Paresh Gupta – RIP

The bridge fraternity of India lost another 3 regulars yesterday in the form of Mr. Ningaiah, Mr. Jagapathi and Mr. Paresh Gupta. While the first two are not known to me (entirely my loss, I am sure), Paresh and I had interacted extremely pleasurably on several occasions.

I have attempted to put together a small obituary based on contributions from and conversations with a few people.

Paresh was an electrical engineer from IIT Kanpur. Having joined there in 1969, he and Arvind Jain (sponsor of BC Jain Memorial) played as members of the same team. Arvind recollected with great fondness their friendship having cemented when, in their first year, second semester, they played together in a Hostel tournament. They used to have a tough competition with their senior batch which had Hemant Lall (father of Justin Lall) in their team.

After passing out, Paresh joined BHEL, with whom he worked till he retired several years ago (he was 68 when he passed away). He was a very respected bridge player who, along with Sudhir Agarwal, Satya and Amarjit, won the Summer Nationals Championship in 2002; the TP Khosla Trophy. He has also won an international tournament in Lahore.

For some years he had also taken up directing in tournaments. "We had interacted a lot in the last fer years in connection with rulings" remembers Sudhir Agrawal. "Paresh and I shared the room when he was part of the Directors Group in Pune Summer Nationals" said Satheesh C, a fellow director. "He was very knowledgeable both in Game front and as well as the TD role", he continued. I remember having had a discussion with him as to why he no longer directed. With a wry smile he told me "I prefer to play".

For a couple of years recently he had played in a partnership with Joyjit Sensarma. "He was really a fun loving person, albeit very competitive on the table. One of his best characteristics was that he would never dwell into criticism after the round. Just a "Sorry partner" was enough in our partnership.", he reminisces. "Every person has his favourite convention. For Paresh, it was "Gazilli".Initially I was reluctant to introduce it to the partnership, but he was persistent. Finally, I gave in. And sure, it was really helpful for the partnership."

He went on to add "Off the bridge table, the best moments came in Indore. We were staying in an AirBnB. One evening, we spontaneously decided to visit the night snacks market. We went there, met few more Bridge friends and were roaming in the streets till 2 AM".

Paresh was also a great bridge teacher who used to teach in a very systematic manner. "I was fortunate enough to have played with Pareshji in the Delhi interstate event last month in Delhi. I interacted with him only recently and was pleasantly surprised by his warm personality, positive vibes, tremendous patience and the sheer pleasure he took in teaching me." says Sarika Mittal, who partnered him at the recent mixed pairs event in the Delhi Inter-State.

He had started teaching his grand-daughter (all of 7-8 years old). According to him, she absorbed the concepts of the game very swiftly and had potential. She had started to understand the concept of NT very well and was always with a pack of cards. This disturbed his family, who asked him to hold back on this so that she could focus on her studies etc. When he went up to her and told her that he would resume lessons after a few years, she quipped "But nanaji, you may not be alive after some years".  Unfortunately, her words proved prophetic.🙁

He was a very humble, kind hearted, and down to earth person." says Anukool Mandal his partner of recent times.

Paresh is survived by his wife and two daughters. May God grant them strength to cope with their loss.

Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.