It was teacher’s day, and everyone was reminiscing their teachers who taught them various subjects in schools and colleges. While respect to all teachers continued, the discussion veered into what is the relevance of all subjects that we learnt in school and college. None of them are relevant to their current jobs. While the debate on this topic is endless, there was consensus that the language skills helps one with reading and writing skills, the mathematics helps in building sound analytical skills, the socials studies helps one in getting different perspectives on life while the sciences apart from supplementing quantitative skills helps one in understanding and evaluation of different solutions for solving a problem.
Kaushik moved the discussion to Bridge. “Is there some basic grounding on Bridge which is required before we can start playing the game?” It was Padma who broke the momentary silence saying, “You need to get your basic skills for generating tricks like solid suit, winning tricks with small cards, handling blockages, finesse, trump and entry management. These are basic skills which help you think properly and apply the right technique at the Bridge table. You can say that they are like the basic grounding which is required for becoming a Bridge player”.
Kingo was of the view that while the basic skills listed by Padma may be needed, you need to have interest in the game to go further. The drop-out range in beginners is quite high – some people just learn the basics and want to enjoy the game socially and not move up the value chain. This is perfectly OK if that is what one wants to do. Not everyone wants to master the game and win championships – they want the basic grounding to play the game and just have fun or pass time with friends.
Prabha added, “We need to remember – different strokes for different folks. If everyone in the world became an engineer or doctor or architect, we will never have sportspersons or musicians, choreographers, and actors in the world. It is the diversity which makes life interesting though everyone started with same basic grounding. The driving factor is your interest in a particular field and what you would like to achieve in short term, medium term and long term. If you get your basic grounding on Bridge, and If you are interested in learning advanced techniques, you will find ways to learn them from teachers, reading books or just scanning the net. It is purely based on individual needs on what they want to do with bridge.”
Kaushik summed it up well, “We cannot force people to learn more and more about the game. Once they have understood the basic principles, they will move forward at a pace which is convenient to them. There is no point in pushing it down their throats if they are not able to digest it”. Everyone left wondering how their schooling had helped them with some of the basic grounding on bridge.
Tailpiece:
“We never went through any basic grounding process. We dogs learn everything on our own and do things the ways we like it. This is our life and our basic grounding is a natural process for us” muttered Goofy.
