5:30 every day. He is the Club secretary there and seems to run the show. 7 tables, including one table reserved for Shusrat (where he regularly runs his 1,000 breaks in his mind in practice!).

I’m going to meet Dhruv at the Hindu Gymkhana Club tmrw from 2-5:30 and then have dinner with him at the CCI. Then on Wed we’re going to spend the day back at his club with him working with me on my (so called) game. Then on Thursday he heads off to Landywood for the World Championship while I fly to Delhi to meet Brenda and start our tour.