Most of us have seen the interview with the Indian Junior contingent at Salsomaggiore. For those of you who haven't, here is the link.
You may have noticed the credits at the end of the interview as follows. We are not sure how many of you know of Kamryn Menezes and her involvement with Indian Bridge. We hope to tell you about her in the subsequent paragraphs.
Kamryn is a girl from Goa who is currently doing her first year BA in psychology at on the top colleges in Mumbai. She secured admission there after scoring 97% (give or take) in her class 12 exams this. Marks which any student and their parents would be justifiably proud of.
Both her parents (Deone and Meera) are fairly avid bridge players. Her father providing a lot of administrative support to the BFI at some point in time. I am unfortunately not aware if this was in any official capacity. Her mother is one of the best people I know if you require to get some job quickly and efficiently in Goa.
Coming back to Kamryn herself, she has represented India in the Kids section in Lyons in 2017, China in 2018 and Croatia in 2019. In China, she was awarded the Joan Gerard award which recognizes "aptitude, fair play, good sportsmanship and a friendly international spirit, rejecting any discrimination".
In Croatia, she did not have a partner to play the pairs with. She utilized the time to check around and see if any of the staff required help. At that time, Mario Chavarra, gave her a camera and told her to film whatever she wanted. She utilized the time to make her first video from Croatia with Love. She also did an interview with WBF President, Gianarrigo Rona (Part 1 and Part 2)
This year, the WBF invited her officially to be part of the staff as an interviewer (perhaps also to get my perspective of things since my ideas would be more relatable, but that's just what I think - Kamryn) and we can see the videos she has made.
After her 10th Standard exams, she went to Brazil for a year as part of a cultural youth exchange program. While she initially struggled with the Portugese language, she attained fluency in just 3 months and developed many close and long lasting relationships there.
On her return to India, she decided to study class 11 again and finished class 12 in April last year. Her exams finished pretty close to the selection trials for her to be able to practice in any serious manner for this year's youth championships. However, she intends continuing to practice with her partner Kavya for the future. We wish her all the best in her bridge endeavors and hope she brings many more laurels to the country.
Apart from bridge, she is also a very talented singer. We leave you with a number she performed at the Goa Bridge Festival (video courtesy Hari Shankar)
We also request you to bless her to make all her dreams come true