WE don’t know what you plan to do this weekend, but we could very well by at the Residence Hotel and Convention Centre in Powai, absorbing the atmosphere and imbibing the excitement of watching 70-odd determined players show their virtuosity over words.
Last year there were 53 players and this year there are more, so the interest in the mind sport (oh yes, it is that!) is definitely growing. And it is taken very seriously indeed, as it should by the gladiators of the word in a world where increasingly youngsters are beginning to communicate in sign language, eyebrow lifts and eye rolls, that is when they are not conducting entire conversations in three words of one syllable each, “like” and “you know”.
Apparently, Mel Gibson, Sting, Keanu Reeves, Robert Palmer, Joan Collins and Queen Elizabeth II play the game that's sold in 121 countries round the world. Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Salman Khan? We think not.
Aamir Khan? Maybe!
So, to the Bayer National Scrabble Championship 2012, we say, “Welcome back”.