Going places with word power?

RANGANATHA CHAKRAVARTHY is basically a lawyer and is 28 years old. He spends long hours in pursuit of his profession and reaches home fairly late from the law offices of `Rangarajan and Prabhakaran' where he is a modest junior advocate. It is approximately 18 kilometres from his Parrys office to his Kottivakkam home and the late evening journey tires him considerably. You would imagine that he would hit the sack after a wash and a well-deserved meal.

Actually Chakravarthy spends at least two hours every night memorising English words from the Merriam-Webster's and Chambers dictionaries and many times, he has nodded off with the heavy tome on his chest.

Now, why on earth would he do this? The legal profession does demand a certain felicity over the language, but surely, this is taking it too far! Well, young Chakravarthy is an absolute whiz at that game called Scrabble and he has been chosen to represent India at the world championship to be held in the U.S. (Las Vegas) in November 2001.

Ranganatha Chakravarthy ranks No. 2 in the country at Scrabble and he would be accompanying the more illustrious national champion Mohan Chunkath, I.A.S., Secretary Higher Education, Tamil Nadu Government, to Las Vegas. That is, if he can come up with the money, in time for the air ticket and hotel accommodation at the World Championship. But more of this later.

Chakravarthy had been selected in 1999 to represent India at the earlier world event held in Australia (Melbourne) but he could not succeed in rustling up the money. He was ranked No. 2 then also but astonishingly, had won the official national title in his maiden attempt!

Scrabble is a word game not meant for merely verbose people or for people indulging in verbal diarrhoea. Enthusiasts at home play it and, more often than not, verbal duels would result in frequent openings of a dog-eared dictionary for adjudication over a disputed word.

Scrabble is played by two or more people on a board which looks like a chess board. It is a word and board game and it is extremely unlikely that anyone could become bored with it. Also, doting parents try and beef up their kids' vocabulary and simultaneously have fun playing it.

There are one hundred tiles, each with an alphabet and each scrabbler gets a total of 25 minutes to finish a game. Interlocking words have to be formed on the board by each player, in turn, and they start with an imprest of 7 tiles. At the end of each turn, they can replenish the tiles from the kitty with the exact number of tiles used in the word created on the board. The only rider being that at any point of time, the total number of tiles cannot exceed 7 with each player when they get their turn. Play passes till the hundred tiles have been used or till no further words can be added on the board.

At that point of time, the individual score is checked and the highest wins the board after deducting ten penalty points for every minute utilised beyond the stipulated 25 minutes for each player. And needless to add, tiles with the alphabets X, Q, Z etc. contain the maximum points. (It is kind of difficult to think of many words involving these letters in the middle). There are also strategic squares on the scrabble board yielding premium points.

All in all, a difficult game and as Chakravarthy says, "Like chess, this is a mind game. Indians have a natural flair for scrabble, thanks to their good memories, though English is not our mother tongue." He also implies that India may not be all that hot at a physical sport since we are genetically different from say, a Jesse Owens or a Marion Jones.

Which leads on to the point that the Indian Government should think in terms of building on our inherent strength to win international laurels. Vishwanathan Anand is a case in point as well as Koneru Humpu. It is a crying shame that aspirants like Chakravarty have to foot their bills to even take part at the World Championships that they have qualified for.

Indian scrabble owes much to the pioneering efforts of Mohan Chunkath, who ranked 21st in the world in 1999 at Melbourne on debut. He has put India squarely on the world map of scrabble and obviously this time around, he is expected to improve on his ranking considerably. And, it is a matter of pride for Chennai that the national first and second seeds are from our humble metro.

Words like copremic, cottid, cottice and copane are bandied around and this has a tremendously sobering effect on this writer when looked up in the ditctionary. Of course they exist. And Mohan Chunkath waxes eloquent on the significant number of Indian words in the English dictionary. If words like catamaran or verandah spring to mind, try this one for size &151; Sondeli (Indian musk shrew derived from Kanarese).

November 2001 would usher in the Scrabble Championship of the world with more than 100 players from 40 countries vying for honours. Each participant would have to play a gruelling eight games a day over three days and this is going to be the ultimate test for logophiles.

The question now is &151; will India be represented by one or two players? Ranganatha Chakravarty cannot afford to go on only his steam.

Chennai philanthropists and corporates can take the hint. If you have anything in the offing do not hesitate to forward it before October to Ranganatha Chakravarthy , 2/287, Sriram Avenue, 3rd Street, Kottivakkam, Chennai-600041. (Tel: 4927871).

M. SRINATH NARAYAN

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