In the pre-smartphone days, reading books or magazines was a
popular way to occupy oneself during long train journeys. Especially if you
were the type that did not enjoy talking to strangers. And so, it happened that
I would religiously raid the newsagent’s stall at the railway stations, and arm
myself with a bunch of periodicals, before boarding the trains for all those
trips between home and hostel.
A constant in this mix was the Illustrated Weekly of India.
The initial attraction was the jokes and the low price. I think it was just Rs
5, when others were around 10. But what got me addicted was this absolutely
wonderful column curated by Mukul Sharma, titled Mindsport. It was a treasure
trove of puzzles of all sorts. Numerical, Word games, Spatial, you name it.
Mukul would present a few puzzles that he had found elsewhere, and readers
would send in their own as well. A large portion of the page was taken up by
the replies and explanations by the readers, which were fascinating as well.
Mindsport alone would easily consume a couple of hours during each journey.
During our 1st year of college, the last 3 hours
of the week aka Friday afternoons were taken up by Engineering graphics, which many
of us considered time-pass. On the weeks when we did not skip class to catch
the 1st show of the new release at Sridhar, many of us would be
huddled around one of the large drawing desks, with the latest edition of
Mindsport open before us. This became a tradition that lasted throughout the year,
and made us actually look forward to Graphics class.
After Mindsport, the logical questions in various job tests
were all kids’ play. During gatherings with friends or cousins, these same
puzzles helped me appear as one of the smartest in the room. Was also aided by
the fact that hardly anyone else read the Illustrated Weekly those days. Which,
I soon found out, was not a blessing. The magazine shut down, for want of
readers.
Cut forward to a couple of decades later. While waiting for
our orders to be served, at a restaurant, I asked a couple of old Mindsport
puzzles to my 2 pre-teens. This kept them engaged for about half-an-hour till the
food arrived. And thus arose a new tradition. Every time we dined at a restaurant,
my son would be quite eager to get the ordering done, so that I could ask them
a new puzzle. Napkins would serve as paper to draw on, and condiment containers
as props in efforts to explain the questions and the answers. Later also found
out that my son was trying these puzzles on his friends, and their parents,
impressing them as I had impressed my relatives years ago.
Reminded of all this when I read of Mukul Sharma passing away
today. Mindsport alone would have made me forever thankful to him. Any person
who I met later, who said they were readers of Mindsport, became a friend for
life.
But my debt goes beyond that. He was also a superb writer on
varied topics. A lengthy article of his in the same weekly, on The Origins of
the Universe, got me all fascinated with this branch of physics, and led me to
read up many more books on this subject, which continues to this day. Follow up
on this introduced me to the writings of Stephen Hawking, George Gamow, and
most importantly, Douglas Adams. Cosmic Theories also became the subject of the
1st seminar that my friends and I presented in our 1st
year of undergrad.
So, to Mukul, for Mindsport above all, but also for introducing
me to the Big Bang, Thanks for all the Fish!
