Meeting Vishy Anand In Bonn

Amidst tapeout/deadline and core partner presentation in IMEC, I was very skeptical to avail a leave to visit Bonn for the Anand versus Kramnik World Chess Championship 2008 match. After the Core Partner presentation and of course witnessing the impressive display of skills by Anand on board during the initial half of the match I had to go…and once Michele granted me the permission there was nobody stopping me. The scoreline after 7 games read 5.0-2.0 in favor of Anand and there was a possibility, an exciting opportunity to witness the crowning glory if Anand manages to draw one and win one game. It was highly probable looking at Kramnik and Anand’s current form and I was more than hopeful…

I had a pretty tough time finding a cheaper place in Bonn as there was nothing I could plan in advance. Most of places were full because of the chess event and those available were expensive for a student’s pocket. Luckily I got one but the search made me reach the venue almost 15 minutes late. Who says “Chess is a boring sport*”, the playing Hall was packed with people occupying not only seats but also stairs to watch the tussle. Moreover, I met fans from Sydney-Austalia, Boston, Washington-USA, Vancouver-Canada, (a sardar from) Bermingham-UK, India and of course a plenty from all over europe. I am sure Russians must be present in numbers as well. All of them have traveled all the way to experience the championship event. Needless to say, Chess may turn into a morbid habit, a very addictive sport.

Game 8 was average (by their standards of curse) ending up in a draw after perpetual checks. Looking into his current position, I expected Kramnik to go all out. But, instead of exploring his chances with g3 he adopted to sign truce and Anand readily accepted. During the match, I could spot Anand’s wife Aruna sitting on the Team chairs. His second GMs (Peter Heine Nielsen, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Radoslav Wojtaszek, Surya Shekhar Ganguly) were missing and they were missing during all the matches except the last one. Aruna has a very homely look. A looks that one desi has on offer to another desi outside India, surely in Europe. First eyes meet each other…then both the parties go into deep thinking whether to smile or not….and in a process half smile is rendered on the face. Later at the press conference, I was looking for an opportunity for Anand’s autograph. After all, I was carrying my own chess board all the way to Bonn for this. I would require to catch the train immediately after the next game (game 9) so there was only a remote possibility that I could get his autograph. They even did not allow cameras to be taken inside the playing hall. This was ridicules and my enthu was down. My canon was not worth a penny. I neither had an autograph nor photograph of the champions. GM analysis that was running parallel to the match was also in Deutsch. C’mon FIDE this is not a German championship but a World championship and there should be something more for the amateur spectators. While talking to Frank, a veteran Desperado-Leuven, I was informed that during last Kramnik versus Deep Fritz match they had provided head phones and spectators could choose the language they prefer to listen to the analysis. Disappointed and dejected I came out of the hall after the match and headed for the Bonn City Centre.

After roaming a bit near the University area I was looking for a nice restaurant near city centre. On the way there was “Ichiban Noodle Bar” ….looked decent…..not that expensive as well but I was more interested in an Italian cuisine that day and decided to explore a bit more. As I walked further, I saw a bunch crossing the road and could spot Aruna again. The same homely look was on offer….surprisingly, I could not spot Anand….may be I am too much used to see him only in official NIIT or AMD attire or he had camouflaged himself in a blue track and a red T-shirt. They walked past behind me and I continued my search for a nice place to call it a day. I found nothing decent as decided to head back to the Noodle Bar and through the glass panes I could view Anand and his team were occupying the table inside the restaurant. So, this has to be the place for dinner today. I have to get autographs as well. I checked out. I had the chess board but shit… shit… I am never gonna improve. I had forgotten the marker pen that could write on the chessboard in the hurry to reach the playing venue in the afternoon. Instead I had 2-3 usual pens which were not worth a penny. I remembered having passed a copier shop a while ago. I had to try my luck now. I ran to the copier shop but this is Europe man…shops close at 19:00 at most 20:00 and it was almost 20:30 and heavens should have been with me to get me a pen. Shop was indeed closed but lucky enough I found a guy inside the shop. I knocked and he gestured to me that the shop is closed and I better turn tomorrow. I persisted and suggested him that it’s very very urgent as there is somebody as big as BALLACK outside whom I would like to autograph and badly require a marker pen. Probably listening to BALLACK’s name he was pleased and gave me a pen. I rushed back to the restaurant and went to the table requesting an autograph. It was very odd for me. Dunno why…..call it inhibition or whatever I just get cocooned when confront big personalities. Same thing happened to me when I went to the Indian dressing room @ IIT-M chemplast. When Sachin came back from the field I was stunned, awed, mesmerized whatever you call it….may be a mixture of all these….may be more. I hesitated to even ask him for an autograph. Stupidly, I thought he must have been tired….why to bother him and so on….sounds so stupid….but it’s true. To my ecstasy, Anand signed my chessboard. I requested his seconds to sign as well. They signed too….Mrs. Anand hesitated….She said no no no….I won’t like to sign. I did not persist. I wished him all the luck for the match and occupied another table. While munching plater of Noodles I kept watching the players all the time. While returning Anand returned me a smile….a smile I would never forget…..a smile that made my evening, my day, my Diwali!!!

My Chessboard with e4 signed to Vishy; e2 is belongs to Peter; d5 e6 have been occupied by Radek and Rustam respectively; GM Surya is missing....

During the next game, I could smuggle my Canon inside the hall to take photos (http://picasaweb.google.com/guruprasad.katti/WorldChessChampionship2008_Bonn#) of the champions. As Mario Puzo says in Godfather Man has to make at least one crime to be successful. True Indeed.

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* There are people arguing Chess is not at all a sport. I ignore paying heed to their ignorance and thank almighty for enabling me appreciating the beauty of the game. As one of the legends Anatoly Karpov puts “Chess is an Art, Science and a Sport.” What more you care in the world.

My First Modak...

Unfortunately Bal Gagandhar Tilak did not come to Belgium to initiate and inspire the "Ganeshostav" celebrations in Belgium. That leaves maharashtrians in Belgiam a bit more nostalgic during Ganesh Chaturthi days. During last "Ganeshotsav", Harshada and Prabhat (a veteran Leuven couple) had made modaks for all of us. This time around I was desperate to learn and try my hand. Thanks to Harshada and Prabhat's tutelage, my first modak came just fine...

What is missing in the pictures in the Harshada's art work in making modaks. I personally have not seen better hand made modaks than them so far.

Shantaram: A masterpiece

I recently read a gripping master piece Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts for the second time. During the first reading I was mesmerized not only by the breathtaking story Roberts narrates but also by the sequence of plots he has designed. Second time though, along with the plots some of the characters and a bit of philosophy appealed me. It made me recount some of the incidents in my youth and highlight the evolution of thinking from youth till now…..

In addition to the familiar Bombay life, Robert takes to you the places where general bambaiah public does not have clear cut access. Some of those places are the standing babas colony, slave market and of course inner underworld council meetings. The entire story is ripe of all the contrabands ever existed…it’s all a smoke filled café. In my youth, I was a vehement supporter of liquor prohibition. I even remember aggressively debating the whole evening in favor of prohibition against my friend Milind’s dad, Mr. Garde - a customs officer. Obviously the bald head had seen more monsoons that me in my teens and he was stressing the point that liquor (and many contrabands) does act as a medicine too and hence should not be banned but probably should be regulated. In front of my eyes, I was viewing only one picture. It’s still sharply etched in my memory. I had a friend called Ravi for a very short while when I was very small. Probably 5-6 yrs old. There was an apartment being constructed next to our chawl. Ravi was the kid of one of the construction workers. He used to attend school with us and was my playing partner after school. One day when I went to his place after school to call him to play I saw his monstrous father beating his mother to death. Mother and the kid were crying and crying inconsolably. Scene similar to what Johny does to Maria in the book Shantaram. To my knowledge, it was quite unfortunate that there was no Quasim Ali who would cause the transformation similar to Johny to Ravi’s father. Later that year, Ravi left the school but the memories remained. I could not fathom as to what makes people go to the oblivion state and turn into a beast. Back then, Prohibition to me was the only logical end, a profound answer attacking the root cause to solve the entire problem. Today as I see the problem is not really the liquor but other factors that stress human lives. I am quite convinced today that if Ravi’s father has been a well earning individual, satisfying the mandatory desires of himself and his family, he would not have been beating his wife whom he must be loving and caring a lot. The feeling of failure, being not able to make both ends meet would have stressed him to loose control over himself….to follow the way which he would always dislike rather loathe. So, prohibition is not really the answer but the empowerment though education could be…..just could be the way out….

Robert’s tough days in the Arthur Road Jail and his narration of the slave market in Bombay (A market where young boys and girls from all over India and Bangladesh are for sell to the rich and privileged, predominantly Sheiks in Dubai and to me selling of a human is synonymous to sending him to prison…although for no crime…..or his only crime is that he is poor and only a poor) calls for only one question to be asked. I confronted upon the same question after Sachsenhausen concentration camp visit in Berlin. How can a human being be so cruel to other human being? A story at Sachsenhausen suggested that Nazi’s were offering Vodka as gift to the soldiers doing the job of causing massacre in the prison cells. The gifted Vodka would send them to an oblivion state and it would not allow them to spend time and energy fighting their conscience and they would be willing to do the same job next day, untired…I am sure some of the soldiers in Jail would have been taken to suicide themselves and many of them would have lived an unconscious life so long as their conscious would have allowed them to. I am sure they must have thought a ton times that it would have been better if they would have been battling on the field…..as least they would embraced the death as martyrs for their motherland but now some of them might have seen themselves as cowards exercising their weapon on enervated prisoners.

During my younger days I was of the opinion that one ought to fight the fire with fire or aggression is the best defence or what ever but in the similar aggressive lines. As the days have passed Gandhian philosophy “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” fascinates me. I believe that the Gandhian principles if obeyed by most of us would certainly free the world of the most deterring problems.

Robert’s journey after escaping from Australian prison is nothing but exciting. His stay in Bombay had certainly been every eventful and what impressed me most is his stunning attitude to assimilate in the crowd, to be a part of it, even during the entire ordeal. He speaks not only hindi well but also the local language Marathi with a proficiency that would awe a Maharashtrian. I find it nothing but impressive as my initial efforts to learn a foreign language German ended with a crush on my German teacher followed by departure to IIT-Madras for my post graduate studies. In Belgium, I took a long time to make my mind as whether to learn Dutch or French. Then I decided and enrolled in the Dutch course in IMEC. During the class, I was found myself solving Poisson’s equation for Through Silicon Vias (TSV) in the class. What I was finding exciting was small stories Dutch teacher Sofie used to introduce. They were interesting and used to inform a bit about Belgian culture but whenever the discussion used to move to grammer I felt bored and used to start working on my techie stuff again. I missed a few classed because of my stupid meeting planning and after a while I stopped going to attend Dutch course….clearly I lacked the attitude to learn the language. I still wish to add fourth language to my repertoire and it would be pragmatic to choose between telugu (for friends) or kannada (for roots) or Punjabi (dunno why I am always attracted to this one)….may be a while later though.

Finally on a lighter note, the cutest and the most lovable character is Prabhakar-Mr. Bombay Guide of narrator Linbaba (Mr. Lin). The character is so much of fun and life. He is somebody you will find on a daily basis on the streets of Bombay and would love to roam Bombay with him. In terms of physique described he is certainly close to me and may be in terms of smile as well……just may be…well, just being more optimistic.

Extraordinary picture depicting US economy crisis

A lot of times you become so very madly busy that time, days, weeks to pass so fast. So many things happen in so less time. Usual research lethargy vanishes and you are full steam focussed on finishing the tasks. There is no time for fun, checking cricket scores, or even checking personal mails. Tired before finishing your day you open your personal mail box and encounter a mail with a photo (pasted below) depicting the US economic crisis in a very apt manner and you burst out in laughter, huge laughter. George Washington is no doubt a very very worried man nowadays. This laugh is equivalent to 100 laughs during other times to me. Kudos to the artist and his stupendous imagination...