CHENNAI : Viswanathan Anand’s autobiography, Mind Master: Winning Lessons from a Champion’s Life, was released in the city on Friday. Anand presented the first copy to father Viswanathan. Former Indian hockey captain and Olympian V Baskaran, Indian women’s cricket team’s head coach WV Raman, and former national squash coach Cyrus Poncha were also in attendance. The book, authored in collaboration with journalist Susan Ninan, is dedicated to Anand’s late mother Sushila.
One among the interesting things that Anand mentions in the book is how his father lost a bet on him becoming world champ. “In June 1996, I got married to Aruna. Our parents had picked us out for each other in what was a conventional arranged marriage match, or, as Frederic (Friedel) puts it, a ‘catalogue wedding’,” read an excerpt.
“We barely knew each other, but since we found no reason to say ‘no’. Aruna often compares my decision to marry her with the way I used to play then — fast, and not with a whole lot of thought put in. We spoke while I was travelling for tournaments. She was usually surrounded by her entire family, being goaded into making polite queries about food and weather.’’
“Nieves and Maurice flew to Madras to attend our wedding. (Anand considered Mauricio Perea and his late wife Nieves as his Spanish parents). One evening, my father dropped a provocative taunt that alluded to my sheltered existence courtesy my mother through the early years of my life. ‘I’m willing to lay a bet. Vishy will never be a world champion,’ he declared.”
“I wasn’t privy to the details that were agreed upon, but Nieves had taken my father’s remark as an affront to her unwavering belief in my prospects of becoming a world champion, and would have willingly thrown in anything.’’