Author: Deeya Nambiar

I believe in taking every day as a learning phase, and exploring my writing skills. I have enjoyed the challenges as a journalist, content writer and college lecturer, and at the moment am living life analysing the extraordinary in the ordinary!

Scrabble Scramble

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Over 100 million sets of Scrabble are sold in 121 countries in 29 different languages. By Deeya Nayar-Nambiar

“It’s only words, and words are all I have, to take your heart away,” sang the Bee Gees and later Boyzone. These are just lyrics but true as the word: better the vocabulary, greater are the chances of conveying a message. And like children we continue to play and learn words in our free time instead of letting our mind become a devil’s workshop. Researchers have proved that reading, crossword puzzles and such other activities for the mind are a way to good health. Toy manufacturers and the software, keeping with the trends, offer the latest updated product. Thus Scrabble continues to find place in most homes.

Of course you know Scrabble, the board game you play with three friends of yours, often insisting that the word you have coined “is there in the dictionary.” The game has certain rules that you followed religiously, such as making words across and down in a crossword pattern on a 15 x 15 game board and counting scores from the points associated with each block or letter. Who knew Scrabble would become a popular game when an architect designed it.  Yes, Alfred Mosher Butts, the brainchild behind Scrabble, was an unemployed architect in US. When Butts lost his job, he decided to explore his passion for games and words. “Mild-mannered, bespectacled Butts disliked dice games; they were all down to luck. On the other hand, he felt that all-skill games, like chess, were too highbrow for the general public.” He devised a game in 1930s that was based on luck and skill and suited every player. All his efforts to sell his game failed till one day lawyer and game lover James Brunot got the rights. Brunot made a few adjustments to the design and renamed Criss-crosswords to ‘Scrabble’.

The game was trademarked and James Brunot and his wife converted an abandoned schoolhouse in Dodgington, Connecticut, into a Scrabble factory in 1948. But the Brunots could no longer keep up with demand and licensed game maker Selchow & Righter to market and distribute the game. Today over 100 million sets of Scrabble are sold in 121 countries in 29 different language versions. The Internet also caters to its fan offering many sites where they can play scrabble online. Not only this, there are several international Scrabble tournaments and even registered word lists such as SOWPODS, a combination of the British and American word lists. Again, for the computer savvy, Scrabble software versions such as Super Scrabble, Funkitron Scrabble Download, and players with artificial intelligence are available to keep you on toe. No wonder it’s world’s best selling word game!

Published in  December 2006, btw of Chitralekha Group

Hit Wicket

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Politics, religion and cricket blend in relationships marked by friendship, trust and betrayal make a right mix in Chetan Bhagat’s The 3 Mistakes Of My Life. Making a cameo appearance, Bhagat plays to the gallery.

The story begins with an e-mail that Chetan receives from Govind, a small-time businessman in Ahmedabad who has failed in an attempt to kill himself. Bhagat tracks down the hapless man and the story unfurls when Govind narrates his life like a flashback in a Bollywood film.

While three friends – Govind, Omi and Ishaan – appear as the boys next door who dream to make it big in life. Cricket is the mantra that will fulfill their aspirations. A little boy named Ali is an exceptional cricket player and the three friends want to groom and sponsor the prodigy to make their own dreams come true.

Putting their situation in the contemporary context correct, the attack on the World Trade Centre, the earthquake that shook Gujarat, Ayodhya and the Godhra incident are relived through the characters.

The aftershocks haunt them when the communal riots involve the friends and Ali. “Life will have many setbacks. People close to you will hurt you. But you don’t break it off. You don’t hurt them more. You try to heal it. It is a lesson not only you, but our country needs to learn.”

The 3 Mistakes… is predictable and a quick read. However, it offers little scope for reflection and thinking.

By Deeya Nayar-Nambiar, Published in June 2008, btw of Chitrakeha Publications

Fantastic To Be A Female

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Imparting a wealth of information through a collection of anecdotes, Jacqueline Shannon’s book for girls gives a boost to their ego. By Deeya Nayar-Nambiar

Far away from the madding crowd of the saas-bahu serials, tears and indulging in self-pity, Why It’s Great To Be A Girl: 50 Awesome Reasons Why We Rule! is a perfect treat for all girls entering adolescence, giving them a brushing up on girl power and the need to recognise their hidden potential.

Women have done better things in life than just be known for being talkative. Not only do they speak more number of words, they are also good listeners. Girls are better at communicating their thoughts with instant messaging and they even have longer attention spans than boys do. Jacqueline Shannon has in an interesting way gives many anecdotes from all walks of life to prove her point.

There is probably a point in the brain pattern and the way women think, but history has witnessed women as change-managers and intruders who entered prohibited areas and came out with flying colours. Otherwise, we would have had only men as doctors and engineers.

Shannon wrote the book based on her daughter Madeline’s pre-school experiences – the gender bias that she encountered when she was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up to which she answered “a doctor” being just one instance.

Shannon is fair in her observations and without being prejudiced has tried to knit both the positive and negative aspects to her reasoning. Hence, though “the bad news is that women run fewer than 2 per cent of Fortune 500 companies…. the good news is that the number of woman-founded businesses continues to rise every year.” She takes pride in the fact that girls drive better than boys do.

Moving from its original version, Why It’s Great to Be a Girl: 50 Things You Can Tell Your Daughter To Increase Her Pride in Being Female (1994), the latest book is updated and expanded with the help of Madeline, who is now in college. In the process she has attempted to go global with her anecdotes to reach out to an international audience. Still, most of her anecdotes cater to American readers.

A wealth of information, a collection of anecdotes, Why It’s Great To Be A Girl: 50 Awesome Reasons Why We Rule! doesn’t promise to be a guide but is an attempt to boost your self-esteem. “The choice is ours, and even the sky is no longer the limit. That’s why now, more than at any other time in history, it’s great to be a girl, wonderful to be a woman, fantastic to be a female.”

Published in May 2008, btw of Chitralekha Group