I can’t really place when the world of carrom and chess became the beneficiaries of my grace. Chess, perhaps, at a young age. Who taught me? There was a neighboring lady who was very much interested in chess and would call us to play with her. Learning days. After coming to Chennai, chess and carrom were distant memories. My interest got a rejuvenate

fillip when I was around 17. We managed to get a carrom board. Apart from my father, my mother was an excellent player. In general, a nervous lady while playing carrom, she was very steady and could pocket any coin with jealousy-creating ease. My father was a defensive-offensive player. Often, he would block some of our coins and let out a loud, earth-shattering laugh. He would make the other players tense with this. That was his style. The rest of us played without tactics, just keeping trying to pocket the coins.

After I had taken up the permanent job, my limited abilities in these three games blossomed. At the end of the day, I used to play chess and carrom with some of the colleagues. It was a great learning experience. Though not professionals, some of them were great tactical players and taught me how to think, plan, and execute. I rapidly picked up on chess and carrom. At the suggestion of one of the colleagues, I started solving two-mover problems that were published in The Hindu on Sunday's edition. I would keep a chessboard, sit alone, and think and solve. This was a great exercise in thinking and also improving the speed of thinking.

Carrom came naturally to me. Pocketing coins was not the greatest issue. But tactics were. Here too, I could get brilliant lessons from some of the colleagues, one of whom I think participated in district and state-level tournaments.

Table tennis came a couple of years later when our office moved to its own huge building and an area was reserved for sports and a table tennis board was installed.

Amazing how many of the colleagues were interested in these games and frequented the sports room in the evenings after work.

I started participating in internal tournaments but never won any.

Continued in 244. Twin Twine - Part 3