WORD PRINCE

No wonder he is three-time Bayer National Scrabble Champion.

Rodrigues’ fascination with scrabble started when he had not even turned ten. He used to watch his mother and grandparents play at home.

“They introduced the game to me and I enjoyed it,” says Rodrigues. “I used to love jumbled words,word-building or anything associated with words.”

At present doing summer internship with Vodafone,Rodrigues,who is pursuing an MBA career from MET College,has no qualms admitting he cannot make scrabble his career.

“I’ll pursue it as a passion,” Rodrigues adds.

“I will play scrabble all my life for sure,” he states.

Scrabble is not child’s play at international levels,where there is stiff competition. He has already played at venues in London,Australia,Sri Lanka,Malaysia and the Gulf countries. He won accolades and cash prizes ranging from Rs 20,000 to Rs 1 lakh but feels he cannot rely on that kind of earning for a living though he adds there is big prize money to be won at international levels.

“There are players who make anywhere around 50,000 dollars a year,” he says. But big money means tougher competition. “International players are a tough lot and their level is very high,” says Rodrigues. Marking one’s presence on the international circuit is not a piece of cake.

He feels studying words is a lifelong process and never ends. “I make it a point to study words for 30 minutes every day,” says Rodrigues.

Like most Mumbaikars who use their travel time to nurture their interests,Rodrigues also uses this time to study words.

“There are methods like study by probability and also online forums like the internet scrabble club or anagramming on jumbletime.com,” he says.

During his formative years,the craze for scrabble helped him build his language and mathematical skills as the game involves counting,too. “There is a lot of strategy involved to ensure you are able to finish in 25 minutes and endgame situations are a little tense and fun at the same time.”

Rodrigues recalls the qualifying tournament for the world scrabble champions where he was trailing by 120 points and later had an amazing comeback and qualified. “That was one of the most memorable moments in 2007,” he says.

Sadly for this wordsmith,the government is yet to recognise or promote scrabble as a sport,which means he has to spend from his own pocket or find a sponsor if he has to scale the international scrabble ladder.

When asked if there was any political support at the local level,Rodrigues said there was none. “Sometimes we have to spend our own money. My dad is with a travel agency and so the travel part is taken care of most of the time,” he says.

He says his Malaysian trip was funded by MET College while the British Airways sponsored his travel to London.

“Bayer has been sponsoring tournaments for the last four years and my parents have been very encouraging and that helps a lot,” feels Rodrigues,who won his first national tournament in Oman at the age of 13,in the adult category.

Although Rodrigues has his hands full with the internship and MBA,he is looking forward to upcoming international tournaments in Sri Lanka and Malaysia later this year.