GOLDEN YEARS?
This week, India will send some 20 athletes to the Asian Games who have already celebrated their 60th birthdays, including 79-year-old Rita Choksi. They’re not coaches or administrators. They’re players from the newly included sport of bridge, in which India is sending a 24-member contingent. They’ll be living in the Games Village and participating in three bridge events—the Open Teams, the Mixed teams, the Open Pairs and the Mixed Pairs.
Bridge is played by four players, squaring off in two partnerships, entitled North-South and East-West. A team consists of a minimum of four players, more often six, with one partnership “benched” in every session. A mixed team contains at least two players of each gender. In casual bridge, two partnerships compete against each other in best-of-three “rubbers”. But in tournament bridge the same pre-dealt hands are distributed to many players. By comparing results, it can be judged who performed the best while holding the same cards.
In a team match, one team occupies the North-South position at one table and it occupies the East-West position at the other table and the same hands are played out. That way, the luck is evened out and both teams get a crack at playing with exactly the same cards. Most of the bridge players going to Jakarta already have experience in multiple international tournaments. But as Kiran Nadar, who’s representing India in the Mixed Teams and Mixed Pairs, with her partner, B. Satyanarayana, says, “There’s a difference between simply playing a bridge tournament and playing in an Asiad where you’re part of a much larger national contingent. It will be an entirely new experience for me, living in the Games Village and interacting with sportspeople from other disciplines. And, of course, any medals will have a special flavour.” Choksi, who’s surely the oldest person to ever represent India at an Asiad, will be playing the Mixed Pairs with Lucknow’s A.K. Sinha, with whom she’s partnered only once, in the last selection trials. “I’ve always kept myself busy and fit, what with acting (she’s well-known on the Delhi theatre circuit) and yoga,” says Choksi, who’s also a veteran international player. “I also make it a point to get in two-three hours of bridge every day, quite often playing online.” The Bridge Federation of India held stringent selection trials and camps to select the team. It also made careful enquiries to make sure none of the medications taken by the “uncles” and “aunties” would disqualify them from competition. Now it’s up to them to flex their mental muscles and add to the medal tally.
—Devangshu Datta