I am uncool, but I’m cool with that: Dronavalli Harika
Rupam Jain, TNN | Jun 7, 2015, 03.14 PM IST
Chess in India has a new poster girl. The 24-year-old Dronavalli Harika, who shot into reckoning with a silver medal at the World Women Team Chess Championship recently, has now bagged the Popular Choice award (chess) at the Times of India Sports Awards. Fresh from her “first ever vacation” in life, we caught the young chess champ in her element, as she tried her hand at horse riding at a club in Yapral. “Is her name really ‘Dance Baby Dance’?” she asks, as she strokes a horse’s mane, and bursts out laughing as she learns the names of the other horses at the club – ‘Romantic Fever’, ‘Misty’, ‘Saint Bernard’. “I think I still have a holiday hangover… Gosh! I can’t stop laughing,” she says, giggling some more.
Excerpts from a freewheeling chat…
I had to wait till I turned 24 to take my first vacation…
Can you imagine!? But that’s ‘cos my life has been about chess, chess and more chess. I have always set goals for myself. At 13, I was in the national team and I was the youngest one – I never got time to do anything other than play chess. Though I am happy about it, I desperately wanted to take a vacation, as I have never taken one, not until now! I had been planning this trip for months – I made up my mind that come what may, I am going on a one-week holiday to Singapore and Malaysia soon after the World Chess Championship. I needed this break; I’ve earned it. My parents couldn’t make it, so I went with my sister. We had a ball visiting the studios, the shopping streets and of course, Sentosa Island. I think I can get used to taking such breaks and travelling…
Trouble is, when I travel, I have to take my pressure cooker and homemade masalas along…
When I travel during tournaments that is, not on vacation! (laughs) Since 2007, I have been travelling alone for tournaments. And I can’t eat ‘outside food’ for so many days while on tours. So, I carry an electric pressure cooker. My mom packs all the necessary masalas for me. So, once I am in my hotel room, I cook. Of course, the hotel officials don’t know that (laughs). Actually, I got caught in Russia this one time. I, like a stupid girl, kept the pressure cooker out and the someone at the hotel noticed it and took it away. Other than that one instance, I have never been caught. You know what? I actually made this practice (of carrying a pressure cooker and masalas) popular in the chess circuit. Now, some other players also do the same (grins, mischievously). I am not a great cook, but my co-players seem to enjoy what I make.
Travel is fun, but If I had a choice, I’d stay at home 24X7…
I have been travelling so much for tournaments since the past 15 years that I am tired now. Given a choice, I’d stay at home 24×7. Actually, when I am not playing tournaments, I am always at home and I think, over the years, I have become a homebird. I just love to laze around in my PJs and spend the entire day sitting in my room. It’s a task to get me out of the house. Even to attend mandatory family events, I make a lot of fuss. I am better off when left alone at home. I read up on chess books and play the game for hours.
Since I play chess, I may seem super intellectual. funnily, I’m addicted to TV soaps, which many consider dumb 🙂
Okay, I do read up a lot on chess, but what I really like doing is plonk myself on a couch and binge watch TV. I am addicted to TV serials. I mean, I watch every possible soap that is aired on TV, in any language. What else do you expect? I have always been home, and have grown up with my mother and grandmoms who love watching daily soaps. I know all the storylines of all those daily soaps. I love drama. If the plot gets predictable on one serial, I switch to another channel. There are so many options, you see (laughs).
People may find me strange, but I am like that only
People find it strange that I don’t like hanging out or don’t make too many friends. I can be cordial, but I don’t go out of my way to make friends. That’s just not my style. Even when I meet players at tournaments, it is they who make the first move, come to my room for a chat; I never take the first step. Partying? it’s just not my thing. I might go out for a movie once in a while with family. I don’t even have another hobby, come to think of it. I used to like painting when I was very young, but since chess took over, I guess I have just been doing that. People must think I am ‘uncool’, but like I care.. I am ‘cool’ with that!
Turning 24 is kinda funny…
Back home in Guntur, people are like, ‘OMG!’ You are 24 and not married yet…’ And elsewhere, when I travel to bigger cities for a tournament for instance, everyone’s like, ‘OMG! You are just 24 and you are thinking marriage.’ I think it all depends on where you come from, what your values are and how you are brought up… To each, their own. I’m content with the life I’ve led so far.
When marriage happens, it will be an arranged marriage. I insist on that
I have never even fallen in love. When I tell my peers that, they ask me how’s that even possible. Well, that’s how my life has been. And I have made up my mind that I want to have an arranged marriage; I’m pretty sure about that. If love had to happen, it would have happened by now. But maybe, destiny has other plans for me. My teammates overreact when I say this – they’re like ‘how can you live your entire life with someone you don’t even know?’. But really, like there’s a single formula to successful relationships! Love marriage does not guarantee a ‘happily ever after’, neither does arranged marriage.
My logic is simple – if love hasn’t happened yet, what’s the big deal, I might as well get married and fall in love with the person I marry. My sister had a love marriage, by the way. She is married to filmmaker Bobby (who is now directing Gabbar Singh 2). My parents didn’t approve of the match initially. My sister followed her heart and she is right in doing that. But I also think my parents were right in their own way. That’s the thing with love – there is no right or wrong. But my decision works just as well, because I don’t want to get into any complications. Of course, I will have the say on who I will settle down with.
Source:Â http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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