Relevance of Carom to Leisure Activities during Covid-19 Lockdown
The human crisis brought about by the Covid 19 pandemic, notably the fact that the virus is highly infectious and is capable of taking the life of the person ridden with it, has compelled people around the world to remain confined within their homes (Beaunoyer et al., 2020). Social isolation has been enforced by governments around the world to keep their people safe from being infected with Covid 19 as a consequence of which the majority of the population in Covid affected countries have to stay within the boundaries of their homes and apartments, with their family members and loved ones, working from home and going out of the home only in the event that that they need essential supplies around the world, such as food and medical supplies (Bossert et al., 2020). The social isolation that has been brought about by Covid 19 and the long hours for which people with their families have to remain quarantined within their homes, is leading to huge levels of boredom. Children and their parents are faced with nothing to do in order to entertain themselves after they have finished their school work, official work and chores around the house. The social isolation triggered as a consequence of Covid `19 provides however, the perfect opportunity for families, both large and small, to be able to bond with one another, and one of the best way to do so is to partake in a leisure activity (Bossert et al., 2020). This assignment identifies how the home based leisure activity of carom can be engaged in by children and their parents when spending time in social isolation, cut off from the rest of the world and communicating with the outside world only when needed. The assignment points out that this is a leisure activity that is especially ideally for parents who have mobility issues and are not able to move around from one place to another too much, or for children who have disabilities or constraints with regard to their physical movement and have to spend most of their time confined in a specific part of the home, in the period of isolation. The assignment identifies how the leisure activity of carom identifies with the 7 pillars of inclusion, with an audit being undertaken of this activity and the venue in which it takes place, after which the results of the audit are interpreted. The report concludes with a number of recommendations that can be taken into consideration in order to improve the inclusiveness of the activity venue.
Target Age Group for the Game of Carom
This assignment designs a leisure activity based on a specific disability that one or more people in a family can be faced with, and which makes life especially hard for them in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic. The disability in this context is a leg impairment which a child in the family suffers from, which keeps him from moving around in the house too easily and which, rather, keeps the child confined to one part of the home when seeking relaxation or pleasure activities, be it in the living room or in the bedroom. Family members, such as the parents of the child and also the siblings of the same and even the friends of the child, if they come over, have to be in the same room with the child, in a fixed space in order to engage in any leisure activity with him. It is because of this reason why taking part in the game of carom is something that can prove to be ideal for the child and his family. This is a leisure activity that can be safely undertaken during the Covid 19 pandemic lockdown as the game of Carom can be played by either being in the bedroom or in the living space. It is best that the game be played in the child’s bedroom with him and other members of his family sitting on his bed to play the game and wearing face masks and gloves at the time of doing so. The child will have the comfort of having his family around him while availing the fun and the enjoyment that comes with playing a game of carom, every once in awhile (Ettekal & Agans, 2020).
The specific age group that this leisure activity is going to target is the age group of 8 to 70 years. Carom is a game that can be played by a family sitting together in a specific part of the house or apartment. It is a game that can be readily played by a person who is 8 years or above in age, and it is a game that provides amusement and fun for people who are senior citizens too. Hence the game of carom is an ideal leisure activity that can be undertaken during the Covid 19 lockdown period as it is a game that can be enjoyed by people across such a wide age group, starting from 8 years and going up to as much as 70 years. It is a game or a leisure activity that children can engage in alongside their parents, grandparents and siblings. It is worthwhile to point out in this respect that carom is a board game and the board that needs to be used to play this game is not too large which is why it can be easily accommodated in the bedroom of the child who has a leg impairment but who still wishes to partake in leisure activities with his family in lockdown (Giridhar et al., 2020).
The Venue for Engaging in the Game of Carom as a Leisure Activity
The game of Carom has been selected as the leisure activity for analysis because of the capability of this game to bring enjoyment and delight to those who engage in it. There is plenty of excitement and intellectual stimulus that is generated when the game of carom is played, especially when it is played in groups. A family that has a child with a disability, and which is forced to remain indoors during the lockdown period can definitely take part in the game of carom in the bedroom of the child as by doing so, they will be able to adhere to the restrictions and regulations associated with the Covid 19 pandemic lockdown and they will also be able to adhere to the 7 pillars of inclusion at the time of taking part in this leisure activity (Giridhar et al., 2020).
The type of leisure activity that is being engaged in is the game of carom. The game of carom does not require much equipment as such. All that participants in the game need access to is a carom board over which they can play the game and all the colored dice which they need in order for the game to be played. It is true that some amount of contact with fingers has to transpire when the game of carom is played, with the dice having to be thrown from one end of the board to the other, and across the board to the four different holes situated at either side of the board. However this matter can be taken care of by wearing protective gloves at the time of playing the game so that there is no exact physical contact with the dice and the board at the time of taking part in the game. Carom is a delightful activity and it can make the people engaging in it very enthralled. It is a game which is capable of keeping people engaged for long hours. There is no possibility of getting tired or bored at the time of engaging in this game, which is why it is so popular in the first place. Also the fact that it is a game which caters to the interests of adults and children alike makes it an activity that is ideal for the lockdown period, especially for a family which has a disabled child who finds it difficult to move from one place to another and who has to remain confined to a specific part of the house when participating in a leisure activity with the family. The game of carom is also ideal for the given situation on account of the fact that procuring the equipment necessary for this game is not expensive and it is not difficult. The family will not have to spend a considerable amount of its resources in order to get hold of a carom board and the dice that comes with it, and most families in Australia already have this gaming equipment at home given how popular the game of carom happens to be in many Australian households (Goodman-Casanova et al., 2020).
Benefit of Inclusive Participation in Leisure Activities
The venue where the leisure activity is going to take place is the bedroom of the child whose leg is impaired. The bedroom is a safe and secure place for this activity to take place in as it is a part of the home that other family members can easily make their way to, it is a secluded part of the home, well protected from the outside environment and it is also a part of the home that is relatively easy to sanitize. As part of the Covid 19 lockdown period, it is necessary for all rooms of a home to be adequately cleaned and sanitized in order for the residents of the home to remain safe and secure. The bedroom is no doubt a part of the house that the family members are going to look to clean sanitized at all times, which is all the more reason why this part of the home constitutes an ideal venue for the leisure activity. It will be in a well sanitized room that the family gets to play a game of carom in, in order to keep themselves well entertained during the lockdown period. The game of carom is also something that is ideal for this particular venue largely on account of the fact that the carom board is not too large in size and will not take up a large portion of the bedroom. The family simply needs to take care to get the board installed in a part of the room where it is easily accessible by all the family members, in a position that allows the family members to sit and play the game instead of standing in order to do so, given that the child of the house has a leg impairment. Carom is a game which will encourage inclusive participation by all the family members, leading to a harmonious and lovable family experience and engagement in a time that is as distressful as the time of the Covid 19 pandemic (Beaunoyer et al., 2020).
Inclusive participation in the context of this leisure activity implies that all the members of the family who partake in the leisure activity, be it the parents, the grandparents, the children, including the child who is disabled and maybe the friends of the child too, if they come over, can participate equally in the gaming process (Ferilli et al., 2016). They can experience the same levels of delight and excitement and stimulation when they take part in the game, and in the process, all the members of the family will feel equally involved in the game. In other words, what this leisure activity will end up doing is that it is united all the family members together in a single space, it will foster a feeling of connectedness which is so necessary in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic, which is a crisis that threatens human life so easily and which has made human life so cheap and precarious. With all the members of the family member feeling involved in the game and enjoying the game in equal measure, a lot of unity and harmony will be established in the home, the type of united front which is necessary for all families around the world to put up in the face of the disasters and the despair that is being triggered as a consequence of the sheer loss of lives induced by the Covid 19 pandemic (Marston et al., 2020).
The game of carom is the right type of leisure activity to be undertaken during the Covid 19 pandemic as all the 7 pillars of inclusion can be addressed when such a game is played. The 8 pillars of inclusion are choice, partnerships, communication, policies, opportunities, access and attitude. The people who take part in the home based leisure activity of carom get to choose when it is that they want to play the game, for how long they want to play the game and the ways by which they want to play the game. Partnerships are fostered with the gaming participants collaborating with one another and even playing in teams perhaps, in order to score well and win. Communication has to be engaged in between the different participants when carom is played and the policy of playing fair, without cheating or taking recourse to dishonest means has to be in place for the game to take place in the manner that is expected. The game of carom provides the family members who are in lockdown with the opportunity to connect with each other and find enjoyment in each other’s company which in turn triggers the love and feeling of security that can keep people humane and strong in the difficult circumstances that have been triggered by the Covid 19 pandemic. They will feel secure, loved and happy in the company of each other and will be able to remain united enough to survive the challenges that are brought about by the Covid 19 pandemic (Ornell et al., 2020).
When talking about the challenges that this leisure activity is capable of imposing on the participants in the game, it is important to note that there are no specific challenges associated with the game of carom. There are no social and environmental challenges that will be imposed when this leisure activity takes place, as carom essentially is the type of game which is played indoors instead of outdoors. It is also a game which is easy to play and there is a simple set of instructions or rules that the participants in the game are expected to adhere to, in order to be able to do a good job of playing this game. As such there are no difficulties or challenges that can plague the gamers in the course of this leisure activity and it is something that they are going to be able to enjoy significantly well enough in spite of one of the children in the family suffering from a leg impairment. They can all sit in a part of the house and enjoy the game, with the venue chosen in this respect being the bedroom of the child whose leg is impaired, so that he does not have to go out of the room, and so that he does not have to hurt himself in the process of partaking in a fun and leisure activity with the rest of his family during the Covid 19 pandemic (Pastor et al., 2020).
Access and communication are the two pillars of inclusion that are specifically important and which come into play when the leisure activity as described above is carried out. Access makes it possible for all the family members to be equally involved in the leisure activity and for the leisure activity to take place in the first place, while communication allows the people who are taking part in the activity, in this case the family members, to be well connected to one another at a time when the Covid 19 pandemic is seen to be threatening human existence. To implement the two pillars will not be difficult as accessing board game equipment like carom is easy to do. Communication is facilitated when the game starts being played and the participants have to work in teams or discuss with each other the various moves that they have to make in order to get ahead in the game and defeat their opponents, in the event that they are playing in teams and not at the individual level. The board game of carom is a simple leisure activity, it is a home based activity and it can be played by many people at the same given time. Access and communication are the two pillars of inclusion that can be easily adhered to when this board game is played by the family members inside of the home, a place where they are all well sheltered from the virus that is tearing lives apart outside.
One of the key reasons why the above venue can be considered as inclusive is because it is easy to access, it is a venue where the members of the family can be comfortably situated, it is an activity which does not require them to be outside of their home and it is an inexpensive activity as well. There is plenty of communication that can be facilitated when the activity does indeed take place, which in turn is likely to contribute to the sense of harmony and love and peace that needs to be fostered among families and individuals during the Covid 19 pandemic. As a result both the pillars of communication are being easily addressed and adhered to when this activity takes place. The game of carom is not only a home based activity but it is also an activity which can be partaken by a number of people at the same given time. As a result this is an activity of leisure that is ideal for people to be involved in, inside of the home, instead of them having to go out. Covid 19 pandemic has made it mandatory for people to remain confined within their homes and they are not supposed to engage in any interaction or engagement with the outside world during this period of time, in order to keep themselves safe and secure from being harmed by the virus. The home based scenario is the only scenario in which leisure activities can be participated in, and carom is the best game to play as it can be played in the bedroom, with even people who are disabled or impaired being in a position to take part in the game (Pullano et al., 2020).
Carom is an indoor game and it can be played inside the home. Hence this is a game which constitutes a good leisure activity to partake in during the Covid 19 crisis. As a result of the circumstances that have been generated by the spread the virus, it is difficult for people to go out of their homes anymore. Hence participating in carom will not only provide gamers with relaxation and leisure, which is something that they need in order to beat the stress brought on by the pandemic, but it is also a participation they can ensure from within the confines of the home. Carom is a game that is well received and popular among different age groups too, hence all members of the family or people staying inside of the home can participate in the activity with equal degree of enthusiasm and remain connected to one another in the process, the latter being absolutely essential in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic (Widdop et al., 2020).
The following recommendations can be considered in order to make the venue more inclusive –
- A separate room of the home needs to be designated as the gaming room which people can make their way to, in order to play carom or any other indoor game (Ferilli et al., 2016).The room needs to be in a strategic part of the house which is easy for all the people in the home to move to or access, even if they are physically disabled and are not able to move too much from one part of the home or another (Pullano et al., 2020).
- Sanitization needs to be taken into consideration in order to ensure that the venue is not only inclusive but it is a space where all the members of the family or the participants in the leisure activity can occupy safely without putting one another in danger. The room needs to be sanitized two to three times in a day as it is a space that is going to be occupied by two or more people at a given time, and where some amount of physical contact is going to have to be engaged in, as part of the leisure activity (Widdop et al., 2020).
Conclusion
Thus, there are a number of ways by which leisure activities can be partaken inside of a home in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic. Carom is one game which can be played indoors inside the confines of a home, which invites inclusive participation as several people can access the equipment and take part in it at the same given time. They get the chance to communicate and cooperate with one another when the activity is in progress, thus experiencing the harmony and the unity that is necessary to survive the crisis brought on by the Covid 19 pandemic.
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