CHESS- ONCE MY OBSESSION IN LIFE

I observe that most of the bloggers who have mentioned their interest as chess are from Russia! I decided to write some anecdotes from my experiences relating to the interests that I have given in my profile.

Today, I am writing some thing about one of my high school interests- Chess!

It was those days in the 70's when chess was introduced in our family by my elder brother. We are a big family with 4 brothers and two sisters. Strangely, I was not very much interested in the game when it was introduced. My elder brother and younger brother were playing the game by drawing the board on the floor by chalk and using some pebbles and cards as pawns and pieces!



A chess board was purchased much later when both my brothers have learnt the game very well. My father used to join once in a while in the game as he was a champian player in his remote village in kerala, where he used to decimate old veterans consisting verandah chess players!



With lot of skepticism and disinterest, I used to watch them play until one of my brothers pooh poohed my ability to learn the game.



I started watching the game keenly and very soon I became a player to challenge our home champians. We started playing the game from Madras(now Chennai) suburb to Ooty hills where we relocated when my father was transferred. During holidays, there will be tournaments conducted between brothers when 5 x5 games are played non-stop with recess only for eating food and drinking coffee served at the venues! Games played in tournament format and we used to write the moves as it was useful in starting the game wherever we left it, if we had to carry over the play the next day!

The game started occuppying our lives like an obsessive cumpulsive disorder! The side effect of the dissorder is that the loser will be subjected to taunts and crude remarks of becoming useless dumb-head and a failure.... resulting in wordly and, occasional fist fights. The loser would always want another game to be played...like in 'Mahabharata'..!



We had to put a fulstop to the game at home one day when my mother had to intervene, during one of those fights following a game, to confiscate the chess board & coins and consign them to flames in a specially made 'bonfire', before which we all had to swear that we shall never play at home ever after and fight with each other! This was preceded by our mother making a serious threat to inflict self injury, which instantly melted every one into submission and made us strictly to follow the promise we made before the 'bonfire'!

Again we had to relocate to Trichy following another transfer to my father from Ooty. Here I started playing with a family friend and at the college. When there was a competition organised by Rock Fort Jaycees Club of Trichy, I enrolled for the junior level tournament. I got selected in the preliminaries and entered the Junior championship which was on a 'knock out' format. I won all the three games I played and moved on to the final.

The final game was held in Hotel Sangam, a star hotel which we would only go to see from a distance those days!

I was so thrilled to play at the venue rather than getting the trophy! What happened during the game and how I lost the game was some thing which I still feel akward to tell ...!


The game was keenly watched by the senior players and organisers as it was held in a big hotel room with time device and game sheets. I was playing black and my opponent, who was the favorite, was playing white. He was playing the usual queen and bishop combination using the french open which I could easily sense. I made a night trap for him should he venture to give a check! Now it was his move and he could venture to give a check ......, when tea was served to us.

He took his queen on his hand and started to move towards the position..... when I was just got distracted by the serving tea..... it happened! A moment of distraction on my part went in favour of my opponent who retracted his move. I could have insisted him to make "touch move" but my attention got diverted by the serving tea, and my right to make him play the move was, by my silence estopeled! Thereafter the game became useless and unsalvageable for me as I had played a dangerous trap game that turned to his benefit by resulting in end game advantage for him.


People who play serious chess would agree that the game can be as nail biting as one could find in the now crazy cricket format of 20-20s, like in cricket, the game of chess can go any which way until the last move.

Chess game had its contribution in changing my life totally, though in hindsight, I do not regret!

The unfinished story would be told some time later...


Many thanks for visiting me and now I would now await to see the comments from the readers..

NATIONAL INTEREST- should we allow sex determination and termination of pregnancy?

There was a debate in Big fight program yesterday in NDTV. Among the panelists and invities present was Honourable minister for Social welfare Mrs. Renuka. It was interesting to listen to various arguments by the panelists and participants. Finally the arguments for permitting the sex determination was subdued by the majority view, which in my opinion was due to the moralistic tendencies of participants,rather than rational approach to the problem.

I should explain this by recollecting a small incident happened about 12 years ago. I was on transfer from Mumbai to Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat in the year 1996. I fixed up an accommodation in a hurry which happened to be a small two bedroom apartment on the second floor ofa building and without a car park. When my family came the accommodation looked ridiculously small as we had my inlaws and a ailing grand mother-in-law besides my 2 children.

We therefore started our frantic search for a bigger accommodation. We came to know about this public servant who was having a palatial house in sector no 21 which was incidentally very close to my office.

In order to enquire,I visited his house alongwith my wife. On pressing the door bell, we were taken inside by an young girl of about 25. She made us comfortably seated in their sprawling drawing room when another girl brought water for us to drink. Even as we waited for the landlord, we could see more number of young girls moving about here and there. Now came the landlord who was in his early 50s. He was well built and appeared to be in a commanding position in the pubic works department of Gujarat government.

He started explaining about the upper portion having two big bedrooms and access from outside which was available for rent and about the terms etc. He went on to tell us the history about how he constructed the house using best of materials, what he expects from the tenants etc

Finally one small boy of 4 years age came inside the hall calling him "papa" and jumped on to his lap! By then, from our expressions, he could sense that we both were intrigued by the presence of too many young girls in the house. To our surprise he said, "what are you looking at? Don't worry.... all the girls you see are my children only... This boy is my son... who is 12th and last....

"Hama reliye kaise be ek ladka laanekka thaa..."

(We had to have one son at any cost!)

We were amazed by his perseverance in getting a son at least prior to his retirement from service!

Later on during our 4 and a half years of experience in Gujarat, we found that sex selection is rampant in Gujarat. Handling large number of Medical Insurance claims we found that there were several cases of abortions of female foetuses happening and, also large number of population putting up a fulstop to pregnancies only after getting a male child after having a number of successive female issues.

In the NDTV debate, Honourable Minister admitted that sex selection and termination of pregnancy is more pronounced amongst urban population who are well informed. In rural india, we have seen the infanticides of female children happening on regular basis. It is also commonly heard that men folk go on to marry another woman if their wives could not deliver male babies, after repeated deliveries.

Instead of taking a decision to ban the sex selection, now the government should come out with a novel regulation some thing like this: Permit sex determination for couples who have 2 children and want to select the third one. They can be legally permitted to have a child of their choice either boy or a girl. At the same time impose penality or tax for those having 3 or more children. This will prevent the citizens from recklessly trying for a particulars sex child and also act as a population control mechanism. This way the demography pattern of male/female sex ratio can be automatically balanced.

All said and done, I do not want to touch on the ethical aspect of this practice which shall be left to the individuals and their personal beliefs as to whether one should exercise this legally permitted facility or not.

Having imposed a self proclaimed morotorium for having further children, inspite of having children of same sex I feel that Iam eligible to express the views on this subject, I should also clear your doubts about termination of pregnancy which we have never ever resorted to!

At present, clinics and doctors are seen as rogues and criminals who are supporting the 'illegal desire" of many couples wanting to have a selection of baby, in a society which is now gallaping towards designer babies by cloning,sperm banking, in-vitro pregnancy and sorogate pregnancy procedures.

By allowing the sex determination under a regulation like the one I have mentioned above, It would be still possible to allow the benefit of technology and medical advances to public, yet safeguarding the interest of the Nation.

Now I want the readers comments on this issue.

Down the memory lane

When you are bored or have nothing to do you dream about future or think about the past.


Dreaming about future requires some effort where as recollecting the past is easy!


For dreaming one needs a theme whereas thinking about the past is something like accessing a storage device..


If you visit the place you have lived, the college or institution you have studied, or carry out task or activity you have earlier done yourself, you begin to dwell in the past.


In this series, I would like to recollect some interesting or memorable events that had happened in my life.


As it is close on the Teachers' day, I would recollect an event involving my college teacher.


About 3 years ago, I had gone to see my old "Alma matter" the "National College" Trichy. Visiting the college after 25 years of passing out in itself would be a rare event in one's life.



It is needless to mention that the college campus had undergone lot of change. It used to be boys only campus whereas I could see some girls moving about in the campus !


I had gone to the college with my friend and, incidently same batch-mate, Mahadevan, who had majored in Physics whereas my major subject was Geology.


I went to the department and met the department head and Professor, who was of my age or may be 1 or 2 year my senior. After a brief introduction, he became friendly and started giving lot of information about the teachers and students of our time.


I got the information that the ace lecturer of those days, Mr.SS had already retired about a few years back, but decided to live near the campus, having constructed his own small and independent house.


I visited his house with my friend when he could not recollect us by our faces but when we started to relate with other students, he could understand us.


I narrated this event during our stay in the college hostel on the other side of the road, which looked like the wrecked ship,'the Titanic':-


That was one afternoon in 1980 when myself, my friend Mahadevan, Rajan and another guy were gupshupping in the hostel room no 48 when some body from the courtyard of the hostel was calling our names aloud. One of us went to see from the balcany, there stood Mr.SS behind the hostel boy. He simply addressed every one by name and called us to attend the class. Bewildered, we all rushed to the class immediately. To my surprise did not reprimand me in the class but from that day on wards, we never missed any class!


Mr.SS taught Minerolgy, petrology, sedimentology and stratigraphy and almost all the aspects of Geology. It was the way in which he used to teach made all the difference. At that time, I had learnt the hardness of the minerals and their color and other physical properties which came in handy in a surprising way one day!


For our own house use we had to buy a "wet grinder" which is a motor driven machine which is used to make batter for 'Iddli' and 'Dosa'. A stone made vessel would rotate arround a "kozhavi"(a stagnant stone) using an electric motor which makes flour out of washed rice and white gram. The stone used is of various minerals commonly called "granite" although, I came to understand and differentiate between a granite from others such as diorite and a basalt.


We examined the different wet grinders on display. Some are made of white stone and some are black in color. I told the sales person that the white stone wet grinder is harder and 'stronger' therefore, we wanted one with white stone only. He was surprised but argued that the black stone was stronger. I told him to interchange the centre stone and start both the machines together and run them for one minute. After one minute, I challenged, that only black powder will be found inside the cavity of wet grinder.


He did the same and to every one's surprise we found in both the wet grinders black powder was collected. This although I had theoretically studied that the white granite comprising more hard minerals of silica would be stronger as compared to black colored stones which contain other minerals of lower hardness, I did not know earlier that a validation test can be done by this manner!


I recollected to Mr. SS about the hostel event and he in turn showed to us his special work and theses he wrote and after having a cup of coffee served by his wife, we left his place but carried along all old memories!



Needless to say that the pleasant experience had a lingering effect, even whilst I write this and sharing to you all.


I will visit the memory lane again but before that I would like to know how many would visit 'Down the memory lane'

Tamil

Thamizh (that's close to what you can have in English) is close to my heart not because it is my mother tongue but from childhood I have developed an unending crush with it...! This does not mean that I have mastered it and learned all the "kapiams" and other ancient literary works in Tamil.


When I was a student, I did not have any qualms about being in "Tamil Medium" when most of our family circles would brag about being in "English Medium". Also I had the flair for that language that I used to be very attentive in Tamil lectures and participate in "Kural" reciting, "thirupavai/thiruvempavai" recitals... etc. I go to hear recitals,lectures, debates(patimandram) and "kathakalakshepams", a typical discourse in which lecture and vocal music is used.



I had a flair for "Yapu Ilakkanam", ie Tamil grammer section in which I used to fair very well. Once in an exam hall all my fellow students copied my answers and got "better"scores..!


I had written some poems in tamil during my college days besides trying my hand in stories writing. The first ever attempt I made in writing a story was published in "Idhayam Pesukirathu", a weekly magazine in the year 1983!


I had also got selected as a "Casual Announcer" by All India Radio for announcement in Tamil.



The foregoing were although intended to show my love for the language, make a reading of self praise only!



Now coming to the unique aspect of Tamil, I learnt from a Tamil scholar whilst talking to him, that Tamil is perhaps the only language(some one told me Arabic has the same trait) in that you can talk or write without using a "Verb"(which include simple verb or composite verb).


For e.g. you can describe a person as good by saying: "Avan Nallavan" here two nowns are only used where as when you want to say this in English you say" He is (a)Gentleman"... You cannot coin a sentence or speak without using "is, was, or adding a composite verb in a sentence.

I have a friend who is attempting to write the great tamil work, the "Thirukural" in English. Several people have written it in English but what he is attempting is to present it in English using only 7 words in all for a couplet like the original couplets (in all 1330), each having 7 words only.

He told me that he could do about 50 kurals in English so far. His major challenge was to circumvent the requirement of using verbs which were coming in the way of arriving at the litrary equivalent of the couplets by using only 7 English word substitutes.


Will continue about Tamil in subsequent series, and, in the meanwhile, I would await the readers' comments.

Subu(nick name in tamil-"Pasu")

Insurance-series I

It is very difficult to engage attention of a large audience with a mundane topic like insurance...! Nevertheless I would attempt to do that risky business...


We all, at some point of time, take out insurance policies... If you have just entered a job, purchased a vehicle or house or own a factory, you would have already had some experiece in buying insurance.


The interesting aspect of insurance is that it is an enigma to all... no one has ever understood properly when insurance is purchased or when there is a claim situation.. This is the reason why majority of people equate insurance with some kind of 'con' game..



Most of the people have some idea about Life Insurance as it is working out as a savings mechanism for the common man. But in reality insurance should never be resorted to as a savings option because the return on investment would be one of the lowest as compared to other avenues available.



Why Insurance?



Insurance is an essential evil in most of the cases, it becomes almost a statutory requirment. For example Motor insurance is mandatory as without a motor vehicle insurance one cannot ply the vehicle on road.


Property insurance becomes compulsory if there is financial interest or loan for acquiring the property. Transit Insurance is required again by the banks for opening L.C hence alomost mandatory,Medical insurances have become essential part of life in most of the countries, especially those places where medical assisstance is expensive. Travel insurances is a requirement in most of the countries. Workmen compensation takes care of employers liability, therefore employers purchase this insurance as a practice and so on.



Whatever be the compulsion, the fact remains that Insurance is a Risk Financing method in that in the event of unforeseen circumstances, it mitigates the financial problems arising out of loss or damage to the property covered.



Only based on the responses, I will slowly cover the insurance subject, which may be of some use to readers.




Now for some insurance related Jokes:



One policy holder to Insurance Agent:-" Mr. Agent, can you explain to me as to how I can claim from the Life Insurance Company?"


Agent: " Sir It is very simple. Please keep my card with you and call me when you die"







Claimant to Insurance claim processor: "Sir I have been thinking that all my properties are well covered under insurance, but you are paying only a small fraction of my claim.."


Claims officer: "Sir please look at the calculation. We have applied under insurance and settled your claim..."







Insurance sales man to a villager(after trying all methods to convince him and failed):-


"Look, if suddently you die, think about it.....what will your wife do... so take this term life policy .....it is very cheap.."

The villager:-" My dear sir, if my wife behaves properly when I am alive, that is enough for me.."






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