Showing posts with label Chess. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chess. Show all posts

Monday 24 October 2016

Chess, Books & Children in an Orphanage

What matters, in the end, is the value you add to the people around you. This essentially is what I learned reading books and teaching chess to children here in Mangalore.

Of course, life is more than just money, jobs, family, etc. They have made countless films and written a zillion books to tell one simple thing to a generation of humans – be happy. But how to be happy? Life would become simpler if we could answer just this one question. Like you, even I wrestled with this problem for the better part my life.

I discovered Bookwallah thanks to a friend in Pune who works for the NGO. A simple Google search revealed that Bookwallah has tons of volunteers, a compassionate bunch of young people that makes it a vibrant community. They used books to change lives. The concept looked simple and interesting.
There were books, and there were children; there was nobody to guide them.
When Bharat and I first walked into the orphanage where Bookwallah operates in Mangalore, it was not exactly what I had expected it to be. Volunteers were nowhere to be found. Except one, and she was painting cartoon characters on the walls.

There were books, and there were children; there was nobody to guide them. We felt responsible for these kids. Ms. Sharon Lewis, the volunteer who was painting the walls, later explained that the volunteers do join them. The problem was that they were not committing themselves. College attendance and jobs would mean that nobody could stay for long, and hence, the children never connected with anyone deeply. How could they?
That is Bharat (red) with the kids. We started working with these children in early August. Our first mission was to win their trust, and this we did in a variety of ways.
In the beginning, there were volunteers who would come regularly, but they had their own commitments to take care of. It was understandable, but it also motivated the ones who remained to work harder.
We saw that these books were making the children better individuals. It was clear that we were adding value to their future.
We read them stories from the books in the library, making the sessions as interactive as possible.
Books make you a great problem-solver. However, I realized that it was not enough to be monotonous. We needed a way to impart the same problem-solving skills to the children, but with newer methods.
Luckily, I had the perfect tool to do just that — chess!
Chess develops a child’s calculating ability and imagination — both the right and the left sides of the brain.

The children loved it! Chess and books turned out to be a delicious combination of education and fun.

Bharat used a laptop and internet connection to make it a better experience. In today’s day and age, a child must learn to operate the computer and surf the internet responsibly.

Things got a little better early this month — Bookwallah Mangalore received an assortment of activity books for the children from Disney!

And now, the children have so much to do and learn. Not to forget, have fun!
The kids had their own way to thank Bookwallah and Disney:
Mighty pleased with their new books, aren’t they?
The girls have their own unique way to say ‘Thank You!’
Another thing we worked on and still teach them is discipline.
The results are there to see. They pack up their books and keep them at the right place after the activities for the day finish.
One of the kids even learned to take pictures with my point-and-shoot. Here, a kid got a picture of the Mangalorean Kingfisher.
Mangalore

Dakshin Kannada (South Canara) is one of the most pleasant places one can visit in India. The district is a picture of narrow, winding streets, fringed with coconut palms, quaint houses with terracotta-tiled roofs, pristine beaches, temples and churches, and the aroma of spicy coconut curries. It has preserved its old-world charm.
Rivers and beaches are a common theme in Mangalore.
You can always walk to the beach and have child-like fun like this!
It is a pleasant place to be! Do visit Bookwallah Mangalore, and add value to these children’s lives with books!

Tuesday 16 August 2016

How to get locked up inside a jail in Mumbai

If the litterateurs had to come up with an elegant synonym for 'anomaly', they could very well anoint it as 'Mumbai'.  When I first read in the newspapers that Mukesh Ambani was constructing Antilia, a 27-storey residence at Altamount Road, Mumbai, I found it amusing -- this city has some of the world's biggest slums, and now she is hosting the most expensive residential house on the planet! Mumbai is the pulse point of India's financial, political, religious, and even fashion trends.


Zara hatke, zara bachke, ye hai Bombay meri jaan – "Be alert, be street wise, this is Bombay, my love". This famous yesteryear song of Hindi cinema sums up the spirit of Mumbai. I showed this to the co-founder of ChessBase, Frederic Friedel, who remarked: start the video at your own peril – you will not be able to get the song out of your head for hours – or days.

The maximum city. See some stunning pictures of Mumbai here: Raskalov-vit Journal

On January 28, 2016, IIFL Wealth, in association with the Indian Chess School, organised a beautiful chess tournament in Bombay. It was hosted in the suburb of Bandra in Mumbai and I was in the mood to show my friends the moods of this bustling part of the maximum city. Therefore, I made a pitstop at the Bandra Railway station on my way to attend the press conference as the tournament's official photographer.

Karimji has been selling books at this very spot at the entrance to the Bandra station since 1970! Sometimes, at night, he just folds the whole paraphernalia up and goes to sleep at the same spot.

Just beside Mr Karim's book stall is this place where you can eat some lip smacking samosas

Bandra is one of the busiest railway stations in Mumbai...

And it was at this point that a police constable got hold of me and asked why was I taking pictures. I answered truthfully about the same -- that I am a journo and I work for... -- he did not want to hear any more. He replied that photography is not allowed in railway stations and asked if I have permits.

'But so many people keep taking pictures all the time on cell phones and what not!'.

'No mister. Those are for personal consumption on cell phones -- you are clearly taking pictures to highlight the crowd here, and you cannot do that without permits.'

'Fine, I will delete them. Please let me go.'

'Chalo thane!' (You have to come to the police station!)

And therefore, I was unceremoniously dragged to a Railway Police Force station and was made to stand in front of some serious looking guy who was a superior official.

The boss was adamant. 'No! I don't want to hear any of your stories! A charge sheet shall be filed and you have to answer in court,' he boomed.

'But sir, nowhere in this station has it been mentioned that photography is not allowed...'

'Shut up! Has it been mentioned anywhere that you cannot kill people?'

With nothing suitable to counter, I resigned myself to being charge sheeted (the minor one for petty offences). Then, I was actually put behind bars with some other people who were caught crossing railway tracks or pissing on the bushes near them.

Now, this was a particularly new experience for me, and to be honest, I found the whole thing funny -- the reason I wasn't worried too much is because a constable told me that it is a question of just appearing in the petty matters court and paying a fine.

After an hour of waiting they took me, along with some forty other 'criminals', to the petty matters court at Andheri in a local train. We were actually divided into batches of five, each assigned to a junior constable, as we travelled from Bandra to Andheri. We got chatting with the constable, who originally hailed from Uttar Pradesh.

'So, how did you happen to join the police?'

'Actually, what happened is that I was once caught by the railway police in my village for crossing a railway track! I thought joining the police might be a good option. I gave the exams and here I am.'

Amazing.

The petty matters court was quite understandably busy, with a sea of blacks (lawyers), petty offenders and constables waiting for their turns. We went in quite effortlessly, as this seemed to be a routine matter for the officials there. We were made to stand before a judge in a special 'Railway Court' and probed about our respective offences. I was asked if I admit to have committed the offence, and I sighed a big audible 'yes'.

I was let off after paying a Rs. 500 fine to the court. I called my colleague Shubham Kumthekar who carried the blazers and shoes to the venue of the press conference, where I changed and got down to work.

That is Mr Karan Bhagat, co-founder of IIFL Wealth, speaking while Praful Zaveri of Indian Chess School looks on.

Ironically, the pictures that got me inside the jail in the first place were not even deleted or asked to be deleted! So much for Indian policing.



Saturday 7 November 2015

India wins 11 medals at WYCC 2015. What next?

The 2015 World Youth Chess Championship at Porto Carras, Greece, was painted orange, white and green by the young Indian prodigies. In two separate sections for Open and Girls, there were thirty-six medals up for grabs, and the Indian kids bullied their way to the podium – 5 Golds, 3 Silvers and 3 Bronze.

This just shows the world what Indians already understood – the youth in Indian chess is blessed with phenomenal powers. What we apparently don’t understand, however, is that with great power comes great responsibility. What is this responsibility?

It is the responsibility of nurturing our talented players, and not just the winners, so they would grow into top grandmasters. Do you think we are doing enough for these little champions? Come to think of it: over the years, India has been producing an array of champions in youth events at National, Asian and World stages in both Girls and Open sections. We have more registered chessplayers than any country on this planet. Yet, as of now, in 2015, how many players do we have rated above 2700? How many above 2650? How many above 2600? How many above…


Let’s look at an example: IM N. Srinath (2464) won the World U-12 Championship, 2005, at Belfort ahead of players like Wesley So, Hou Yifan, Parimarjan Negi, Sanan Sjugirov, Ray Robson. As on today, all of them have crossed the 2600 mark years ago and one of them is even in the World Top-10. Mere coincidence, you say? In Negi's case, he was quick to realize the lack of opportunities in India and managed to play regularly against strong players rated above 2550 in the European circuit on a regular basis. Regular games with players rated much higher than him coupled with coaching from players of 2600+ level resulted in him becoming as strong as he is. 

Why do you think is there such a low conversion rate of medal winners into top-flight grandmasters? I agree that just as it takes time for a seed to grow into a plant, a plant will take the time to grow into a tree. Nevertheless, that does not explain the fact that many of our age-category champions grow until a certain point, and then find it extremely difficult to move forward. They are stuck and then wriggle like a fish taken out of the water.

Silver in Open U-12: Nihal Sarin

If our youngsters do not get to play with 2500-2700 players regularly, how will they improve? Of course, the 2300-2400 players cannot be expected to improve by playing players rated less than them!

These days, most youngsters have to invest on a trip to Europe to play in quality tournaments where they get to face 2500-2700 players. Do you think everyone is financially capable of doing it? Of course, past a certain point, the funds just dry up and one is forced to give up playing professionally, and turn to something else. Else, they find supplementary sources of income to fund their chess.

India witnessed a record 200+ tournaments in the year 2014. Almost equal, if not more, have been organized this year as well. Yet, for various reasons, these Open tournaments hardly ever have a grandmaster rated above 2500. The reasons have their logic though. Most of these grandmasters have accumulated their rating after strenuous hard work and mammoth investments in playing tournaments in Europe with strong players (read players above 2600) playing. Why would they risk all their work in playing tournaments regularly in India, where in every nook and corner of the circuit, one comes across hungry, determined kids who will settle for nothing less than your blood and rating points? Not sure? Check out GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhary’s rating chart.

Since 2014, he has erased more than 100 points, and most of it, if not all, was incurred in India.

Therefore, what we need now are regular closed/open tournaments with players rated 2500-2600 and above participating. It would be difficult to imagine each and every of our precious talents getting a sponsorship. Let us ease their burden by bringing regular quality tournaments to India at least. This will ensure that our players are regularly playing quality opposition, which in turn will enable them to improve.

Another possible problem might be the lack of coaches rated in 2600-2700 range. A 2300-2400 player would need a coach who has already been through the phases he/she is passing through, and excelled. Financially speaking, not everybody can bear the expenditure involved in hiring a personal trainer. Clearly, India lacks chess coaches in this range who will help our youngsters rise to the next level.

Personally, I believe it is our responsibility to help our youngsters become young stars. Forgive me for repeating, but Uncle Ben was right -- with great power comes great responsibility.