Bobby Fischer

The monsoon of 2005 was as sad as every other monsoon of my school life. On the dreaded day of 13 June school reopened. Not a Yaay! moment. Trust me.

The same old teachers in the same old school which gets that woody smell during the rains. Same old pretentious queens and same old friends. Some things never change. Some other things which are syllabus books, always do. 

So the first week of school is pretty basic. You check out your section, almost always C, your class teacher, the most dreaded one available, and the class mates, the worst the school has on offer. You collect your books, cover them with brown paper, see what's new in the canteen menu, avoid eye contact with juniors and the seniors even more so and other usual stuff. Since there is a lot of time on hands, you finish your English syllabus in one day and proceed to the pretty pictures the General Knowledge book has this year. Okay, may be only I did that.

So as I was doing that, looking at the pretty pictures of the GK book, I came across the prettiest thing ever. More like handsome! 

THIS.

The 14 year old me melted at the THIS.

THIS is Bobby Fischer. Chess prodigy. The youngest Grandmaster. The cutest 16 year old that ever lived. The fact that this picture was taken in 1959 didn't mean anything to me. Thus Bobby Fischer became my Crush of the Year. I'm generous enough to pick new candidates every year. As the year advanced, many other girls fell for him. Damn them. 

The following year, the GK book presented a new picture of him. All of 21. 

By then I was over him. But he was still incredibly cute.

And the next year, this cute person died. This is the picture which came in the newspapers.

That old bearded man among the other hunks of a standard sports page. Newspapers aren't as kind as GK books, certainly.

Bobby Fischer the youngest Grandmaster had died at the age of 64 in Iceland. He was the only American then in a sport which was otherwise dominated by Europeans, particularly Russians. Although of European origin himself and Jewish biological parents, he seemed to have severe animosity towards them. This got him kicked out of USA and had to take refuge in Iceland. 

Bobby Fischer you'll always be my Crush of the year 2005.