Checkmate! The master’s at play

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VISHWANATHAN ANAND

DECEMBER 11, 1969

Few sporting legends can contend with Vishwanathan Anand for the title of the greatest Indian sportsman ever. He may not enjoy the super-stardom of a Tendulkar or the reverence evoked by a Dhyan Chand, but he is the only Indian to have remained at the very top in a truly global sport for over a decade now.
In 1988, when Anand become a Grandmaster at 18, no Indian had ever earned the coveted title. Today, India has 15 GMs — and counting — and ranks in the top 20 among chessplaying nations. It’s an amazing transformation inspired and led by Anand. But his influence isn’t limited to chess. In many ways, the world No 1 chess player epitomises middleclass India’s arrival on the global stage. He plays all over the world, lives in Madrid — he and wife Aruna have learnt the salsa and their answering machine greets you in Spanish — but remains rooted in Indian values. He still craves for the rasam cooked by his mother and helps the underprivileged in Chennai as well as young players in the country.
Anand’s biggest message to the world of sport is simple: even the humble and gentle can be world-beaters. And how. In April this year, he became only the sixth player in history to lead the FIDE Elo chess ratings, he has been among the top three players in classical chess since 1997 and one of only four players to have achieved an Elo rating of over 2800. He was the FIDE world champion from 2000 to 2002.
Besides, he has won world rapid and blitz titles, numerous grand slams (Wijkaan Zee, Linares) and chess Oscars. The most gifted player after Bobby Fischer (for he excels in all formats of the game) has delivered when the onus was on him — in contrast, most of our other big sporting achievements crack under high pressure. There are still some unfinished moves on Anand’s chessboard. He aims to win the world title this September in Kramnik’s presence and also become the undisputed king of classical chess. And yes, win a medal for India in the chess Olympiad of 2008 in Dresden, Germany. “Chess is a very individual game,” says Anand. “It can spoil you. I don’t think I can ever work for a boss now.” No worries on that score, Grandmaster.

Don’t damn the people

MEDHA PATKAR

DECEMBER 1, 1954

When it rains in central India, there is one voice that drowns the sound of the swirling, raging waters of the Narmada. Of a woman, standing firm in the inundated villages, the water inching up her frail body menacingly. She is on yet another jal samadhi mission. Even the towering dams on the Narmada seem dwarfed.
And thus, Medha Patkar has ensured that India can never again remain unmoved by debates on dams, development and displacement. Over the past three decades, she has attracted some of the best brains and celebrities from urban India — from Arundhati Roy to Aamir Khan — to back a movement of thousands of peasants, women, tribals, the landless and marginalised to challenge the very logic of economic development.
She has become the focal point around which has spun a movement that has challenged the might of several state governments and the central government for almost two decades.
A post-graduate from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, she gave up the life of an academic only to begin a furious mass movement, which later formalised into the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA). It began as a fight for information about the Narmada Valley Development Projects. And, over the years, it has continued as a fight for rehabilitation of the lakhs of people being left homeless by the Sardar Sarovar Dam and other large dams along the Narmada.
Over the years, the movement won a few battles and lost some critical ones. But, at the turn of the century, it has taught India its biggest lesson in economics: real development cannot be brought about at the cost of the poor.
Today, when the government still mulls over a ‘just’ rehabilitation policy, one is always reminded of Patkar’s role in bringing the issue to the centrestage of Indian politics. Her vociferous stand against big dams may even divide environmentalists into two camps. But, she has ensured that Nehru’s ‘temples of modern India’ cannot submerge the homes and voices of thousands just that easily.
She is remembered by the media and the intelligentsia for highlighting the larger debate, be it the Narmada or the Yangtze. But along the Narmada river, several thousand villagers remember her as the didi who ensured they get a roof over their heads, or a strip of seasonal river to carry out some farming on or a mafia-free pond to fish in. Urban India will always recollect her name passionately, tinged either with awe or rage but the farmers on India’s margins can only remember her with a degree of reverence.