Mahjong and so much more!!!

I suddenly realised that it has been almost one year since I wrote my blog on this wonderful game Mahjong. In that year I have evolved from the initial hesitant rather scared player to someone who plays with confidence and gay abandon! It is great fun, extremely irritating when you are waiting for one particular tile and the satisfaction I get when I can finally call out “mahjong “ is like no other!! So, in the past one year I have gone through a whole gamut of emotions…..from wanting to give up to wanting to play everyday. It seems to draw you in like a magnet. No sooner have you finished but you are planning your next game. 

When I learnt last September I didn’t realise that I was just learning the tip of the iceberg… the Chinese variant…which is basically the base version. I was in one of the first groups who learnt in Kolkata and naturally the cost of the lessons was at its peak…it has now gone down to about 30% of what I paid but such is life…I don’t regret it at all. Mr Harish Ramchandani was the person with the vision that this game was going to take off and he organised the classes and also a designated room, The Baqlava Room in the RCTC Club which became our ‘adda’ on many an afternoon. He even purchased 5 sets of tiles plus all the accompaniments by the club so that they were available for us. Surprisingly enough he remains to be the only male player in our group and we often just forget this and he is counted as one of us!! 

Soon after learning I also bought a set for myself  so that I could organise games at home. Little did I know that there are a whole plethora of sets so it is very tempting to keep upgrading.

After our first foray into the game the able teachers of the Let’s Mahjong team taught us the MahjongGita which is a slight variation to the earlier game. Then we progressed to the American version which again follows the same basic principle but then has a lot more complicated variations incorporated into it. No sooner had we got our heads around this then the Taiwanese version was taught to us. We of course like sheep happily agreed to each step up like lambs to the slaughter!!! I initially hated every new version and vowed never to play it but it kept drawing me in and of course I got hooked. Now I absolutely love the Taiwanese and this is what we play most of the time. I find that you have your different hierarchies when playing this game so when you meet any new player the first questions asked are what variations they play and who they learnt from. Now our teachers have decided that we MUST learn the Japanese system as that is “ the best “ so needless to say I have signed on for that too. As you can see I am a sucker for punishment!!

Talking about teachers it is incredible how many self professed mahjong teachers have suddenly sprung up in the city. It seems that once you have learnt you can immediately elevate yourself to the role of ‘teacher’. Surely there must be a certain standard to qualify anyone as a teacher but at the moment all and sundry have become teachers and giving classes and making themselves some pocket money in the process. 

On my birthday in May my daughters organised a Mahjong Theme Party for me. They asked me to invite 20 of my mahjong playing friends and Rashi set everything up in her house and we had 5 tables of mad women playing and the atmosphere got even livelier when we dispensed with the teas and coffees and moved onto wine!!! We had a competition amongst each other and prizes were awarded to the top 3 players. After playing we moved onto the serious business of partying and the girls arranged a lovely dinner for us and it was truly a memorable birthday. Aradhana of course does nothing in small measures and she gifted me an electronic mahjong table as her gift to me. I was so angry with her for being so lavish but then since it had come I got down to assembling it. This proved to be a no mean task as I had to do a video call with the seller who is in Bangalore and with 3 people helping me it took nearly 3 hours and the alignment still wasn’t quite right so I gave Neha the task of fixing it. She managed to correct it and the games began. I must say that I love playing on this table….. it shuffles the tiles for you, deals for you and since it comes with 2 sets you don’t waste any time in between games. Since Neha also plays we have used this table to the maximum…literally squeezed it so full ‘paisa vasool’!! 

Mahjong has introduced me to a whole new family of friends. Age is no barrier…I play with anyone and everyone and my home is always open for a game. Whilst I generally play with people of my age bracket it is also great fun playing with the youngsters…they are absolutely fearless and bring a new dynamic to the game. You have to play fast and it challenges you to make the harder hands rather than sitting in your comfort zone. 

My teacher from my first game has been Diku Mohta from the Let’s Mahjong team from Mumbai. She has guided me, shouted at me, raised her eyebrows at some of my decisions but she is the person I must thank for introducing me to this lovely game. Kanika and Sheetal who are the founders of LM are always available for the many queries we have. They have also started an ap where we can download our scores and see where we are in the Kolkata League. I,of course, am way down in the league as I can only play a couple of times a week compared to some girls who play three or four times a day!!! They have organised a number of competitions which they hold in different restaurants in the city. 

I have played in various tournaments which took place in Yours Truly, Yauatcha and one at the RCTC. Again they are great fun as you play with new players but some ladies become extremely competitive which spoils the afternoon. I agree that we need to up our game but everyone should remember that we are playing a friendly game and the whole point is to have fun and enjoy yourself. So to these ladies I just say “chill”… win some lose some!!By the way… just to clarify we don’t play for money… just the glory of saying Mahjong is enough to send me home happy. A lot of people are incredulous when they hear that no money is exchanged… they feel it is a waste of time but I am easy either way. 

We  have also been introduced to play online and whilst I have only played a few practice games against the bots many people form tables on line and play from the comfort of their homes. It is amazing to see people playing at all kinds of random times from 6am to after midnight… don’t these people sleep? I don’t even attempt to log on in the night as I know that I will want to keep playing and then that will be the end of my sleep. 

I just hope that mahjong is not a passing craze that will be shelved in a couple of years. Whilst I am sure the madness of playing each and every day will reduce I do hope we continue our bi weekly games. It is a great fun way to spend an afternoon and meet up with friends. 

Come on you naysayers… try it… I guarantee you will enjoy it!!!