A board and 145;lodging146; affair

It was my grandmother who taught me the moves.nbsp;She was ahead of her times of course: a sciencenbsp;graduate, an educationist, and an inspector of schools in Madrasnbsp;circles. But for us, it was as a grandmother that she excelled.nbsp;Apart from introducing her grandchildren to the magical world of books, she brought us love for a game that at once cast its spell.

I8217;m talking about Scrabble 8212; that word-building, world-shattering, board game 8212; firmly lodged as a top family entertainer. Back from a US trip in the early 8217;60s, grandmother brought us the original board, with wooden tiles. Seven 8220;letter8221; tiles to each player, and each word made to benbsp;lodged on the board. She initiated us into the tricks of the trade: the subtle variationsnbsp;that helped us make the most of our letters and score off most. In one respect though, she was old-fashioned 8212; she8217;d frown at our attempts to use common four-letter words.nbsp;She preferred the rarenbsp;two-letter ones: xi, zo, em, en, jo.

Friends would often challenge these 8220;unheard-of8221; words, now commonly used by professional Scrabble players.nbsp;But we learnt them years back. She would urge us not to throw away high-scoring tiles, but wouldnbsp;patiently ensure we used them skilfully.nbsp;For example, use the letter 8220;Z8221; on a triple letter score 8212; get both 8220;Zoo8221; and 8220;Zo8221; minimum 60 points 8212; for one letter.nbsp;She would open up the game: give opportunities to create seven-letternbsp;words to the eager grandchildren.nbsp;We grew up scrabbling. So did our children. But of late there has been the copyright lawsuit to save the name.nbsp;What8217;s in a name, one might ask?nbsp;But a 8220;Scrabble8221; by any other name would never spell the same.