Meet Monica Jajoo

This is the first in a series of articles we propose to publish about 'influential personalities' in bridge. We are starting with Monica Jajoo, the sponsor of the "Smt. Vijya Jajoo Memorial National Mixed Championship". We hope to cover many more.

Monica Jajoo needs no introduction to anybody in the field of bridge. However, there is a lot more to her.

 

It was a typical day in the city of Chandigarh. The sun was out, the sky was blue, the winter air carried the sweet smell. 16-year-old Monica Jajoo was taking her most important life lesson from her uncle Milkha Singh (yes, the famous athlete), to always be passionate about sports and that there is no substitute for hard-work. This is a tenet that Monica has applied honestly in her life.

At a young age Monica was a sports fanatic, she was a district level swimmer and also the National Bowling Champion.

She represented India in the World Bowling Cup, a fact not known to many (though we had shared it sometime earlier).

Monica Jajoo has also won many accolades in the field of golf including a Gold Medal in the Special Olympic Games, 2015 held at Los Angeles & a Silver Medal in the Special Olympic Games 2019, Abu Dhabi with her partner, Ranveer Saini.

Here you can see here with her partner, another trophy (BMW open) and with Gary Player, who she describes as the 'Tiger Woods of the 1960s" after she won the event named after him.

She has many more achievements in this sport which we shall regretfully omit as we are focusing on bridge.

 

Monica has been an avid bridge player since 2013. Her team has won many titles over the past several years including wins at Solan and Vishakhapatnam (both national level tournaments). It was the runners up at the Ahmedabad Summer Nationals a few years ago.

It has been doing phenomenally this year in the online world as well with a win in the Fenesta Open Championship. We hope to see it do even better going forward.

She has carved a special name for herself in the field pairs with her partner Sumit Mukherji. She won the silver medal in the open pairs event held at the Asia Cup in Singapore.  With him, she also qualified to play the Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs at NABC in 2019.

Over the last couple of years, she has been hosting the "Smt Vijya Jajoo Memorial Mixed Pairs" event, initially live in Ahmedabad in 2019 and then online for 2020 and 2021.

"My mother in law was like a mother to me and I instituted this event a couple of months after we lost her.  I hope to see this event grow to become an international event in future and graduate from just a mixed pairs events to one consisting of mixed teams as well."

This may sound like work of a lifetime, but Monica has crammed her amazing achievements into just a few years

We asked her "‘How do we improve our game as bridge players’?"

Her advice

1. Get a coach as he/she not only teaches you the skills to bid and play but also empowers you to be your best. I was able to find Sumit Mukherjee to partner and coach me.
2. As clichéd as it may sound, there is no substitute for hard work. I get up every morning to read and practice bridge from 5 am to 7 am, time which is very peaceful and quiet. I believe in a 3-fold strategya. Self-Reading and Kibitz
   b. Discuss with partner/coach all the scenarios
   c. Play only 2-3 times a week.
   It is not important to just play but also to think, analyse and recharge.
3. Develop a partnership. Conventions do not matter; what is most important is the understanding between the two of you.

When we asked her for advice to aspiring women players, she said

"Play with better players to improve the game and form genuine partnerships based on hard work, trust and respect."

"Determination is the key to everything. Though our team lost the BFAME title to Pakistan by just 1 IMP in the 2015 edition, I was not dissuaded. In fact, it was this moment that fueled my fire to learn and train more.

It was such an inspiration to speak to Monica, a lady with many hats, a powerhouse of energy, a wonder woman who juggles such myriad interests with such panache and aplomb and not just juggles them, but also excels at them at an international level.

Hope the sweet winter air carries her principle of passion and hard work to all bridge lovers!