Chess and I

A couple of days ago I came across the news that Viswanathan Anand became the world number 1 in chess. That brought back memories of my own chess playing days. Well more misses than hits… but who’s counting..had great fun.
I came by chess accidentally. I read a notice on our school board stating the start of the sports week and asking for students to take part in different sports. I wasn’t much into sports (one could say sports and I kept a safe distance from each other). I suddenly had this brainwave of taking part in the chess tournament. I got my name down and came home and told my parents that I was taking part in the chess tournament. To say that my father was aghast is an understatement cos at the time I didn’t even own a chess board. After my announcement father and daughter went shopping for a chess board. Then my dad taught me the basics of chess. In a couple of days I was all set for the tournament.
In the first round I don’t recollect how I won… but the 2nd round win proved extremely funny. I guess my opponent must have been equally green. We started playing and there was a crowd of students around us following our game. At a certain point everyone was quiet and suddenly one boy says “hey that’s a check mate”. I wasn’t even aware that I had won the game. I am trying to figure out who won. Then my opponent said “congrats”. That’s how I realized that I had won that round. Obviously I didn’t last long in the 3rd round.
Heartened by my success in the first 2 rounds, I got a book on chess and started learning the game. Read a few books on it and studied the games of Bobby Fischer, Karpov etc.
Our school had a good reputation where chess was concerned and one of my class mates had won a lot of junior/senior/state level tournaments. She was ofcourse the no.1. There was another girl who was the 2nd seed. She always thought she was cat’s whiskers and would look down on all us freshers in chess. The 2nd year that I took part in the chess competition I got a rude shock when I checked the list. I was pitted against this girl in the first round itself. She was riding high on her success in the inter-school tournaments. All the teachers were wishing her the best. I wanted to quit. Then I said to myself “that’s cowardice”. No one expects you to win and if you don’t win well you have nothing to lose. Like they show in the movies …. I posted a surprise win. That girl was so shocked…. She just couldn’t come out of it. There was collective jaw dropping around us. The other students didn’t know how to respond. They were conditioned to clap for her. After 15mins of staring at the board she conceded her defeat. After that winning other rounds I reached the finals where I lost to my classmate. But well there was never any power struggle or jealousy with her. She was always a very helpful person when we practiced. The first round surprise win is something that I’ll always cherish.
Though after school I never really pursued chess. I did play for the fun of it. On my first visit to France I played chess with my host( a guy who had actually played with a known GM in an exhibition match) . Though he didn’t know much of English and I didn’t know French at all, we spent many an evening playing chess and really enjoyed ourselves. When I visited him 5yrs later I had learnt French and was fluent and that time too we played chess and actually held a meaningful conversation about chess. I guess chess is a religion for some. Doesn’t have language barrier. Requires a lot of calm and cunning :D
After quite a long time, now my nephew’s got hooked on the game and expects me to play with him. It does bring back fond memories. During our school days we never had coaches coming home to teach chess. Now there are lots. I hope India will get many more Vishy Anands.

Open letter to Abhi-Ash

Hi darlings (see how I got the moua-moua lingo right :D ) Congratulations on your engagement (I know it's quite late in the day to wish you). The world and it's wife are looking forward to your forthcoming nuptials. Ofcourse theres competition as Aru-Liz have also decided to tie the long pending knot just then (and this has gotten our very own Parmesh's knickers in a twist arranging the mehendi wine party.... sorry about that but the article did say that all wines flowing toward the Godrej mansion...no am not quoting verbatim...but something to the effect.) Just a note here for a friend...hey sal you could be in biz here..... get that wine you make ready, could be required and then you would only tango with the hoi-polloi of Mumbai.
Coming back to you darlings... must say you make a glam pair. Just the other day I read in a newspapers that you'd be tying the knot on the 19th March and the invitation cards would cost upwards of Rs.5000/- (per card). Now...now.... you might be the first family of bollywood (or is it still the kapoors...in that case second family) but do you think it's really nice spending what a lower income group person earns in a month on one invitation card. Many in India don't even earn that much in a month. The newspapers are already doing you a favour letting everyone know when the wedding is... the only thing for you to do is to let the people you want to invite know. What are emails for babies? They are absolutely free... send as many as you want( you do look comp savvy). This way you would save your money. Do give that to a good cause and you won't need to go visiting all the temples in India for God to bless your union. Millions of Indians would do that. Would do a lot for your image and stock.
I hope you take my humble advise. Wishing you all the best... may the Bachchan factory (on the lines of Ram Gopal Verma's factory) prosper and may your union celebrate a golden anniversary.
Affly
Shruti (an email invite would do just fine...huh darlings! )
p.s. How remiss of me that I didn't even inquire about Mr Bachchan... I hope he's in the "pink" of health (just read this yesterday that he can wear pink with panache and looks very metrosexual and sexy) Hai rabba all those Indian men around and we can't find a young sex-symbol. Imagine the pressure on the Big B? Poor chap would soon need psycho support...one day romancing Hema.... next Jiah... I mean a person could lose it. So Abhi darling do look after you pa in his old age. Abhi, abhi tumhe he sab samhalna hai na?