Story by Kalyan Kumar Roy (BBO: RiMiL)

It was 1960, and I was a schoolboy. At that growing stage of life, I was very curious about what was happening around me. Every evening around 6:00 p.m., seven or eight people would come to my house to play bridge. There were always arguments between partners, mostly shouting, “You don’t know! You don’t know!” and occasionally someone would throw cards at the other’s face and leave, saying, “I don’t want to play anymore!”

At first, I thought that once the game was over, my mother would be relieved from having to prepare tea. Alas, the very next evening, all seven or eight of them would slowly start coming back, with no sign of the previous day’s fighting.

I asked my mother what kind of game this was, where people fought, yet returned the very next day without any remorse. I told her I wanted to learn it. She calmly replied, “Grow up, finish your studies, and then you can learn.” But I was determined to learn as soon as possible.

I started working at the age of 20. There, I met a person who agreed to teach me bridge. I remember my first competition clearly. I was dealt hands full of high cards, but I had no idea how to take all the tricks from both hands. I ended up leaving many winners in dummy. People around me started laughing. I was shocked, and from that moment, I began practicing alone, dealing hands one after another, trying to learn how to make the maximum number of tricks.

Seeing my interest in bridge, one of my father’s friends gifted me a book on the game. That book opened the floodgates for me. I discovered that there were many books on this subject, and I started reading every good book anyone recommended.

Later, my father selected me to play with him as his partner in a big tournament. By then, I was completely addicted. I spent all my free time after work playing bridge. I had a steady partner, and we won many prizes, but after he got married, he could spare less time than I wanted.

So, I started a club with four of my friends. We began developing conventions to better describe our hands. All of us enjoyed our bridge journey, but my transfer to another city stopped many of these activities and experiments, as I was separated from my Four Musketeers gang.

Now I am over 75. Sometimes I think I should have left my job earlier and devoted myself to bridge much sooner. In a TV program, my wife once told the anchor that she has been my co wife for the last 46 years. When asked how, she replied, “My first wife is bridge.”

Thank you for taking the time to read my story.