The Hindu : Sport / Billiards & Snooker : Sophistication is synonymous with Geet Sethi

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Friday, Dec 14, 2007
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Sophistication is synonymous with Geet Sethi

Special Correspondent

— FILE PHOTO

Geet Sethi.

HYDERABAD: If a game’s known by its players, Geet Sethi is the byword for billiards.

During the semifinal showdown with Pankaj Advani, he was the monarch of all he surveyed, the plastic chair transformed to throne and the upright cue his sceptre. On the green baize that was the battlefield, his watch never waned. Like a grim general plotting his moves, his visage was gaunt, not a strand of his carefully-combed hair out of place.

When his turn came to put ball away into the pocketed corners, the walk to the table was brisk, the air of assurance verging on the impatient. Yet he paused now and then, his position coming in for a rethink, talking and even smiling to himself. The defeat is soon forgotten, as he leaves the arena, cue-bag slung over his shoulder, like a soldier bearing his assault rifle. Outside, Sethi chats up blazer-clad children from a city school. The questions he throws search for the spark, sans the sense of déjÀ vu celebrities suffer from.

When he holds forth on his sport and others, the quotable quotes pour in by the bucketful.

“When billiards borders on the sublime, it gets more monotonous for the lay bystander. That’s the tragedy,” he says.

One brilliant run and the frustration dissipates, is the take on his undying passion for the game.

If all the world is a frame, his portrait packs the panache. And with that élan, Sethi slips on ‘Matrix’-style shades as he steps out into the sunshine, reducing the most cynical hacks to gushing cheerleaders.

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