NO wonder Viswanathan Anand endured the 40-hour long bus journey to Sofia. He is used to similar road hopping whenever he visits Chennai. So as soon as he landed in Chennai at 11.55 pm on Sunday, the cycle began all over again. He couldn't get into car until it was 12.15 am before spending another 10 minutes autographing and receiving bouquets.
Thankfully , his landing time was innocuous to keep the print journalists in hunt. But the visual media was in no mood to spare him, and some even trailed him to his apartment's elevator. With little fuss he obliged.
It is this magnanimity that deprives his parents--K Viswanathan and Susheela--of spending quality time their World Champion son. "The moment he lands, the visitors come flocking and the telephone never stops ringing. And he obliges, goes for every felicitation," said Viswanathan.
So after hitting the bed, Anand is up at seven. And at exactly 12.30 is at the Chola Sheraton--fresh and fuming. And he spends not less two and a half hours, speaking sane and not going through the motions of a routine press conference.
A brief lunch--he has to wait for a kingsize homemade meal--and he heads home, but not expecting a siesta. Then you can't turn the door at your old schoolmate, relative or colleague, who in all his fervor gives his rib cage a serious endurance test.
It's already 4.30, maybe a few gulps of coffee when the lone chess club in your neighbourhood invites him to a felicitation the next day before a government officer informs him of the chief minister's plans to congratulate him. He stays put at home, plugging his earphones and listening to U2 or Bob Dylan. And if he ever tries to rewind the faces he had bumped into that day , he wouldn't be able to recollect anything but a blur. The break of dusk and beyond, he gets a breather.
And the Viswanathan couple finally gets to see an eyeful of their son.
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