The spotlight is now on Meenakshi

LIVING UNDER a gifted sister's shadow can be a little trying at times. Specially when you know that you are not totally devoid of talent either.

There are two ways to deal with it: accept that it's fate and slowly fade into oblivion, or just believe that you decide your own fate. Asha Bhonsle took the second road. She may never have matched her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar's voice or popularity (who ever could?), but she still carved a niche for herself in playback singing and made her life a success. No mean feat that, when you are constantly compared to India's most loved voice.

There were times when S. Meenakshi, 19 years of age and with a smile that could make you feel the world is not such an awful place to live in after all, was seriously thinking of opting for that first - and more travelled - path, leading to self- destruction. But last year, in a desperate attempt, in Mumbai, the city where Asha Bhonsle refused to accept defeat decades ago, she gave everything she had. Indian chess is better for that.

Meenakshi did not quite win the National women's `A' chess championship in Mumbai, though she came close, but she won the more important battle with her own self. She finished second to S. Vijayalakshmi, her sister and India's finest female chess player ever. In the last round, when the siblings met, it was the younger one who was victorious.

It was the most fruitful fortnight in her decade-old career in sport. She made it to the senior Indian team for the first time. From an eternally promising player, she became the India No. 2. And she made her maiden International Woman Master (IWM) norm.

It was also her first success after her second National under-10 title, which she won in 1991 at Thiruvananthapuram. ``The runner- up spot in Mumbai meant a lot to me,'' she had told this writer when she came to Kozhikode, shortly after the National `A', for GM Evgeny Vladimirov's coaching camp for the Indian team for the chess Olympiad last August. ``I had put in a lot of effort and perhaps I would have lost my interest in the game if I had failed again,'' she had said, flashing that disarming smile.

That smile was even wider and brighter when one met her again, a few months later. This time she had come to Kozhikode for the National junior girls' chess championship as the hot favourite. She was fresh from a rewarding trip to Istanbul, where she put up a fine show for India on the second board, giving admirable support to her sister who led the Indian campaign.

Now, she was an IWM, completing her title in Istanbul. ``But nobody seems to have noticed it,'' she said. ``No one wrote about it. Maybe it was overshadowed by my sister's great achievement (she won the silver on the top board with an astonishing performance)'', she tried to reason.

She won the National juniors without much fuss and was delighted that she thus qualified for this year's World junior championship in Greece. Earlier this month, she was in Colombo for the Asian zonal championship and, though she could finish only fourth there, she says she was happy with the way she played.

She had gone to Sri Lanka in between her final Bachelor of Business Administration Examinations Chennai, and therefore had dine little preparation. ``I played good chess in Colombo, and except for the one against Pallavi Shah (who went on to be the champion) I had good position in all my games,'' she told TheHindu over telephone from her home in Chennai earlier this week, on the eve of another examination.

She has little time to relax even after the examinations. She has to travel to New Delhi for the National women's `A' chess championship, starting on June 2. ``I am very keen to defend my placing and would also try to improve on it,'' said India's latest IWM.

Meenakshi of course is among those few ladies who are expected to challenge Vijayalakshmi in Delhi for India's most prestigious domestic title for the fairer sex. But, when the National women's `A' championship was held in Kozhikode during the monsoon of 1999, she was hardly anything more than the younger sister of the defending champion.

In the penultimate round though, Meenakshi caused a sensation, shocking India's most seasoned female practitioner of the sport, Bhagyashree Thipsay. That ensured the title for her sister with a round to spare (Viji, as Vijayalakshmi is called, rewarded her with a new pair of shoes for that favour). ``Though Bhagyashree played badly in that game, I was impressed by Meenakshi,'' Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, Bhagyashree's husband, had said. ``She played very correctly.''

Of late Meenakshi has indeed been making the correct moves. The improvement is not only in her game, but she is more confident of herself now. Her smile today betrays a sense of achievement, which she so craved for.

She now also has a scholarship from Indian Airlines, which she says is a big help. ``Yes, a sponsorship would have been ideal, but as you know very few Indian chess players have such a luxury. And I am happy that Indian Airlines is supporting me.''

The older sister says she expects even better results from Meenakshi. ``It's heartening to see her fulfilling some of her potential, but she should work harder, on her openings in particular. And she should be more aggressive, on and off the board.''

By that she doesn't quite mean that Meenakshi should slap her rivals on the face and that she should throw the chess boards and pieces around the tournament hall. But, chess being more psychological than any other sport, one has to be mentally really strong. For a role model Meenakshi doesn't need to look beyond her house in K.K. Nagar, Chennai. Viji's whole body speaks of self-confidence and a fearless spirit.

There is one thing that all Meenakshi's rivals in the country agree upon: she has a very solid game, and she can defend nearly as well as any Indian female chess player. She doesn't miss tactics either.

``She is a very practical player,'' says Bhagyashree, who incidentally is one of the Indian players Meenakshi respects apart from her sister (Anupama Gokhale and Koneru Humpy are the others). ``She is not over-ambitious on the board and doesn't unnecessarily exert herself.'' Though Meenakshi may have emerged as one of India's stronger players only during the last one year, her peers are not really surprised by her progress. ``That she was talented I always knew,'' says Pallavi, her teammate at the Istanbul Olympiad. ``She is a very sensible player, and I am impressed by her patience on the board.''

Patience certainly has paid off for Meenakshi. There were days when she required lot of it when her father, who still coaches the sisters, spent, understandably, more time with Vijayalakshmi is always called. They practise separately but both admit they benefit from each other.

Since there is unwritten rule in chess that the sisters should come in three, not two (think about the Polgars - Judit, Zsuzsa and Sofia - and Khadilkars - Rohini, Jayashree and Vasanti), there is one more girl in the house working hard at the chessboard. Bhanupriya is making good progress, Meenakshi says of the youngest of the trio.

But Bhanupriya can wait, the spotlight now is on Meenakshi. She has earned it the hard way. Maybe she should listen to some old Hindi film songs of Asha Bhonsle when she is not before the chessboard. She would be able to understand the pain and joy in Asha's voice better than most people.

P. K. AJITH KUMAR

Kozhikode

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